Phillippa Gee Wealth Management managing director Phillippa Gee also buys investment trusts through Nucleus. But Ms Gee suggests platforms need to have much lower minimums for investment trust dealing.
“An investor paying a regular lump sum, say monthly, will have to wait before they can invest,” she says.
“As the purchase of an investment trust usually goes through a stockbroker, there is normally a minimum level of investment, say £500. If investment trusts want better sales, they need to start communicating with financial advisers.”
Whitechurch Securities managing director, Gavin Haynes, agrees trust groups need to do more. He says the “quality of information and access to fund managers provided by investment trust groups remains inferior to that of open-ended funds”.
The firm primarily buys investment trusts directly through its own nominee platform, as this gives access to the full range of investment companies. Mr Haynes says platforms should offer a wider range of trusts, as “it is still not easy to access more niche offerings”.
Meanwhile Adrian Shandley, managing director at Premier Wealth Management, agrees that platforms offering investment trusts at launch would be useful, but says asset managers have further to go in this respect.
“Investment trust groups are not very good at communicating their launches. Unit trusts have a big marketing spend and use this well. This is one of the reasons why investors don’t understand trusts as much – because they’re not pushed to them,” he explains.
Joanne Ellul is a freelance journalist
