A single fund of funds for all investments?

cheerfulcat

Andy, TBH a better place to look at the assets of an investment trust is on its own website. There should be links to annual reports and factsheets, and if you still can't find what you're looking for, telephone numbers for investor relations departments, who should be able to answer specific questions. The AIC site is also pretty informative.

jamesd

Andy1663,

Norwich Property Trust from Property all regions Observe that it gives the split of direct property and property shares.

New Star Property. Observe that it gives names of developments as the major holdings. Also note "through investment in commercial property, property related assets" where the "property related assets" bit is the clue that it has some shares as well as physical property.

Now look at Aberdeen Property Share Trust and observe that the major holdings are property development companies, not property developments. And from the objectives "property company securities or companies which derive a significant proportion of their revenues or profits from equities which have a significant proportion of their assets in property" there's lots of talk of shares and companies.

None of the three is pure physical property but the Aberdeen fund is shares and high risk by comparison.

competitionscafe

To give a UK 'one stop' example (not a recommendation) New Star tri star will provide a (roughly equal) 3 way split between UK equities, UK Corporate bonds and UK commercial property.
http://www.newstaram.com/documents/pdfs/factsheets/unittrusts/tristar.pdf

There are those who say commercial property has had a good run and now may not be a good time to invest.

Global investment trusts, as suggested by a poster above will give a broad international (including UK) spread of equity exposure with low charges. If you wanted to stick with OEICS/ unit trusts then something like THS International Growth and Value or Artemis Global Growth (again, examples not recommendations) would give you a broad, global spread of equities without the double charging problem / high TER (total expense ratio) of a 'fund of funds' approach (which would drag down overall performance).

I would still say that you are better off spreading your investment between a few funds rather than looking for a one size fits all fund. A couple of the online discount brokers provide suggested portfolios (say of between 4 and 7 funds) for a 'cautious', 'middle of the road' and 'adventurous' (or similar terminology) investor.
eg: http://www.allenbridge.co.uk/pdfs/isadirect30.pdf and others

EdInvestor

This articleexplains the two fundamental ways of investing in equities (shares).

It may perhaps clarify a little about why you really need a minimum of two funds, not one for shares, plus a third fund if you want property and a fourth fund if you want bonds (arguably not really necessary these days if you have cash savings).

Think about it: jack of all trades, master of none?There's a good reason why those "balanced managed funds" covering all the bases are regarded as such junk.

Good fund managers don't do balanced managed funds.

cheerfulcat

Good fund managers don't do balanced managed funds.

Ed, you are the only person here even talking about balanced managed funds.

EdInvestor

Could be wrong, but this seems to be what the OP is aiming at.

Is the Midas Growth the front runner for a medium risk balanced portfolio? .....I've been looking at the asset mix of global ITs on the trustnet site - they're pretty varied, and not that many seem to have property in their portfolios, although I may not have spotted shares in property companies. Which come closest to my ideal of a balanced high risk fund and a balanced low risk fund?

IMHO what he should have is

1.An Equity Income fund 40% ( eg Invesco Perpetual High income)
2.A Growth or Special situations Fund 30%
3.A bricks and mortar UK Property fund 30% (eg Norwich Union)

IMHO that will provide a medium risk balanced portfolio which is not too difficult for a learner investor to monitor.Don't forget to buy through a discount broker which rebates the charges.

dunstonh

IMHO what he should have is

1.An Equity Income fund 40% ( eg Invesco Perpetual High income)
2.A Growth or Special situations Fund 30%
3.A bricks and mortar UK Property fund 30% (eg Norwich Union)

IMHO that will provide a medium risk balanced portfolio which is not too difficult for a learner investor to monitor.Don't forget to buy through a discount broker which rebates the charges.

So, two funds covering UK all companies sector and one covering property. Thats really diversified.

EdInvestor

The OP doesn't mention diversified.

He says:

Is a fund of funds the best option?
Should I pick more than one fund of funds?

IMHO no to both of these on cost grounds alone

And how can I estimate the long term stability of the management team/company (say 3 years +), so that I don't have to think about switching them too often?

Woodford at IP Income has been there outperforming for nearly 20 years. Insurance co bricks and mortar property funds are usually pretty stable long term.
Fidelity Special Sits would have been the other obvious choice in the past, also an outperformer for over 20 years.

I'd thought of putting the SIPP into Jupiter Merlin Growth (although I'd ideally like a broader fund that included things like property)

OP wants UK all cos,plus property

and the ISA into Midas Balanced Income fund (lower risk in case I need to access it in less than 10 years).

But also wants lower risk.

Seems to me my three basically fill the bill. (Equity income funds are lower risk than Growth funds)

I don't do growth funds personally (other than a remnant of Fid Spec Sits) but no doubt others will have suggestions for a good choice in this area ( and Citywire will rate them as always.)

Ian_W

EdInvestor wrote:

OP wants UK all cos,plus property

Jupiter Merlin Growth, top 10 holdings:
FINDLAY PARK US SMALLER COMPANIES 14.7%
INVESCO PERPETUAL INCOME 10.7%
JUPITER FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 9.3%
JUPITER UK GROWTH 8.7%
JUPITER EMERGING EUROPEAN OPPS 8.4%
INVESTEC GLOBAL ENERGY A 7.7%
MELCHIOR JAPAN OPPS 7.3%
FIDELITY SPECIAL SITUATIONS 7.0%
JPM JAPAN FUND A 4.7%
ARTEMIS UK SPECIAL SITUATIONS 2.7%

UK all co's?????????????????????
Shurely shome mishtake, Ed!

StevieJ

The new Fidelity stategic fund appears to cover all asset classes adjusting the balance based on the economic cycle and diversified geographically. The initial charge is a big zero and the management charge is 1.25% direct from Fidelity, don't know what the TER is. Is this not what the original poster was looking for?