The investment trusts that would have made you a millionaire three times over

Allianz Technology Trust and Polar Capital Technology would have made dedicated ISA investors more than £3m since the invention of the tax wrapper, new data from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has found.

Investing the full ISA allowance annually at the start of each year from its invention in 1999 to 2025 would have created a total pot of £346,560, but savvy investors could have turned this into a £3m windfall by 31 January 2026 had they picked the right trusts.

Allianz Technology and Polar Capital Technology returned £3,652,929 and £3,611,274 respectively, more than 11 times the initial amount invested.

Both sit in the IT Technology & Technology Innovation sector and have strong track records. The former has been managed by Michael Seidenberg since 2022, who took over from veteran stockpicker Walter Price following his retirement, although he has worked on the portfolio since 2009.

While relatively to the reins, Seidenberg said the trust only makes “incremental changes on an annual basis”, with the process remaining the same since he started working on the portfolio.

It has been the best performer in the sector over 10 years, up 868.8%, beating the Polar Capital trust by 16 percentage points.

“Technology remains a robust sector for investing as companies continue to create competitive advantages. This applies to both consumer and business-to-business. Our location near Silicon Valley affords us the opportunity to see these emerging technologies and try to grasp their impact on the existing landscape,” he said.

Polar Capital Technology has leapfrogged its rival over one, three and five years, however, sitting in the top spot of the sector over these shorter and more medium-term time frames.

Managed by Ben Rogoff and Fatima lu since 2006, co-managers have been added throughout the years, with Nick Evans joining in 2008 followed by Xuesong Zhao in 2012. Former Neptune manager Alastair Unwin is a deputy fund manager on the trust.

The £5.7bn trust looks for the most important technology themes and companies best positioned to benefit from long-term structural change, avoiding early-stage speculation and focusing on more established businesses.

Rogoff said: “It is increasingly evident that artificial intelligence has now moved beyond promise into deployment and monetisation, representing both a true general purpose technology and a rare example of discontinuous change where decades of progress are packed into years.  

“As a result, we have positioned the portfolio to reflect an AI-first world, with exposure to the most visible beneficiaries but also to the critical infrastructure and enablers that underpin this transformation.”

However, it was not just technology that would have made investors significant returns. In total, some 68 investment trusts would have returned more than £1m for ISA savers who invested their entire allowance every year since 1999.

Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director of the AIC, said: “Over the long term, investment trusts have delivered strong performance for investors. Their closed-ended structure means they can take a long-term view, because they don’t have to sell assets when investors sell their shares.

“This makes them particularly suitable for hard-to-sell assets like smaller companies and unquoted companies – both of which feature strongly among the ISA millionaire trusts.”

Just shy of the £3m mark was Scottish Mortgage, which would have made investors £2.7bn. Managed by FE fundinfo Alpha Manager Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns, the £13.3bn trust invests in growth stocks around the world, skewing towards technology but with significant allocations to other areas such as healthcare.

It is also allowed to invest in private companies, with 35.5% of the portfolio currently invested in companies that are not available on traditional stock markets.

HgCapital Trust was fourth, while Aberdeen Asia Focus and Pacific Horizon, both focusing on Asian equities, came next.

The £2bn club showed breadth, with the final two trusts to make it in both from the IT Commodities & Natural Resources sector: CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income and BlackRock World Mining Trust.

Commodities have rocketed in recent years as investors have looked to own metals such as copper that will be key to the infrastructure required for the latest AI boom.

On the opposite side, metals such as gold and silver have also flourished as investors have turned towards safe havens due to geopolitical instability and fears of overvalued markets.

Below is the full table of trusts that would have made investors an ISA millionaire.