Unit trust objectives and investor choice

The widespread use by unit trusts of terms such as income, gorwth or balanced portfolio to describe their investment aims suggests that such descriptions accurately characterize the type ans particularly the rist-return characteristics of unit trust portfolios. This study examines the usefulness of such objectives and finds little evidence that they are helpful to investors. It is generally difficult if not impossible to distinguish on the basis of different objectives between the returns or the risk of unit trusts that invest predominantly in UK equities although objectives do distinguish between trusts that invest heavily in overseas or fixed interest securities. Attempts to identify a meaningful grouping or trusts on the basis of their return before and after adjustment for risk were unsuccessful.