virgin climate change fund

westy69

any opinions on this, i appreciate its higher risk any other views?

Thanks

caliston

Looks interesting, but the track record is rather unknown, so quite risky. The AMC looks OK, but there's a performance charge: 20% of returns over the Bank of England rate (sampled at 6 monthly intervals). They don't refund any performance charge if the fund value drops but you only pay it once - if it rises, you pay the fee, then if it drops then rises again the fee is calculated based on the highest value you previously paid a fee at. Effectively the fee will only come into play if it makes more than a savings account (if my reading of the prospectus is correct).

So the fee will depress your returns but the worst case is by only (gain-BoE base)*20% of the maximum peak it makes. In other words if it starts off at £10.00 per unit, goes up to £20.00 when sampled with BoE base at 5% it'll be worth £20-(10-5)*0.2=£19. If it then drops 50% you'll be at £9.50. But you won't get charged again until it goes above £20.

I didn't see any funds supermarkets offering it, so you'd probably have to apply direct. If you want to invest in an ISA then you can't invest in any other non-Virgin funds this tax year (maybe not a problem if you haven't used your S&S ISA and get your application in tomorrow!). You could transfer a chunk of a previous year's ISA (cash or S&S) which might make it easier.