Seventy years on the throne is an impressive feat and worthy of celebration – but although Queen Elizabeth II will be the first British monarch to reach such a milestone, 36 investment trusts have been in operation since before she was crowned.
The oldest five are old enough to have surpassed two platinum jubilees, with the first ever trust –F&C, formerly Foreign & Colonial – launching in 1868 whilst Queen Victoria was on the throne.
Originally set up as a vehicle to invest in overseas government bonds and the first collective investment scheme in the world, F&C remains a strong performer in the IT Global sector over 150 years later, returning 427.4% over the past two decades.
Other well-known trusts with a long history include Scottish Mortgage (launched 1909), City of London (1888) and Bankers (1888), although like F&C their names and mandates have changed over the years.
Source: AJ Bell
Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, pointed out that although trusts are the oldest form of investment structure, open-ended funds have exceeded them in popularity over the years.
M&G created the first fund over 60 years after the first trust and opened-ended funds today account for around £1.5trn in assets under management (AUM), while trusts are at around £270bn.
After 150 years in operation, the F&C Investment Trust runs £5.6bn while its open-ended competitor, Fundsmith Equity, is worth £25.5bn just over a decade since it was launched.
Khalaf said: “Despite its longevity, the investment trust industry’s primacy has been usurped by a relatively young pretender in the form of unit trusts. Of course, the closed-ended nature of investment trusts limits their size compared to their open-ended cousins.”