Unit Trusts and OEICs - Save up to 5.5% instantly
CommShare’s service is ideal if you’re happy to choose your own Unit Trust/OEIC funds
Save up to £550 instantly when you invest £10,000 in a Unit Trust or OEIC fund, then get cashback every year. Choose from over 1,000 funds offered by companies like Artemis, Fidelity, Jupiter, Invesco Perpetual and many more.
Invest in funds the way you want - online or by paper application, with the fund companies or in fund supermarkets. Save time managing your funds - by viewing your valuation and fund performance information in one easy to use online account - FUNDSFOLIO.
About Unit Trusts and OEICs
Unit trusts and OEICs are different legal structures for the same type of investment. They are often referred to as fund investments, or simply funds.
Funds pool the money of hundreds, often thousands of investors who put investment decisions in the hands of professional fund managers working for fund management firms. This has several advantages for an individual investor:
- It’s a simple and convenient way to invest in a wide range of investments, e.g. stocks and bonds with a small amount of money and little or no expertise.
- Helps diversify risk - funds are a proven and effective way of avoiding losses caused by the failure of individual companies.
- Benefit from advantages of scale - because fund managers can buy and sell stocks and shares in bulk.
Types of fund
Fund managers tend to specialise in one area. For example some invest for income, others for growth. Some funds invest in the UK, others overseas. Here are some of the sorts and examples of fund you can choose from:
Type of investment - Equity, Bond, Property
Style - Growth, Income
Geographical - European shares, US shares
Specialist Sector - Technology
Emerging Markets - Brazil, India
Lifestyle - Ethical
There are more than 1,000 funds for you to choose between. You should be able to pick one or more that match your investment objectives.
Tax benefits
If you have a portfolio of shares, buying and selling to manage your investment objectives could have capital gains tax (CGT) implications. This could lead to making tax decisions rather than investment decisions.
A unit trust manager doesn’t have this problem. Within a unit trust realised gains are tax-free. Individual unit trust/OEIC investors only create capital gains when they sell units.
Tip: If you only sell enough units to use your annual capital gains tax allowance, you can escape CGT entirely.
Gains arising from unit trusts held in an ISA, or in a SIPP are not subject to capital gains tax (under current tax rules, which are subject to change).