Actively managed unit trusts
Actively managed unit trusts - The basics
- An actively managed unit trust means that your money is invested in a portfolio of assets selected by a professional fund manager (an actively managed fund).
- Each fund manager monitors companies, economic conditions and markets, and decides where best to invest to meet the fund's objectives.
- Each year, our fund managers meet with several hundred companies in the UK alone, to personally evaluate their management strength and growth prospects in order to make investment decisions.
- Each of our actively managed unit trusts has its own individual aims. However, all Legal & General funds share the same basic aim: to get you the best possible returns without undue risk.
- There is a range of thirteen actively managed unit trusts to invest in online.
- Once you have invested with us you can manage your investments online, anytime.
- Unit trusts are designed as medium to long term investments of, ideally, at least five years.
- Both capital and income values may fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. You may not get back the money you invested.
- If you choose an actively managed unit trust which invests overseas, changes in exchange rates between currencies will cause the value of your investment and the level of income to rise or fall.
- Refer to risk factors for the other risks associated with this product.
Your options
You may want to consider investing directly into a unit trust if you have already used up your ISA allowance for this tax year. Although unit trusts do not offer the same tax advantages as ISAs, there are no investment limits although you can only invest up to £50,000 online.
Legal & General offers a wide range of actively managed unit trusts to choose from:
- You could choose to diversify your portfolio by investing in commercial property through our UK Property Trust.
- You could select a fund related to a geographic region such as Europe, North America or Japan, keep your investment in the UK or choose a fund with a more global spread.
- You can choose to invest in more than one fund. When making a unit trust application, you can divide your contributions between any number of funds, provided you meet the minimum investment level required. There is no maximum level of investment.
- You can invest a minimum lump sum of £500 or a regular minimum contribution of £50 per month.
- The actively managed unit trusts table clearly lists the management charges for these unit trusts.
- See how each of our actively managed unit trusts has performed for the last five years using the fund performance table.
The charges
- There are no exit fees for Legal & General actively managed unit trusts, for investments made after 29 December 2004.
- If you apply for an actively managed unit trust direct from Legal & General, we discount our initial charge from 5% to 3%. The UK Property Trust is discounted to zero.
These trusts offer more than one class of units. The details below relate to the unit class 'R', which is the class available online:
| Unit Trust | Online Initial Charge | Annual Mgmt. Charge | Extra Exps* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equity (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.00% | 0.04% |
| Growth (PDF 44KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.03% |
| UK Active Opportunities (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.04% |
| UK Smaller Companies (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.03% |
| European (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.05% |
| North American (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.04% |
| Japanese (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.05% |
| Asian Income Trust*** (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.17% |
| Pacific Growth (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.07% |
| Global Growth (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.06% |
| Worldwide (PDF 45KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.09% |
| UK Property (PDF 44KB) | Nil | 1.25% | 0.33%** |
| UK Alpha (PDF 44KB) | 3.00% | 1.50% | 0.10% |
* these expenses include auditors, trustees, custodian and regulator fees.
** these also include property extra expenses.
***
The Asian Income Trust (formerly known as the Far Eastern Trust) was re-launched with a new investment objective on the 10th November 2008.
Risk factors
- Unit trusts are designed as medium to long term investments of, ideally, at least five years.
- Both capital and income values may fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. You may not get back the money you invested.
- If you choose a trust which invests overseas, changes in exchange rates between currencies may cause the value of your investment and the level of income to rise or fall.
- Each actively managed trust has its own aims and risk factors. These are detailed in the relevant Key Information document (including Simplified Prospectus), which can be downloaded from the right-hand side menu. Before you decide to invest, you must read this document.
- The UK Alpha Trust has a large spread between the offer price and the bid price as it has significant holdings in the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). This market is part of the London Stock Exchange that allows smaller, newer companies to issue shares and has a more flexible regulatory system. Holdings in this market tend to have larger differences between their buying and selling prices.
