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AG, of Essex, has told us his solicitor now admits having “overlooked” some payments.. While most investors are staring at the falling stock market in horror, William Claxton-Smith of Insight feels like a child in a sweet-shop. The breezy character who is among the City’s most-established fund managers can talk about investment for hours, and does. Moneynetsavingssearch While most investors are staring at the falling stock market in horror, William Claxton-Smith of Insight feels like a child in a sweet-shop. Clerical Medical is part of HBOS, which is rebranding its funds under the name, Insight.

This week Insight launched 23 retail funds based on three main groups, foundation for beginners, classic for core holdings and professional for the specialist.The equity-high income portfolio holds, essentially, shares in companies which pay good dividends. The decline in the value of share prices means the percentage yield from any given level of dividend they are paying increases, so high-income opportunities from quality companies are sprouting all over the place.”I am very positive about a market recovery and I see great opportunity emerging from the declines,” Mr Claxton- Smith says. He recently bought Abbey National shares on a yield of 8.5 per cent, well above interest rates on its high street savings accounts. He also bought Pearson, the Penguin books and Financial Times publishing group, on a yield of 4 per cent. Although Pearson is not traditionally considered an income-generator, a sharp fall in the share price has resulted in a reasonable yield plus strong recovery prospects.”I expect we will look back on this period years later and be amazed that some of these stocks were trading at such low levels,” he says. Mr Claxton-Smith, 48, has managed his fund since it was launched in 1984, but he joined Clerical Medical 26 years ago, fresh from Oxford where he read philosophy, politics and economics.

Before launching the fund he spent most of his time as an analyst.Only seven people in the UK have been fund managers longer than Mr Claxton-Smith, the Investment Management Association shows, and he has two major achievements. First, dividends on his fund have never been cut, despite tough years for income producers on the stock market. Second, he has delivered better-than-average performance, relative to his peer group, in 16 of the 17 years. The exception was 1996.Since launch on 1 November, 1984, the fund has returned 730 per cent, after all charges, compared to the sector average of 610 per cent. There are 35 funds in the equity-income sector over this period, and Clerical Medical UK Equity High Income is ranked eighth, according to figures provided by Standard & Poor’s.Mr Claxton-Smith has been able to achieve this strong performance by focusing on under-valued, high-yield stocks, and using convertibles for their yield premium to gain exposure to lower-yielding sectors. The fund is paying an annual yield of 4.1 per cent.Mr Claxton-Smith adapts the normal house style at Insight, which is research-based and focused on identifying individual stock opportunities. “We have research analysts seeking good stock opportunities for other portfolios who try to identify companies with better prospects than the market is assuming,” he says.Because Mr Claxton-Smith must deliver an income to investors, he will not buy into a company that yields less than the FTSE All-Share index average, now about 3.75 per cent, and he is targeting companies yielding 5 per cent “I always look for total return,” he says “There must be growth prospects in the stock.