Irish Domiciled Funds

atlanticspan

Hi All, Can anyone with more knowledge of the fund industry than I advise whether there will be any ramifications from holding Irish Domiciled Funds i.e. a Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF post BREXIT.
Thank you.

Voyager2002

Yes. They are likely to keep their value when the pound falls, but there is a risk that assets belong to people in the UK might be frozen if Britain ever actually leaves.

EdSwippet

I think the OP is asking what will happen with UCITS funds, typically all UK 'reporting funds'? UCITS is an EU directive. Once outside the EU, will the UK suddenly decide that UCITS ETFs and funds are all instantly offshore, non-reporting, and so subject to heinous tax and reporting obligations?

The real answer is that as with pretty much all of BREXIT, nobody knows.

My guess is that nothing will change regarding UCITS and 'reporting' funds, simply because they are so embedded in a huge number of UK investor portfolios. Virtually every ETF held by UK investors is domiciled outside the UK, commonly in either Ireland or Luxembourg. Also many unit trusts and OEICs.

Until April 2014 the UK tax rules were unfavourable to collectives based in the UK, so most of them domiciled in more attractive locations and marketed to the UK through UCITS, something completely transparent to pretty well all investors. Since 2014 a few ETFs have domiciled in the UK, but barely a trickle and a long way from a flood.