Paul Smyth, investment director at Standard Life Investments, describes the company's managed fund as a "typical multi-asset portfolio", benchmarked against the managed fund average in Ireland.

However, in 2005 the fund managed to beat its peers with a table-topping 23.9 per cent return over the year.

So what was the secret underpinning Standard Life's success?

"Our asset allocation strategy in 2005 continued to focus on a preference for global equities over other asset classes," explains Mr Smyth.

"Our rotation away from the US and UK equity markets throughout the year towards Japan and Europe was particularly beneficial. We continued to fund this overweight position in equities through a larger underweight position in cash rather than fixed interest.

"This was also a positive for performance. For example, our cash fund returned 1.7 per cent versus a 10.8 per cent return for our fixed interest fund."

He adds: "Within the asset mix above, we also enjoyed significant out-performance in the following portfolios: European equities, UK equities, fixed-interest and Japanese equities."

The fund closed off the year with 80 per cent of assets allocated to equities, and with a "very, very low cash position" of 2.2 per cent.

These two key factors are what differentiated it from the competition.

Mr Smyth describes their investment process as "research intensive". He explains that it is based on the company's "focus on change" investment philosophy.

He says: "Our focus on change philosophy recognises that different factors drive markets at different times in the investment cycle.

"It is not inherently growth or value biased or necessarily momentum driven. This means that we have an opportunity to outperform throughout the cycle."