Trustnet Magazine Issue 10 September 2015 | Page 26

SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST IN THE BACK SCOTTISH MORTGAGE WAS ORIGINALLY LAUNCHED TO PROVIDE LOANS TO RUBBER GROWERS IN MALAYSIA IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY. While others stick to the indices, we are free to choose. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has its own way of doing things. So it’s hardly surprising that the Trust’s portfolio looks nothing like the index. After all, we are active rather than passive investors and we firmly believe that the index is an illustration of ‘past glories’ rather than future prospects. In fact, our abiding principle has always been to invest in tomorrow’s companies today. We give ourselves time to add value by being patient investors in an impatient world. But don’t just take our word for it. Over the last five years Scottish Mortgage has delivered a total return of 154.6%* compared to 71.4%* for the index. And Scottish Mortgage is low-cost with an ongoing charges figure of just 0.48%†. Standardised past performance to 30 June each year*: 20102011 20112012 20122013 20132014 20142015 Scottish Mortgage 39.0% -11.0% 26.9% 28.9% 25.8% FTSE All-World Index 21.7% -4.1% 21.4% 9.6% 10.2% Past performance is not a guide to future returns. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is managed by Baillie Gifford and is available through our Share Plan and ISA. It is also available through a range of investment platforms. Please remember that changing stock market conditions and currency exchange rates will affect the value of your investment in the fund and any income from it. You may not get back the amount invested. For a free-thinking investment approach call 0800 917 2112 or visit www.scottishmortgageit.com Baillie Gifford – long-term investment partners *Source: Morningstar, share price, total return as at 30.06.15. †Ongoing charges as at 31.03.15. Your call may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes. Baillie Gifford Savings Management Limited (BGSM) is the manager of the Baillie Gifford Investment Trust Share Plan and the Investment Trust ISA. BGSM is an affiliate of Baillie Gifford & Co Limited, which is the manager and secretary of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC. Your personal data is held and used by BGSM in accordance with data protection legislation. We may use your information to send you information about Baillie Gifford products, funds or special offers and to contact you for business research purposes. We will only disclose your information to other companies within the Baillie Gifford group and to agents appointed by us for these purposes. You can withdraw your consent to receiving further marketing communications from us and to being contacted for business research purposes at any time. You also have the right to review and amend your data at any time. OPENING THE TRANSFER WINDOW Head of Trustnet Direct John Blowers looks at why it takes so long to transfer investments between platforms – and why the process is finally beginning to speed up A nyone who has tried to move assets from one provider to another over the last few months can’t have helped noticing the glacial pace of this process and its associated frustrations. Candidly, at Trustnet Direct, it has been the largest challenge in meeting the high standards we have set ourselves and the biggest source of client dissatisfaction. So why does it take so long to move – or re-register – your investments from one platform provider or broker/fund manager to another and what can be done to improve matters? Firstly, it is an industry-wide issue and the regulator is keen to see what trustnetdirect.com can be done to improve service levels around the speed and efficacy of the transfers-in process. BETTER TERMS So, what actually is transferring-in and why do people do it? Historically, investors have bought and managed fund investments in ISAs (PEPs) and pensions from many different places such as direct from the fund manager, an IFA, a bank or wealth manager. More recently, with the advent of platforms, investors have seen that they can get better terms not only on any new investments, but on their existing ones if they swap them in from elsewhere. A good example is if you had bought a fund directly from the fund manager, you may still be paying an annual management charge of around 1.5 per cent. However, if you were to move that fund to a platform, you would almost certainly pay around half of that, plus the platform fee of that provider (in the case of Trustnet Direct, that is 0.25 per cent capped at £200 a year). WORTH THE EFFORT On a £50,000 investment, that would be a saving of approximately £250 a year, which is well worth the effort of re-registering the fund. Once you open an account with 25