The appointment of Philip Matthews from Jupiter is likely to have allayed the concerns of some existing investors, but Buxton is still likely to take a lot of money with him when he leaves in June.
He has a unique style, running a high-alpha large cap portfolio, with very low turnover.
Schroders' recent acquisition of Cazenove is another big talking point, with some experts concerned about the likely impact of the move on the likes of FE Alpha Managers Julie Dean and Paul Marriage, who head up Cazenove UK Opportunities and Cazenove UK Smaller Companies, respectively.
Rowan Dartington’s Tim Cockerill (pictured), says that investors cannot be guaranteed the same kind of performance from a star manager when they arrive at a new firm.
"Sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself how much the manager impacts performance, or how much the team drives performance," he said. "Toby Thompson, who was at Newton Higher Income, is a good example. He went to New Star and it never really worked for him, but Newton maintained that it was very much a team-driven fund and it carried on doing well."
"It’s not only that, though. When you join another company there’s a big change in culture and you might also have different research capabilities."
"The fund manager might be told everything is fantastic and much better than where they came from, but it’s not always the case."
Cockerill points to Stephen Snowden’s move from Aegon – now Kames – to Old Mutual in 2004 as an example of a move not working out.
"He left for Old Mutual but he’s now back at Kames, so obviously something didn’t add up," he said. "He had a very difficult time over there."
"To be fair, he’s a very aggressive manager and so he might have had a bad time anywhere, but it’s interesting he’s gone back to Kames."
Snowden joined Old Mutual in February 2004, and ran the Old Mutual Corporate Bond fund until April 2011. It marginally outperformed its sector over this period, but had a terrible time in 2008.
Performance of fund vs sector under Snowden
Source: FE Analytics
Cockerill was reluctant to mention Psigma’s Bill Mott in this vein though, as he believes he will turn around his underperformance of recent years.
Mott was one of the highest-profile UK investors of the 1990s and early 2000s, but has underperformed his sector and benchmark since taking over the Psigma Income fund in 2007.
However, Cockerill says he remains confident in the manager’s ability.
"Bill built a good reputation by looking at the macro, but often he’s been some way ahead in his thinking compared with his peers," he said.
"When I look at his performance I’m not massively concerned, because he’s very strong in his view. He tends to be ahead of the curve."
"For that reason I wouldn’t put him into that category," he added.
Performance of fund vs sector and index since Apr 2007
Source: FE Analytics
Mott has repeatedly said that inflation will be one of the biggest threats to investors over the foreseeable future, and has a significant exposure to commodities to hedge against its effect.
This has acted as a major drag on performance of late.
Cockerill also highlights the potential pitfalls of following a star manager in to a fund that has a different focus to what they are most associated with.
"Cross-disciplines don’t always work," he said. "I feel that you get a lot of fund launches and new processes that would be different now than they were, because certain things have done well and certain ways of investing come in to fashion."
"There are some who say investing in any region is always the same because companies are valued in the same way, but it’s a very different discipline."
He highlights Denis Clough, formerly of Schroders, as a good example.
"He had a lot of success running the Schroder Tokyo fund, which was one of the mainstream options out there for many years."
"He had some time off, and when he came back he started running a European fund. It’s bizarre, because if there was one region that’s different to everywhere else when it comes to investing, it’s Japan."
"It’s the equivalent of Richard Buxton suddenly taking over a Japan fund."
"Clough didn’t have a good time running the European fund and now is at Morant Wright – a boutique Japanese firm," Cockerill added.
Clough ran the Schroder Tokyo fund between June 1985 and March 2004, but FE only has data going back to 1990.
Between January 1990 and March 2004, the fund was a top-quartile performer in its IMA Japan sector, with returns of 50.79 per cent.
He ran Schroders’ European equities team between 2005 and 2007, but left after a period of underperformance.
Cockerill refuses to put industry legend Anthony Bolton (pictured) in this bracket though, because again he feels his underperformance since taking over the Fidelity China Special Situations IT has been in keeping with his style.
"He’s always run special situations portfolios, which go through periods of underperformance. If you look at the managers who run money in the same way as Bolton, there’s not a lot of difference."Bolton built his reputation by running the £2.6bn Fidelity Special Situations fund, which he headed up between 1979 and 2007. It was the standout UK equity portfolio over this time, delivering returns in excess of 12,000 per cent.
Cockerill believes that a big change in investment style can also have negative repercussions, pointing to Mark Lyttleton as a good example.
"He launched the BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha fund very early on in the cycle of absolute return launches, but it didn’t suit his style," he said.
"His BlackRock UK Dynamic fund was a real trailblazer – a must-have fund for many – but absolute return is very different."
"The markets were going up, and it’s very frustrating when you’re underperforming and you want to do your own thing."
Performance of fund vs sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Both BlackRock UK Dynamic and BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha are bottom-quartile performers in their respective sectors over one, three and five years.
Lyttleton was recently removed from both portfolios.
"William Littlewood is another one," continued Cockerill. "He had great success running the Jupiter Income fund, but he left Jupiter and Tony Nutt took over."
"He took a few years off running his own money, but came back in 2009 to take over the Artemis Strategic Assets fund – a mixed asset fund that does a whole host of things."
"When you look after your own money I think you’ve got more of a focus on capital preservation, which is maybe why he came back and ran a mixed asset fund instead. However, this isn’t actually where he made his name."
The Artemis Strategic Assets fund has returned 48.87 per cent since its launch in May 2009, marginally underperforming its IMA Flexible Investment sector average and FTSE/APCIMS Growth benchmark.