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Wealth managers are suspicious of putting money with managers taking on new funds in sectors where they have little track record, so where does this leave Daniel Roberts for whom Fidelity has today unveiled Global Dividend Fund?

Roberts joined Fidelity late last year, having previously made his name at Gartmore where he worked on its UK Equity Income fund from 2009 until it was merged into Henderson Higher Income Fund.

Roberts was due to take on a global income mandate at Eden Financial, but he only stayed there for two months before departing for Fidelity. He’ll no doubt be under pressure to prove he made the right decision, as will his employer which will want to get the best out of him and another high profile recent equity recruit, Paras Anand.

According to FE Analytics, which publishes cumulative performance across funds, Roberts has delivered a total annualised return over the past 7 years of 5.7% and he has performed better than the peer group composite. However, given that this also includes his time at Aviva, it is obviously very hard to gauge how good a fund manager he really is.

High expectations

Let’s hope he settles in quickly because, given the growing popularity of global equity income funds and not forgetting the sheer scale of Fidelity’s operations, the expectation will be for him to raise assets quickly.

The Global Equity Income sector includes big name entrants from the likes of Invesco Perpetual, Newton, Veritas and Threadneedle, though interestingly the sector has delivered near identical returns to the MSCI World Index on a three (41%) and five year (15%) basis.

In an environment of low economic growth and market volatility, client demand for income remains as strong as ever so some new names in the mix – and the hope for some genuine innovation – should be welcomed. People like Roberts have the opportunity to establish themselves and build traction in a sector very much in vogue.