Rothschild and Hunter Hall bag top marks

Rothschild and Hunter Hall have emerged with top marks from ethical investment researcher Corporate Monitor.

The Rothschild Ethical Conservative Trust and the Hunter Hall Value Growth Trust were both awarded a four star assessment by Corporate Monitor, which is the ethical fund research arm of the newly launchedethical investormagazine. The ratings are out of five stars.

The Rothschild fund was singled out for its good long-term returns for a conservative fund while offering both a negative and positive screen. Corporate Monitor says the fund's strongest asset classes are its cash and fixed interest investments.

Boutique manager Hunter Hall earned its four stars on the back of one of the best share fund returns in the market, whether ethically screened or not. Hunter has delivered average returns of 21.9 per cent since starting out in 1994, even after the high performance fees are subtracted. Hunter Hall's status has been strengthened, says Corporate Monitor, by its ASX listing earlier this year as well as by its "deep value" style of investing in small cap stocks in Australia and Europe.

The next level down of three and a half star funds finds the AMP Sustainable Future Share Fund, the BNP Paribus Ethical Fund, the Challenger Socially Responsible Investment Fund, Rothschild Ethical Share Trust and the Westpac Personal Portfolio Investment Service.

Interestingly, of the 12 ethical funds rated, only two could be described as boutique fund managers.

Corporate Monitor executive director Michael Walsh says there has been a common misperception that ethical funds are the domain of boutique managers.

"From the beginning, the wholesale charity funds have been there all along, first started by BT and Rothschild. More recently, Rothschild's ethical fund has been available on master trust lists," he says.

Walsh says the misperception comes perhaps from the fact that the boutique funds are retail funds and therefore generally more well known than the wholesale funds.