Minimising costs is an easy way to assist long-term performance. Charges act as a drag on returns, and over time they can significantly reduce the size of your investment pot.
For instance, if you invest £100 per month for 10 years in a fund that achieves growth of 6% a year, your investment would be worth £16,388 at the end. However, increase charges by 0.5% a year and the sum falls to £15,951, and up them by 1% and it reduces to £15,528.
One way to reduce costs is through passive investments or ‘trackers’. These aim to replicate the performance of an index, say, the FTSE 100, rather than beat it. This is in contrast to active funds, which aim to outpace the market over the longer term. Often they don’t, though, partly because their fees are higher.
We believe there are pros and cons for both methods of investing. Charges are generally lower for passive funds, especially the competitive ones. They are also simple and transparent – you should get a similar return to the relevant market, albeit they usually end up marginally underperforming due to the charges, however small they are.
In contrast, active management can lead to a wider range of possible returns – potentially good if the manager gets things right, but also bad if they don’t. For those who prioritise cost, or simply don’t believe active managers can consistently outperform in a particular investment area, passive investing represents the potentially more appealing route.
Passive funds on the Direct Investment Service Preferred List
The market for passive or tracker funds following major indices is highly competitive. A number of fund ranges including those from Fidelity, Vanguard, Legal & General and BlackRock’s iShares have driven down the cost of investing.
When selecting this type of fund for the Direct Investment Service Preferred List our curated list of investments for new investment in their respective sectors, overall cost and transparency are the key factors.
There are a huge number of passive funds available covering a wide variety of markets, and even specific sectors. For those that are interested in constructing a low-cost passive portfolio our Direct Investment Service Preferred List provides some basic options in the major investment areas:
UK
Global
US
Europe
Japan
Emerging Markets
Fidelity Index Emerging Markets
Asia
Bonds
L&G Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond Index
L&G Sterling Corporate Bond Index
Please note inclusion here does not imply a specific buy recommendation and past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future. The value of investments, and the income derived from them, may fall as well as rise and the amount realised may be less than the original sum invested. Our usual charges apply to holding tracker funds on top of the fund’s own charge.
Older passive funds
If you have longstanding tracker funds in your portfolio it is worth checking the charges. Some older passive funds have relatively high annual charges, sometimes amounting to many times the cost of the ones listed above. Investors in these funds may wish to consider alternative investments as the relatively high charges could result in poorer returns over the longer term.
Even more options: Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
ETFs offer further passive options ranging from conventional equity indices to esoteric ones such as individual countries or sectors. They are offered on virtually all asset classes and there’s over 1,700 available to UK investors. Unlike unit trust or OEIC funds that are priced once a day, ETFs are traded on the stock exchange, which means pricing is normally continuous during market hours.
For this reason they may appeal to shorter-term traders as well as investors with larger sums looking to track a given index for the long term. ETFs are designed to be low cost products, but it’s important to note that as well as the annual charge there are costs associated with dealing in shares – stockbroking commission, stamp duty and the ‘spread’ between buying and selling prices. Therefore they may be less cost effective than funds when dealing in smaller amounts. Major providers of ETFs include db X-trackers, ETF Securities, iShares and Vanguard.
The risks of ETFs vary significantly. Not only do they invest in all sorts of different areas, some of which can be exceptionally volatile, but they have a variety of different structures which makes it very important to understand what you are buying. In particular, those based on derivatives rather than physical holdings have additional risks.
There are 13 ETFs on our Direct Investment Service Preferred List our curated list of investments for new investment. Each offers simple, low cost exposure to popular investment areas and has been selected for their transparency, low charges and typically narrow spreads – i.e. the difference between buying and selling prices.
Like all stock market investments, the value of an ETF will rise and fall and neither the capital nor income is guaranteed. All ETFs are linked to the value of an asset or index, but in times of market stress the value at which you can buy or sell may be different from that of the index. In addition, each ETF is exposed to a mixture of risks related to its asset class and method of investing.
The full details of the risks of a particular ETF can be found in the relevant Key Investor Information Document (KIID) and Simplified Prospectus. These can be found in the Key Features and Documents tab on the particular ETF’s page on our website.
UK
iShares CORE FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (inc)
iShares CORE FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (acc)
Global
iShares CORE MSCI World UCITS ETF
US
Europe
Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe ex-UK UCITS ETF
Japan
Emerging Markets
iShares CORE MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF
Asia
Vanguard FTSE Developed Asia Pacific ex Japan UCITS ETF
Bonds
iShares £ Corporate Bond 0-5 UCITS ETF
iShares Core £ Corporate Bond UCITS ETF
iShares £ Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF
Lyxor FTSE Actuaries UK Gilts UCITS ETF
Specialist
Please note iShares Physical Gold is an ETC or ‘exchange traded commodity’, which aims to follow the price of a specified physical commodity, in this case gold bullion. ETCs therefore lack the diversification of ETFs as they concentrate on a single asset and can be higher risk.
Nothing on this website should be construed as personal advice based on your circumstances. No news or research item is a personal recommendation to deal.
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