2025 – Investment Performance Report

Over the year, despite the falls in March and April, we are pleased to report that all portfolios are higher. The anticipation of the incoming US President had caused stock markets to rise at the end of 2024, but the immediate introduction of global trade tariffs, seemingly unconnected to reality, saw increased uncertainty and a sharp fall in markets through March and April.

The world and stock markets have adapted to the new style of US diplomacy and have continued its upwards trajectory.

For those prepared to take on more investment risk, the rewards have been high single-digit increases in the last twelve months, but for those more cautious, there has also been a good return, ahead of inflation and savings account returns.

The 10-year returns illustrate the value of investing over the longer term. It also highlights that in pursuing higher returns, there will be periods of volatility that call for patience and trust in the investment process. Nowhere did we see this more than in the early days of the Covid pandemic in spring 2020, as the chart above aptly illustrates.

Performance over the last year for Values portfolios has been similar to the standard portfolios, showing the ability to reflect investors’ values in portfolios while still generating a good investment return.

Longer term performance over 10 years (up to Wednesday 31 December 2025)

The Values portfolios have only been available to our investors for the last five years, but the graph below shows the longer time frame of ten years, showing the potential upside over longer periods.

Longer term performance of the Values portfolios shows robust growth. The last ten years have seen strong performance from growth assets, especially US equities, even taking into account the Covid pandemic five years ago and the return of inflation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022.

The table below shows the performance of a number of asset classes in 2025 and the annualised return over the last ten years as at close of play on Wednesday 31 December.

The picture overall for growth assets has been strong, with the last year showing good performance across equities and a positive picture over ten years, especially international equities.

We were reminded of the benefits of diversification with some of our tilts – to Emerging Markets and Value stocks performing well. Portfolios as a whole saw good returns, and those with defensive assets saw these largely outperform inflation over the year.