The top equity manager for 2020 is Morgan Stanley Investment Management (IM), for displaying outstanding and consistent performance in both rising and falling markets.

Morgan Stanley IM is an equity behemoth, currently managing £161bn ($223bn) in equity strategies on an active basis. A particular highlight is the company's Global Opportunity fund, led by Kristian Heugh with £29bn in assets under management, of which approximately £3.1bn is for global insurance clients.

The fund's performance has been stellar these last three years—its Z class shares have outperformed the benchmark by 16.65%, annualised net of fees since 2017 and 9.7%, again net of fees, since its inception in November 2010.

One of the key facets of the fund is its heavy weighting towards a handful of stocks—50% of the 30 to 45 companies in the portfolio is concentrated in 10 holdings.

Meanwhile, the fund is strict in its ESG policy, focusing on areas that the team believes are essential for a company to sustain its competitive advantage over the long term.

The returns have proven a key feature for insurance clients who typically have to generate substantial amounts of beta and alpha from, proportionally, relatively small equity allocations, in order to meet return targets and guaranteed returns in their insurance products.

Morgan Stanley IM focuses on integrating insurer investment objectives with Solvency II requirements. Last year, it launched a protected-equity fund offering significant solvency capital optimisation for European insurers.

Judges were particularly effusive about the company's "consistent performance" and "long track-record".