Legal & General Global 100 Index: July 2026 fund update

• Legal & General is one of the UK’s leading providers of index funds

• This fund provides access to major global companies at a low-cost

• It’s tracked the S&P Global 100 Index closely over the long term

• This fund doesn’t feature on our Wealth Shortlist of funds chosen by our analysts for their long-term performance potential

How it fits in a portfolio

The Legal & General Global 100 Index fund invests in 100 large global companies, including household names like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.

An index tracker fund is one of the simplest ways to invest and can be a low-cost starting point for an investment portfolio aiming to deliver long-term growth. This fund could diversify a portfolio focused on smaller companies or other investments such as bonds.

This fund is a useful way to invest in some of the largest global companies at a low-cost. It doesn’t feature on our Wealth Shortlist as we have funds on the list that track the broader global stock market and provide more diversification to a portfolio.

Manager

Legal & General has run index tracker funds for over 30 years and is one of the largest providers of index funds in the UK. That means it’s got the resources and expertise to track indices as closely as possible, and the scale to keep charges to a minimum.

Each index fund at Legal & General has a primary and secondary manager, though in practice the team as a whole helps to manage each fund. Shane Padden is the primary manager for this fund. He joined Legal & General in 2022 and is responsible for a range of equity index funds. Prior to this, Padden spent three years at Mercer working as an Investment Consultant. Tom Hammond is the secondary manager for this fund. Hammond joined Legal & General in 2000 and has been on the index team for two decades.

Process

This fund tracks the performance of the S&P Global 100 Index. The index isn’t simply made up of the 100 largest companies. Other factors are taken into consideration such as where companies generate their revenues, the proportion of shares available to the public, and maintaining a balanced representation across different sectors. Ultimately, the S&P Index Committee decides which companies are included, meaning its indices can look different from those of other index providers.

For example, despite being among the world's largest companies, Meta and Tesla aren’t included in the index tracked by this fund. That said, the fund still provides exposure to many of the world's biggest, most established and internationally recognised businesses.

The fund aims to invest in every company in the index and in the same proportion. This is known as full replication and should help it track the benchmark closely.

Like most global funds, a large amount is invested in the US (80.6%) and in the technology and communication services sectors, which together make up 57.5% of the fund. It also invests in some emerging markets, which are higher risk than their more developed counterparts.

This fund invests in fewer companies than other global index tracker funds. The top 10 companies account for 60% of the fund so have a big impact on overall performance. Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft are large holdings at 12.8%, 11.1% and 7.9% of the fund respectively (as of the end of May 2026). The amount invested in each company is determined by the underlying index the fund is tracking.

In any index tracker fund, factors like withholding taxes, dealing commissions and spreads, and the cost of running the fund all drag on performance. To reduce the tracking difference between the fund and the index, the team keep trading to a minimum which helps to reduce costs.

The fund also participates in securities lending, where some of its investments are lent to other providers in exchange for a fee. This helps to offset some of the costs involved in running the fund but adds risk.

Culture

Legal & General has developed its index fund range over the last three decades. The company manages £550bn in tracker funds, allowing it to offer a wide range of index-tracking options.

It’s built a team of experienced index fund specialists and they’re innovative too. If an index doesn’t exist for a sector they’d like to track, they’ll often work with index providers to create a suitable index for them to track.

The team managing this fund work closely with various risk departments across the business. We believe this provides support and adds challenge where appropriate.

Employees are also encouraged to participate in Legal & General’s share save scheme which should encourage them to be more engaged with the growth of the company. In addition, a portion of fund managers’ bonuses are invested into the funds they manage. By doing this, their interests are further aligned with the investors in the fund.

ESG Integration

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is predominantly an index investor, but we’re impressed with the extent to which they’ve woven Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) into their culture. Being a mostly index fund house hasn’t stopped them being innovative when it comes to ESG. In May 2019, the firm launched its ‘Future World’ range of funds, though this fund isn’t part of that range.

In 2019, LGIM established its Global Research and Engagement Platform, which brings together representatives from the investment and stewardship teams, in order to unify their engagement efforts. Engagement is conducted in line with the firm’s comprehensive engagement policy. A detailed description of the firm’s engagement and voting activity (including case studies) is available in its annual Active Ownership report. Quarterly Engagement reports are also available.

LGIM’s Stewardship team is responsible for exercising voting rights globally, both for LGIM’s active and index funds. Voting decisions are publicly available through a tool which allows a user to search for any company to find out how LGIM voted, and a detailed rationale is provided for votes against management and abstentions.

Legal & General Global 100 Index is an index fund designed to track a benchmark that doesn’t specifically integrate ESG analysis or exclude companies in certain industries, like tobacco or weapons.

Cost

The fund has an annual ongoing fund charge of 0.14%, but we've secured HL clients an ongoing saving of 0.05%. This means you pay a net ongoing charge of 0.09%.

Our platform charge of up to 0.35% per year also applies, except in the HL Junior ISA, where no platform fee applies. Both a buy and sell instruction will be subject to HL dealing charges. Find out more about our charges

Performance

This fund has done a good job of tracking the S&P Global 100 Index over the long term. In the last 10 years, it’s gained 368.36%*. As is typical of tracker funds, it’s lagged the benchmark because of the costs involved in running the fund. However, the techniques used by the managers have helped to keep performance close to the index.

Over the past 12 months, large companies have performed well, and this fund has returned 32.26%. Remember, past performance isn’t a guide to future returns.

Performance was driven by gains in technology companies, as investors continued to focus on the long-term potential of artificial intelligence (AI). Semiconductor companies, like Samsung Electronics and Intel, performed strongly over the year as they benefited from strong demand for AI chips. This has boosted their profits and share prices.

Whereas software companies saw sharp share price falls at the beginning of 2026 as investors became more cautious about how AI could disrupt some companies. Although the sector has rebounded a little since the falls, it remains behind the wider stock market so far this year.

Given Legal & General’s size, experience and expertise running index tracker funds, we expect the fund to continue to track the index closely in the future, though there are no guarantees.