Should we rename esoteric investment trusts?

ITs

The mandate of an open-ended fund is clear from its name, but the same cannot be said of the investment trust space. In a world of tough competition, this could be deterring potential investors, writes Stephen Peters, investment trust analyst at Charles Stanley.

What’s in a name? When thinking about investment trusts, quite a lot. The history of the sector is rooted the 1800s. On the day the Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust was launched in 1868, James Faherty was publicly hanged outside Newgate Gaol in the City of London. The world had not yet witnessed the birth of the telephone, motor car or light bulb. The first mutual fund was still over 50 years away from being invented in the US. It is an appealing quirk that the likes of British Empire or Bankers were so named, and even more that they remain known by these names today. At the time, t...