An 'ethical' investment that could be worth a punt

With an extra layer of fees to pay, funds of funds can be expensive. But this new investment trust is remarkably cheap, says Merryn Somerset Webb. And being dedicated to fighting cancer, it lets you do good while making money.

My dedication to this job knows few bounds. But at the moment I am taking things far above the call of duty. In order to be what is now known as 'RDR-ready' and to somehow share the pain of financial advisers and wealth managers the country over, I am taking a course (the retail distribution review sets a new higher educational standard for advisers from 2013).

It's been a depressing experience so far. That's not because it isn't well taught, but because the content is less a constructive educational experience than a run through the financial products and systems charting the dismal record of greed, fear, corruption, incompetence and ignorance that is much of our financial industry.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.