Investment trust show #2. What to do if a fund manager underperforms, getting under the bonnet of Nick Train’s Finsbury Growth & Income, and why so many trusts are merging

Welcome to the second in a new series of bonus podcasts from the AJ Bell Money & Markets team all about investment trusts. Published at the start of each month, the bonus podcast features a range of topics with investment experts and fund managers, with each episode debating some of the most popular trusts with retail investors, the big topics that matter, and a little bit of educational material to get listeners up to speed. This episode focuses on underperforming fund managers and mergers. Should you pay a fund manager to try and outperform or use a low-cost tracker fund that simply follows the market and doesn’t try to beat it? It’s a key conundrum for investors, particularly as many big-name fund managers have lagged the market in recent years. Dan Coatsworth debates this topic with Stuart Gray, co-portfolio manager at Alliance Trust. Nick Train-managed Finsbury Growth & Income is among the trusts that have underperformed over the past three years so Ian Conway and Steven Frazer from Shares magazine are on the podcast to discuss what the trust is trying to do and whether there are flaws to its strategy. Shares magazine’s Tom Sieber also joins the podcast to talk about an investment trust that is shooting for the moon as it hopes to make money from investing in space. So far, Seraphim Space Investment Trust has delivered poor returns for shareholders who invested at its stock market debut in 2021. Dan chats with James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, about the growing trend for mergers in the investment trust space. We’ve also got Laith Khalaf to run through what it means if one of the trusts in your portfolio goes through a merger, takeover or decides to be shut down.

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