Three timber funds for consistent growth

Timber is one of the few asset classes to produce consistent long-term returns. It's also very tax-friendly, and is a fantastic inflation hedge, says Merryn Somerset Webb. Here she tips three funds for those of us who can't quite stretch to a forest of our own.

What do you do if you are rich and in need of a pension fund? It isn't an easy question to answer these days.

There isn't much point in piling it into an official pension pot. You already lose much of your tax relief as your income hits £130,000 and it is common knowledge that the Lib Dems have it in for higher rate tax relief: after the emergency budget, 40% and 50% tax payers may find that their self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) rather lose their allure.

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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.