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Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
The AJ Bell Investment Trust Select list is designed to lighten your research load. There are hundreds of trusts out there – so we’ve narrowed the field by selecting a high-quality shortlist of trusts we believe can deliver their objectives over the long term. To make the list, each trust needs to pass our robust, independent selection process.
What have we changed?
We keep our IT Select list under constant review to ensure we have the highest conviction in the trusts on the list and also to see if new funds have better potential to achieve their objectives.
As a result of this work, we have recently added the Securities Trust of Scotland to bring greater choice to investors.
Tell us a bit more about the Securities Trust of Scotland investment trust?
The Securities Trust of Scotland is a global equity income trust which aims to achieve rising income and long-term capital growth through investment in a balanced portfolio constructed of global equities. The trust is fully flexible, being managed without reference to the benchmark, as the manager believes this is a poor starting point for portfolio construction and long term wealth creation.
The trust is managed by Troy Asset Management who were appointed to manage the trust in November 2020. Fund manager James Harries joined Troy in 2016 to launch the global equity income strategy and is hugely experienced having previously worked at Newton for many years.
The manager, and indeed Troy as a house, focus on high quality companies that could deliver sustainable compounding returns via free cash flow over time, which should lead to superior risk adjusted returns. This is possible because the companies are believed to have identifiable and persisting competitive advantages in areas such as brand, scale and distribution amongst others. The resulting portfolio is focused towards large companies and comprises of 30-50 stock positions.
With a focus on generating income, a commitment from company management to pay dividends is important with the ability of companies to pay and grow their dividends over time a key element.
These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.
Written by:
Ryan Hughes
Managing Director - AJ Bell Investments
Ryan Hughes is Managing Director of AJ Bell Investments. He has over 25 years’ experience across a variety of roles covering investment research and fund management, working in a range of companies spanning financial advice through to global asset management. Ryan joined AJ Bell in 2016 and in 2024, he was made Managing Director of AJ Bell Investments. Ryan is a member of the CFA UK Society and has been recognised as one of the leading fund researchers in the UK.
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