Investment trusts: the Saints go marching on

Baillie Gifford’s Scottish American Investment Trust prides itself on buying companies that target both income and growth.

901_MW_P20_Funds

Footwear maker Anta Sports is an unexpected but successful holding

"Invest for long-term income, not short-term yield," advises Toby Ross, manager of Baillie Gifford's Scottish American Investment Trust, or SAINTS (LSE: SCAM). An investment of £10,000 in a typical UK equity income fund in 2004 that yielded over 5% would have returned 53% by the end of 2016, with dividends reinvested. A fund yielding 4%-5% would have returned over 70%; one yielding under 4% over 100%.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.