Learn How To Invest

 

General considerations when selecting investment funds

Generally, investment funds should be viewed as medium-long term investments (suitable to be held for more than 5 years). When choosing any investment fund, it is wise to consider a number of factors, including:

  • Your attitude to risk (see savings and investments explained)
  • the asset allocation of the fund and whether it complements your portfolio as a whole
  • The charging structure of the fund
  • Whether it can be held within an ISA
  • The historical perfomance, although past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance

Where you are also seeking to choose funds which have been screened on ethical, socially responsible or ecological criteria, it may also be appropriate to consider the fund manager's ethical screening process to see whether this aligns with your values.

 

Tools for selecting funds

There are a number of websites which are freely available and can help you to screen the performance of funds including:

For those wishing to select funds based upon their fund managers' ethical selection criteria, the fund managers themselves usually publish details of these. Alternatively, if you would like to know more you may wish to subscribe to: