The reliable way to compare investment trusts is to compare like with like, then examine three separate things: what each trust owns, how its portfolio and listed shares have performed, and the complete cost of owning it. Start with trusts that have similar mandates, geographies, asset classes and Association of Investment Companies (AIC) sectors. Use each trust’s latest factsheet and annual or interim report, assemble matching figures with the AIC comparison tools, and check every important number against the issuer’s dated documents.
Do not treat a trust’s share price as its net asset value (NAV), or an ongoing-charge figure as your complete personal cost. Discounts and premiums, gearing, performance fees, transaction costs and your platform or dealing charges can materially change the result you experience.
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What a fair investment-trust comparison looks like
An investment trust is a listed company whose shares trade on an exchange. Its NAV per share represents the value of the net assets attributable to each share, while the share price is the price at which investors buy or sell those shares. The two prices can differ: shares may trade at a discount to NAV or at a premium.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThat structure creates two return streams to analyse:
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- Portfolio performance: how the underlying assets performed, represented most closely by NAV total return.
- Investor experience: what happened to the listed shares, represented by share-price total return and affected by changes in the discount or premium.
A sensible comparison therefore does not produce a single league table. It explains whether one trust gave you a different exposure, a different portfolio result, a different market-price result or a different cost burden.
Step 1: Put genuinely comparable trusts together
Before looking at returns, create a peer group. Compare trusts with similar:
- Investment mandate and objective.
- Asset class, such as listed equities, private assets, bonds, property or a mixed portfolio.
- Geography and currency exposure.
- AIC sector.
- Benchmark or stated performance target.
A global equity trust should not be judged directly against a specialist infrastructure trust simply because both are listed investment companies. Their risks, liquidity, income patterns and benchmarks are different.
Read the latest factsheet and the latest annual or interim report for every candidate. Record the stated objective, benchmark, investment approach, portfolio size, dealing currency and reporting date. AIC company pages and comparison resources can help you assemble the initial peer group and link to member-company factsheets and reports, but the issuer’s current documents should settle any disagreement.
Build a comparison record
Use one worksheet for every trust and capture the date beside each entry. At minimum, record:
- Mandate, AIC sector, asset class and geography.
- Benchmark and any formal performance objective.
- Top holdings and their portfolio weights.
- Sector and country exposures.
- Number and concentration of material positions.
- Exposure to private, unlisted or otherwise illiquid assets.
- Gearing figure and the definition used.
- Share price, NAV per share and the date for both.
- Share-price and NAV total returns over matching periods.
- Ongoing charge, performance-fee terms, transaction costs and borrowing costs.
Step 2: Compare holdings and the risks they create
Holdings tell you what you are actually buying. A trust’s name or broad objective can conceal a very concentrated portfolio, a large private-market allocation or a geographic exposure that differs from its label.
Top holdings and concentration
List the largest positions and their weights from the same reporting date. Compare both the identity of the holdings and how much of the portfolio they represent. Two trusts can own similar companies but give them very different weights, producing different outcomes when a large position rises or falls.
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Look beyond the first five or ten names. Note whether the portfolio is spread across many smaller positions or dominated by a few investments. Concentration is not automatically good or bad; it is a risk characteristic that should match your tolerance and the trust’s stated approach.
Sector and country exposure
Record sector and country percentages using each trust’s own classifications. Check whether a trust described as diversified is heavily exposed to one economy, currency, industry or regulatory regime. Compare exposures with the benchmark, not only with the other trust, because an apparently different portfolio may simply be taking a large active position against its benchmark.
Private and illiquid assets
Identify meaningful holdings that are private, unlisted or difficult to sell. Their valuations may be updated less frequently than listed prices, and selling them can take longer. This matters when you interpret NAV movements, discount changes and gearing: the listed share price can react immediately even when an underlying valuation is updated later.
Investment approach and benchmark
Read how the manager selects investments, uses cash, manages risk and treats income. Then confirm that the benchmark is relevant to the mandate. A return cannot be judged properly against an unsuitable index. Record whether the trust seeks to track, exceed or simply use the benchmark as a reference.
Step 3: Compare share-price and NAV total returns side by side
Total return includes dividends reinvested. Use the same 1-, 3-, 5- or 10-year period for both trusts, with the same end date wherever the data exist. The AIC comparison format presents these horizons as separate fields and reports performance in the company’s traded currency.
| Measure | What it answers | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Share-price total return | What an investor in the listed shares received over the period, including reinvested dividends. | Period, start and end dates, traded currency and percentage return. |
| NAV total return | How the underlying portfolio performed, including reinvested dividends, without the effect of buying at a discount or premium. | Period, start and end dates, currency and percentage return. |
| Benchmark total return | How the relevant reference market performed over the same period. | Benchmark name, period, currency and return convention. |
The AIC guide describes share-price total return this way: “Share price total return (%) – the performance of an investment company’s shares. It is the return investors actually receive.” NAV total return answers a different question: how the portfolio performed before changes in the price investors paid for the shares.
Read the gap between the two returns
If NAV total return is stronger than share-price total return, a widening discount may have reduced the result for shareholders. If share-price total return is stronger, a discount may have narrowed or a premium may have increased. That interpretation requires the discount or premium at the beginning and end of the period; do not infer the cause from one return number alone.
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Always state whether dividends were reinvested, the dates used, the currency and the benchmark. AIC’s archived comparison table demonstrates this structure with 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year share-price total return and NAV total return fields, plus sector, discount/premium and gearing. Its figures are from the end of June 2025 and are useful as a model for the fields, not as current performance evidence.
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Step 4: Analyse the discount or premium separately
Compare the share price with NAV per share on the same, clearly stated date. A discount means the shares trade below NAV; a premium means they trade above it. Use the trust’s own definition when its documents provide one.
A simple comparison calculation is:
- Discount: (NAV per share − share price) ÷ NAV per share.
- Premium: (share price − NAV per share) ÷ NAV per share.
For example, if NAV is 100p and the share price is 90p, the shares trade at a 10% discount to NAV. The calculation is only meaningful when both prices refer to the same date and valuation point.
A discount or premium is a market-price factor, not a forecast. A narrow discount can widen, and a wide discount can persist or widen further. Do not assume that a discount will close merely because it appears large. Compare the current figure with the trust’s own historical range only when the dates, calculation method and valuation basis are consistent.
Step 5: Treat gearing as a risk characteristic
Gearing means the trust has exposure funded partly by borrowing or other financing. Borrowing can magnify gains when investments rise and losses when they fall. It can also add interest and refinancing risk.
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Record the gearing figure shown by the AIC tool or factsheet, then read the latest report for the precise definition. A trust may report gross, net or another measure, so two percentages are not comparable until you know how each was calculated. Note the borrowing policy, maturity dates, interest arrangements and any limits stated by the board.
Interpret gearing alongside the portfolio. Borrowing against a liquid listed-equity portfolio creates a different risk profile from borrowing against private or hard-to-sell assets. Gearing should therefore inform your risk assessment rather than serve as a standalone ranking.
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Step 6: Compare the full cost picture
The AIC ongoing charge is a useful starting point, not a complete bill. It generally covers recurring operating costs such as the annual management charge, professional-services fees, board fees and administration. It is backward-looking, based on the last financial year, and excludes performance fees and transaction costs.
| Cost item | Where to check it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing charge | Latest factsheet and AIC data. | Shows recurring internal costs from the last financial year; it is not a forecast and excludes some other charges. |
| Performance fee | Management agreement, annual report and AIC performance-fee disclosure. | May be payable only under specified conditions and can materially change the cost in a successful year. |
| Transaction costs | Annual report and relevant cost disclosures. | Trading expenses are separate from the ongoing charge and depend on portfolio turnover and asset type. |
| Borrowing costs | Annual report, notes to the accounts and financing disclosures. | Interest and other financing expenses can rise with gearing and market conditions. |
| Platform or broker charges | Your chosen provider’s tariff. | These are paid by you outside the trust and vary by provider and account. |
| Dealing costs | Your provider’s dealing schedule. | Frequent purchases, sales or dividend reinvestment can add per-trade costs. |
| Advice and tax | Your adviser and the tax rules for your account and jurisdiction. | Personal circumstances determine whether these costs apply and how much they are. |
Reconcile factsheets, reports and cost disclosures
Check whether the AIC displays an ongoing charge plus a performance fee for the trust. Read the management agreement for the fee formula, hurdle, high-water mark, crystallisation date and any caps or rebates stated there. Then inspect transaction and borrowing costs in the report.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s cost-disclosure review illustrates why this reconciliation matters: one example showed around 3% a year in total charges in a PRIIPs Key Information Document while the factsheet displayed a 1.2% annual management charge. That is an illustration, not a representative current charge for investment trusts. It shows that a headline management percentage can omit transaction costs, performance fees and borrowing charges.
The same FCA review covered 11 firms that collectively managed 29% of funds in the UK retail market. That historical review-scope statistic is not a current market share and says nothing about the returns or charges of a particular trust.
Separate trust costs from your personal costs
Investors in the same trust bear the trust’s internal costs according to their shareholding, but external costs differ. Platform or broker tariffs, dealing frequency, advice, account type and tax treatment can make two investors’ total costs very different. Estimate those costs separately instead of adding them to the trust’s ongoing charge as though they were part of it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Step 7: Keep dates, currencies and definitions consistent
Investment-trust data move. Holdings, weights, discounts, gearing, NAV and charges can change between a factsheet date, a report date and an AIC month-end release.
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- Use the same period end when comparing trusts.
- Keep returns in the traded currency, or state clearly when you have converted them.
- Confirm whether a return is share-price total return, NAV total return or a price-only measure.
- Check whether a charge is an ongoing charge, annual management fee, total-cost figure or a performance-fee-inclusive measure.
- Do not combine a current figure for one trust with an older figure for another without flagging the mismatch.
The AIC says its month-end data release is generally available around the seventh working day of the following month. Use that timing as a guide, but verify the actual release date and then check key details against the latest issuer documents.
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A repeatable comparison workflow
- Define the exposure you need. Write down the asset class, geography, income objective, risk tolerance and time horizon before selecting peers.
- Choose a like-for-like group. Filter by mandate, AIC sector, benchmark and geography. Remove trusts whose portfolios provide a materially different exposure.
- Collect current documents. Download the latest factsheet and annual or interim report for each trust.
- Map the portfolios. Record top holdings, weights, sectors, countries, concentration and private or illiquid assets.
- Enter matched performance periods. Capture 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year share-price and NAV total returns where available, with dates, currency and dividend convention.
- Explain the return gap. Compare starting and ending discounts or premiums and check whether gearing or portfolio composition provides context.
- Audit the costs. Record ongoing charge, performance-fee terms, transaction costs, borrowing costs and your own platform and dealing tariffs.
- Check every definition. Resolve differences in gearing methodology, valuation date, benchmark, currency and charge measure before drawing a conclusion.
- Write a decision, not a ranking. State which trust better matches the required exposure and risk, and which uncertainties still need monitoring.
Common comparison mistakes and how to avoid them
Comparing unlike mandates
A specialist trust can outperform a broad-market trust simply because it owns a different risk. Correct this by grouping peers before looking at returns.
Using price return instead of total return
Ignoring dividends understates the result for income-paying trusts. Use total-return figures with reinvested dividends and identify the convention.
Calling NAV return the investor’s return
NAV return omits changes in the discount or premium. Present it beside share-price total return rather than substituting one for the other.
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Assuming a discount is a bargain
A discount can persist or widen. Treat it as a variable that affects outcomes, not as evidence that the shares are mispriced or destined to recover.
Comparing gearing percentages without definitions
Gross and net measures can describe different exposures. Read each trust’s report before comparing the numbers.
Stopping at the ongoing charge
Performance fees, trading, borrowing and external investor costs may be outside that figure. Reconcile the full cost stack across the relevant documents.
Mixing dates and currencies
A current price against an old NAV or a sterling return against a dollar return can produce a misleading comparison. Put date and currency beside every figure.
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After completing the worksheet, answer four separate questions:
- Does the trust provide the portfolio exposure you want?
- Has its NAV performance been competitive against the relevant benchmark over matching periods?
- Did the listed share price deliver a result consistent with, better than or worse than NAV performance, and what happened to the discount or premium?
- Are the internal and external costs acceptable for your expected holding period and trading pattern?
A trust with the highest recent share-price return may owe much of that result to a discount narrowing, while another with stronger NAV performance may have suffered a widening discount. Likewise, a lower ongoing charge may not mean a lower total cost if performance fees, transaction costs or borrowing expenses are substantial. The useful conclusion is the one that explains these drivers and identifies the figures that must be updated before you invest.
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