Lipper awards set to highlight fund industry stars

The 2026 LSEG Lipper Funds Awards in New York this week will shine a spotlight on the top performers in the fund industry.

The annual awards, which celebrate the industry’s top funds and fund management firms, takes place in Manhattan’s financial district on March 11. The awards reward consistent out-performance of individual funds and fund companies, according to LSEG Lipper, with winning funds demonstrating consistently strong risk- adjusted returns compared with peers.

“I think it's going to be an amazing event,” Brandon Adkins, head of Lipper North America Research at the London Stock Exchange Group, told InvestmentNews. “Last year was a fantastic event, but I think each year we're pushing a mark to go big and beyond.”

At last year’s event Dimensional Fund Advisors LP was a big winner, picking up the award for best large fund family equity group for the third consecutive year, while Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd won the prize for best mixed-assets large fund manager group.

Adkins described the awards as “an amazing opportunity” to highlight the work done by portfolio managers and analysts. “It really shows that here at Lipper we really value the consistency and patience that investment and portfolio managers are doing.”

Importantly, winners are not chosen by simply by picking funds with the highest returns in their U.S. mutual fund classifications. Rather, the awards calculation methodology focuses on funds that have delivered superior consistency and risk-adjusted returns compared to their peers, echoing how investors perceive financial gains and losses.

The LSEG Lipper Fund awards are focused on the Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating. Calculated over 36, 60, and 120 months, the rating is a risk-adjusted, objective, and quantitative performance measure. Funds must have at least 36 months of performance history as of the end of the calendar year of the respective evaluation year.

Awards are given to funds with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return, or “effective return” value in each eligible classification. To win an award, funds have to win in two periods. Funds that win in one period are eligible to receive a certificate.

More than 380,000 share classes in over 83 countries are covered by the LSEG Lipper data, and the ratings are available for mutual funds and ETFs registered for sale in 45 markets. 

Adkins told InvestmentNews that he has seen fund trends shift in the last couple of years. “I guess if we take a two-year look back, we look back into 2024, we noticed that active funds regain momentum, with flows accelerating sharply relative to passive funds,” he said. “But in 2025, I noticed that that momentum actually faded.”

“Active flows had moderate flows, while passive funds actually generated more than active fund flows over the entire course of the year,” he added. “This shift is still going - investors are increasingly favoring diversified, low-cost exposure, while staying selective on where active can still add value.”

Adkins will also be hosting a panel entitled “Positioning Through the Business Cycle: Managing Opportunity and Risk” at the awards event on March 11. “What we're going to do is actually highlight where we currently are in the business cycle today and the changes we've seen over the last year,” he said. “So, I think it'll be very informative for us all to have some discussions surrounding geopolitical tensions.”