Chelsea Financial Services is one of the UK’s longest-established fund brokers, renowned for its independent fund research and customer-centric approach. Founded in 1983 as a pioneer of discount broking, Chelsea has spent over four decades helping investors save on fees and identify high-quality funds. Today, the firm serves tens of thousands of self-directed clients with a focus on excellent service and expertise. Its in-house research team (with 70+ years’ combined experience) is a respected voice in the industry, regularly meeting fund managers and conducting rigorous analysis to guide investors.
Launching the VT Chelsea Managed Funds
In 2017, Chelsea Financial Services launched the VT Chelsea Managed Funds range as a one-stop investment solution for varying risk profiles: Cautious; Balanced; Aggressive and Monthly Income. The funds are managed by Chelsea’s highly experienced in-house research team, Darius McDermott, Juliet Schooling Latter, James Yardley and Joss Murphy. The team conducts over 250 fund manager meetings a year and leverages four decades of industry expertise to gain insight into the funds they invest in.
Cost-efficient, innovative and investor-friendly
The funds were launched with a number of unique features, designed to improve upon the traditional fund of funds structure. Firstly the funds are amongst the cheapest in the industry for actively-managed fund of funds. The Chelsea investment team management fee is just 0.30% and, any savings the fund negotiates on fees are passed back into the fund. As a result, the monthly income funds OCF is just 0.72%.
Another feature of the Chelsea funds is their willingness to combine the open ended funds with investment trusts. A hallmark of the range is its use of specialist investment trusts to enhance returns and manage risk. The team has not hesitated to venture beyond mainstream funds – for instance, incorporating investment trusts in areas like renewable energy, infrastructure, healthcare and even music royalties and aircraft leasing to tap into alternative income streams and growth opportunities. This broad toolkit has helped reduce correlation to traditional stock/bond markets and provided an edge in different market environments.
Income investors can rely on
It also enabled the Monthly Income fund to keep yielding income when many equity income funds faltered (thanks to holdings in infrastructure trusts, REITs, etc., that kept paying dividends during Covid). Such diversification, including defensive assets like gold and absolute return strategies, underpins the resilience of the portfolios. The funds can also dynamically increase or reduce the weight to investment trusts as discounts narrow or widen and as opportunities decrease or increase.
Investors in the monthly income fund, especially value the fund’s innovative feature of smooth income payments. The fund pays 11 equal monthly payments each year with a final twelfth payment which pays out any remaining income the fund has generated. During volatile periods like the COVID-19 crisis, when many funds cut or suspended dividends, the VT Chelsea Managed Monthly Income fund continued to pay income every month without fail – a reflection of its diversified income sources (spanning equities, bonds, property, infrastructure, etc.) and prudent management. This gives investors a reliable consistent cashflow. Since launch the monthly income payment has only ever increased.
Award-winning results
Since inception (5 June 2017), the VT Chelsea Managed Funds have all delivered top-quartile performance in their respective Investment Association sectors and have won a number of awards. Since launch*:
The Cautious fund is 14% ahead of the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares sector
The Balanced fund is 22% ahead of the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector
The Aggressive fund is 38% ahead of the IA Flexible sector
The Monthly Income fund is 31% ahead of the IA Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares sector
All members of the Chelsea fund management team (and many staff, friends and family) invest their own money in the VT Chelsea Managed Funds.
*FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling,
5 June 2017 to 22 September 2025
