Hargreaves Lansdown has removed the Standard Life AAA Income fund from its Wealth 150 buy list as it cautioned investors against further investment.

Meera Patel, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said there were a number of reasons why it did not believe investors should put more money into the fund.

She said, 'The fund’s cautious nature and focus on high quality bonds meant it did well at sheltering investors’ capital in 2008.

'Over the longer term it has also delivered positive returns, and we would stress we do not believe existing investors should generally consider selling this fund.'

She said the fund's focus on one area of the bond market constricted its ability to take advantage of riskier corporate bonds with higher yields that could perform more strongly.

Patel said the current 2.8 per cent yield is lower than other funds in its peer group and said it had expected greater returns from manager Andrew Sutherland's bond selection.

'None of the concerns we highlight above would be sufficient reason to remove the fund in isolation, but when considered collectively we have decided to remove the fund from the Wealth 150 as a precautionary measure,' she said.

'We shall continue to monitor the fund and if our views change, we will keep investors informed.'

Patel added, 'Notably the fund has underperformed the gilt market, which has delivered better returns for less risk.'