cofunds and the closure of hallmark haven,harmony strategy b and horizon strategy b

takethemon

hi. in 2005,on the advice of an ifa,i invested in the above funds.
i have now received correspondence from co funds that these funds are being closed due to their being too small,and received valuations of my holdings,or distribution amounts which i assume are the same things.
i have perused this site and googled the above to see what this all means but to no avail.
can someone try to enlighten me please.
thank you.

dunstonh

If the funds are closing then Cofunds will send you a corporate action letter asking what you want to do with the money. i.e. pick other funds, convert to cash to pay to you or some other things.

So, you need to decide what you want to do with the money.

takethemon

thanks for that. i have e mailed the ifa i used asking for the cash as i am in my 60's now i dont think investments are for me.

waiax73

dunstonh wrote: »

If the funds are closing then Cofunds will send you a corporate action letter asking what you want to do with the money. i.e. pick other funds, convert to cash to pay to you or some other things.

So, you need to decide what you want to do with the money.

Will back dunstonh on that.

The reason why you couldn't find out anything on Cofunds is because it's a B2B service(works with companies only). In this case, your IFA should address your concerns.

gadgetmind

How have these funds performed?

The usual pattern with active funds is that they under-perform, loads of people move their money elsewhere, the fund shrinks, and then it gets slowly closed down with as little fuss and fanfare as possible.

I'd have suggested that your IFA should have been on top of things, but a recent thread hereabouts suggested that monitoring performance isn't part of their remit.

takethemon

hi. sorry for not coming back sooner. i am in the process of cashing in the investments but i am unsure whether i paid extra into them after opening the investment. i have paperwork which suggests i did but not for how long so i am sorry i cant estimate how they have performed,but thanks for your interest and your help.

redbuzzard

They are all funds-of-funds run by the same manager, or were, so three eggs in the same basket.

Perelandra

gadgetmind wrote: »

How have these funds performed?

The usual pattern with active funds is that they under-perform, loads of people move their money elsewhere, the fund shrinks, and then it gets slowly closed down with as little fuss and fanfare as possible.

lol gadget, there's a sweeping statement if ever I saw one!

On a serious note, in this situation can you expect that the value you'll get out will be reflective of the underlying value of the assets that were held in the fund, or are there additional costs (some form of closure costs or final fees?) that would eat into that value?

takethemon

i think redbuzzard is right,though this wasnt explained to me at the time. the financial advisor was yorkshire investment group and the investment was through cofunds.
yorkshire investment group have been taken over by UKWM.
i dont know whether the closure coincided with the takeover.
i have been advised that no closure charges or final fees to be deducted.
i am afraid that "in this situation can you expect that the value you'll get out will be reflective of the underlying value of the assets that were held in the fund " is way above my head!

Shaolin_Monkey

That just means you'll get the value of the shares, bonds and anything else they were holding on the date the funds were liquidated.

The performance of these funds was fairly uninspiring vs. their sectors and charges high at over 2% TER.

EFA Hallmark Haven
EFA Hallmark Harmony
EFA Hallmark Horizon

takethemon

you got it in one shaolin monkey. i was unaware of the 2% but when i saw the financial advisor,having been at the time an avid reader of the mail on sunday personal finance pages,i was insistent upon paying a one off fee for the advice. it was proferred to me that it would be a better deal to pay 0.5% annual commission so reluctantly i agreed!