1. Overview & What’s New

Stepping into its next quarter century, the BENCHMARK Fund of the Year Awards has evolved into an Integrated Benchmark platform that goes beyond trophies to support real-world fund selection and governance. The Hong Kong & Singapore edition connects independent performance and Sustainability analytics with an ecosystem that serves asset managers, gatekeepers, and distributors across the region.​

While the core purpose remains to recognize strategies that excel in investment performance, risk management, and sustainability, the program now also helps these strategies stay visible to the market after the awards night. All entering funds are connected to a dedicated platform, FundBase, that enables licensed distributors – including retail and private banks, wealth managers, brokers, and fund platforms – to discover, screen, and revisit participating strategies as part of their ongoing product due diligence. 

In addition to our established House, Sustainability, and Top Fund Awards, we are introducing a dedicated Private Equity Awards pillar covering Buyout & Growth, Secondaries & Co-Investments, Private Credit, and Real Assets, reflecting the growing role of private markets in wealth and institutional portfolios. 

This means an awards entry is no longer a one-off marketing moment. It becomes part of a year-round integrated benchmark that distributors can refer to when building shelves, reviewing lineups, and aligning products with their investment and governance priorities, while managers continue to benefit from the independent validation that BENCHMARK has built over more than two decades.​ 

2. Awards Structure & Categories

The program is organized to recognize both firm-level excellence and strategy-level strength. Core components include House Awards, Sustainability Awards, and Top Fund Awards, each designed to highlight different dimensions of value creation for investors.  We are also introducing a dedicated Private Equity Awards pillar, covering Buyout & Growth, Secondaries & Co-Investments, Private Credit, and Real Assets, to reflect the growing importance of private markets in client portfolios.

Within these components, categories span major asset classes, investment styles, and Sustainability themes relevant to investors in Hong Kong and Singapore. This structure allows asset owners, consultants, and distributors to compare peers within clearly defined groups while still recognizing houses that demonstrate consistent quality across their product ranges. 
 
3. Methodology & Governance

The Awards are built on a robust methodology that blends independent data, qualitative insight, and experienced judgment. Candidates are assessed using multi-year performance and risk metrics, portfolio and Sustainability analytics, and structured questionnaires that examine philosophy, process, and team quality.

Participating managers engage with jurors through the Gatekeeper Forum, where senior buy-side professionals review each case across defined pillars, including investment approach, performance and risk, portfolio management, stewardship, and corporate quality. Clear scoring frameworks, data crosschecks, and panel deliberations help ensure that Best-inClass and Outstanding Achiever titles are earned, not assumed, and that the benchmark remains credible to both managers and distributors. 
 
4. How to Enter & Key Dates

Entering the Awards is designed to be straightforward and transparent. Managers select the markets and categories in which they wish to participate, register their funds, and submit the required data and questionnaires within the published timelines.

Shortlisted entrants are then invited to the Gatekeeper Forum sessions with jurors, after which results are consolidated and announced at the annual awards event. Key dates for registration deadlines, submission cut-offs, forums, and the awards ceremony are published on the respective pages each year, enabling firms to plan internal approvals, data preparation, and spokesperson availability in advance.