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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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 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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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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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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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.

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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