Ways to invest - Unit Trusts and OEICs
Save up to £500 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, New Star 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, viewing valuation and fund performance information in one place.
CommShare’s ƒUNDSFOLIO service is ideal if you’re happy to choose and manage your own unit trust/OEIC funds.
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» About Unit Trusts and OEICs - Pay less tax on your hard-earned savings
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 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.
Obviously if you hold unit trusts in an ISA, or SIPP then under current tax rules you will never pay capital gains tax anyway.
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» Huge choice of funds - Over 1,000 from more than 70 companies
You can use unit trust/OEIC funds from almost all the UK’s fund companies. That’s more than 1,000 funds to choose from.
Invest with well-known and highly respected fund companies like:
- Artemis
- Fidelity
- Invesco Perpetual
- Jupiter
- New Star
- Others like Aberdeen, Allianz Global, Axa Framlington, Credit Suisse, F & C, Gartmore, Henderson, J P Morgan, Legal & General, M&G, Neptune, Newton, Prudential, Standard Life, Threadneedle and many more….
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» Save money on UT/OEICs - Up to £500 instantly... then cashback every year
Save up to 5% instantly, that’s up to £500 on a £10,000 investment.
When we arrange unit trust/OEIC investments for you, we give up our initial commission and negotiate further discounts on your behalf. We aim to maximise the amount of money invested for you from the start.
The following are examples of savings we offer when you invest £10,000 with popular fund companies:
These savings are not available if you invest directly with fund companies.
| Company |
Normal Initial Charge |
Initial Charge through CommShare |
You Save Up to: |
| Using Fund Manager |
Using Cofunds |
| Aberdeen |
4.25% |
1.25% |
0.25% |
4% |
£400 |
| Allianz Global |
3% |
1% |
0% |
3% |
£300 |
| Artemis |
5.25% |
1.5% |
0.5% |
4.75% |
£475 |
| AXA Framlington |
5.25% |
2.25% |
1% |
4% |
£400 |
| Credit Suisse |
5.25% |
2.25% |
1.25% |
4% |
£400 |
| Fidelity |
3.5% |
1.5% |
0.5% |
3% |
£300 |
| F & C |
5% |
2% |
1% |
4% |
£400 |
| Gartmore |
5% |
1.25% |
0.25% |
4.75% |
£475 |
| Henderson 'A' |
5% |
3% |
0.5% |
4.5% |
£450 |
| Invesco Perpetual |
5% |
1% |
0% |
5% |
£500 |
| Jupiter |
5.25% |
1.25% |
0.25% |
5% |
£500 |
| Neptune |
5% |
1% |
0% |
5% |
£500 |
| New Star |
5.25% |
1.5% |
0.5% |
4.75% |
£475 |
| Newton |
4% |
1% |
0% |
4% |
£400 |
| Rathbone |
5.5% |
2% |
1% |
4.5% |
£450 |
| Threadneedle |
3.75% |
1.75% |
0.75% |
3% |
£300 |
These are typical savings for these companies, but do not apply to all funds. You can check discounts for all funds, including those applicable to regular savings, and investments arranged through Cofunds and Fidelity FundsNetwork fund supermarkets here.
Cashback every year on new and your existing funds.
You benefit from annual cashbacks - your share of any renewal commission paid to us. We receive it on most Unit Trust and OEIC funds and some other investments too.
You don’t have to invest new monies to benefit from annual cashbacks. If you already have Unit Trust or OEICs it’s easy to arrange. Just appoint us as your Agent.
How much of the renewal commission we share with you depends on the value of your investments. The more investments you have with us – the more you benefit.
| Renewal commission we receive |
Your Share (%) |
Your Share (£) |
| Up to £100 |
30% |
Up to £30 |
| Between £100 and £250 |
40% |
Between £40 and £100 |
| £250 or more |
50% |
No limit |
This table shows what that could mean for you:
| Current value of your investments |
Expected total value of annual cashbacks |
| 5 years |
10 years |
15 years |
| £10,000 |
£90 |
£200 |
£450 |
| £25,000 |
£300 |
£700 |
£1,500 |
| £50,000 |
£750 |
£1,800 |
£3,250 |
| £100,000 |
£1,500 |
£3,600 |
£6,500 |
This is just a guide. You don’t need a minimum of £10,000 in your portfolio to benefit and you could enjoy greater cashbacks if your portfolio is more than £100,000. These amounts are not guaranteed and are based on 0.5% renewal commission each year and fund growth of 7% each year.
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» Manage all of your fund investments in one place
Organising all your fund information can be hard work, and often frustrating. So, quite simply, we do a lot of the work for you.
You get the benefit of the information - without the time and the effort.
This information is available free online and can be sent to you on request twice a year in an easy to read report.
Your ƒUNDSFOLIO information includes:
- A consolidated valuation of funds we’ve arranged for you, or where you have appointed us as your agent.*
- Fund performance information*
*Includes funds from 30 fund companies, Cofunds and Fidelity FundsNetwork. Any missing funds can easily be added to your ƒUNDSFOLIO online.
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» Arrange your investments the way you want
Invest online or by paper application
You can invest in a fund online using Cofunds fund supermarket through this website, or using Fidelity’s FundsNetwork fund supermarket through Fidelity’s website. Alternatively, we can send you brochures and application forms for you to invest by paper application using your chosen fund company. If you want, you can invest in funds by paper application using either fund supermarket as well. Simply request a Cofunds or a Fidelity FundsNetwork application pack.
Fund companies or fund supermarkets
You can invest in funds using Cofunds or Fidelity FundsNetwork fund supermarkets, or invest using the fund company of your choice.
Lump sum or regular savings
You can invest in one lump sum payment, or a series of lump sum or regular monthly payments. Investments are subject to minimum amounts, which vary by fund company.
If you intend to invest using monthly savings, we recommend Cofunds fund supermarket because initial discounts are never worse and usually better than those available if you invest using the fund company.
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» How it works and an example
A typical fund has an initial charge of 5% and an annual charge of 1.5%, of which 3% and 0.5% respectively are earmarked to pay for financial advice.
3% up-front (initial commission) and 0.5% each year (renewal commission) might not sound much, but for every £10,000 you invest, it amounts to £800 over 10 years – a substantial portion of your money.
If you want financial advice you might be happy with this arrangement. But what if you choose and manage your own funds? Don’t you pay lower charges? You might think so, but in most cases you don’t.
This is because the fund companies keep the money they would otherwise pay to financial advisers.
Do you think that’s unfair? We do. If you choose and manage your own investments we think you should pay much lower charges.
In fact, we can save you as much as £750 on that same £10,000 investment over 10 years.
That’s the idea behind CommShare.
You choose your investments and we arrange them. The companies pay us commission – then we share it with you.
Your share results in discounted charges when you invest, or cashback, or both.
Example:
Suppose you have a portfolio of funds worth £25,000 and invest £5,000 more every year for the next 10 years.
These are the differences ƒUNDSFOLIO can make to you:
Because of initial discounts, your portfolio will have grown by £3,946 more over 10 years.
PLUS you benefit from cashback every year. In this example £555, £1,779 and £3,855 after 5, 10 and 15 years respectively!
All your investments can be viewed in one place. This includes a valuation of all your funds and fund performance information.
Assumptions: A 4.5% discount applies to new investments, funds grow at 7% each year and the fund companies pay 0.5% renewal commission each year. (The amounts shown in this example are not guaranteed. They could be more or less than the amounts quoted).
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