Managers are increasingly concerned about the future resilience of UK dividends as payouts hit record levels and a slowing economy prompts the need for companies to reallocate capital.
Equity markets around the world have struggled to make headway this year, with many major indices giving up gains made early on to leave them standing flat or down for 2012.
Liontrust's top performing fund manager Anthony Cross has backed Hargreaves Lansdown's shares to surge after the final rules around platforms and RDR are released.
Man Group looks set to drop out of the FTSE 100 at the next review in June, to be replaced by engineering group Babcock.
A fund manager's age does have an effect on whether they should outperform, with those in their early 40s most likely to beat their peers, according to research from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's(SWIP) multi-manager team.