Passive Fund ISAs

Passive Fund ISA

If you're putting your money into an investment ISA, there are two main investment strategies to choose from - active management and passive management. Passive fund ISAs provide access to a wide range of assets and international markets. Passive funds generally invest in one particular index, such as the FTSE 100. Management and trading costs are generally low on these funds because there is no find manager and the fund will mirror the performance of the index it is linked to.

How does a passive fund ISA work?

Unlike an actively managed investment fund, which is run by a professional fund manager who makes all the investment decisions on your behalf, passive fund ISAs will simply track a market, and therefore usually charge less in management fees. For example, they will buy all (or most) of the assets in a particular index (e.g. the FTSE 100), with the aim of generating a return that reflects how the market is performing.

While an actively managed fund can offer you the potential for much higher returns than a passive fund, it also means that you incur the expense of paying a fund manager to take care of your investment. What's more, a fund manager won't necessarily beat the stock market - several studies have suggested that only around a quarter of managed funds consistently do so.*

Investing in passive fund ISAs means you can gain exposure to a variety of investments without paying any capital gains or income tax on the potential returns. Because you don't need to pay fees to a fund manager, a passive fund ISA can also be a good value way to invest your ISA allowance.

*Source: Financial Times