Investing in funds and investment trusts is the route often recommended to small investors by the experts.

Picking individual shares means you need to do plenty of research and spread your risk carefully, whereas buying a fund allows investors to pool their money with others to access a range of investments and avoid putting all their eggs in one basket.

There are a variety of ways to do this, from the most popular 'fund' options, to investment trusts and exchange traded funds.

Some tap into professional's expertise while others simply track a certain index, some follow popular markets while others allow access to obscure and adventurous corners of the world.

We explain what funds are, how to invest, and how to save money by using a DIY investing platform.

What are funds?

When investors talk about funds they are typically referring to either unit trusts, or open-ended investment companies, Oeics.

This jargon may make them sound complicated but they are essentially just funds where investors' money is pooled to invest in shares, bonds or other funds.

The idea is that as the fund invests in lots of different companies' shares or bonds, the risk of you losing all your money is less than it would be if you were in a single company's shares.

Similarly, most funds will have a fund manager. This will be someone, typically with substantial investing expertise and experience, who will aim to beat the market and provide the best return for investors (although, often they do not manage to do so.)

When times are good a fund manager aims to do make higher gains than their peers, when times are bad a good manager will come into their own by continuing to make money, or just not losing as much as their peers.

Investors have to make a minimum investment, usually £500 to £1,000 to access a fund, and their investment will either go up or down in value depending on how the assets it has bought have performed.

Funds typically have two versions: and accumulation class (acc) which rolls all dividend income back into the fund to boost growth, or an income class (inc) which pays out dividends to those who wish to have them as income.

Investment funds, the typical term for Oeics and unit trusts, carry two sets of charges - an initial charge, which can take a chunk of your money when you put it in, and annual management charges, which go towards the cost of paying the fund manager and running the fund.

Initial charges can be up to 5 per cent but are easily avoidable through a good broker or platform. You do not want to be paying these.

Annual management charges vary, but were traditionally about 1.5 per cent with half of that going to financial advisers and platforms that sold the fund.

Financial regulations stopped these payments for new investments and new clean funds have been brought in, which typically charge 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent and pay no commission back to advisers or platforms

The arrival of clean funds has delivered a somewhat baffling array of types of the same funds. Each tends to have a letter than follows and there is little consistency as to what they mean. If you are looking for the new clean fund then you want what is called the unbundled version, the higher annual management fee types are called inclusive.

Annual management charges are taken from your investment every year and act as a drag on its performance.

Investment trusts, explained in more detail below, have typically had lower charges and did not pay any commission to advisers or platforms.

The annual management charge is not the true cost of investing, however, a closer estimate is the total expense ratio or its replacement measure ongoing charges.

The best way to invest is through an Isa wrapper which shields your investments and their growth from the taxman.

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Primary Investment Products

To assure our clients that MWI Consultants Inc deliver to them the best service possible, MWI Consultants Inc offer a complete selection of advantageous financial products. Our Account Managers stand always ready to recommend which products are of most benefit to you and your portfolio.

International Equities

Investing so heavily in just one country could mean your portfolio could be adversely affected in case that particular market falls. Byinvesting globally, you can distribute your risks and exploit such regions and industry sectors that have strong markets.

Gilts & Bonds

Gilts and bonds provide an advantageous way to acquire a more predictable and consistent return on your investment.  Aside from being easy to buy and to sell, many of them also come with capital-gains tax exemption.

Funds

Funds are a bundled type of investment that allows you to invest indirectly in corporate shares or other investments, such as bonds or shares. Oftentimes, they can also be contained within a tax-efficient ISA cover.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are a security that monitors a commodity, an index, or a collection of assets, but trades like stocks on an exchange. Likewise, they are more-or-less secure, cost-effective way of investing in the gold-bullion sector.

Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs)

ETCs are handily traded investments offering easy access to hard-to-access commodity markets. They fit into a vast selection of risk profiles as well.

Structured Products

Structured products include synthetic investment instruments, created to satisfy particular needs not provided by standardized financial instruments. They provide opportunities to invest in otherwise hard-to-access assets or take a risk-conformed exposure to traditional assets.

Foreign Exchange

There are many different classes of foreign exchange investments options ranging from pot exchanges to forward exchange contracts, including option dated forward exchange agreements.

Covered Warrants

Issued by financial agencies, covered warrants include flexible tools offering leveraged exposure to a broad selection of underlyings, such as baskets, equities, indices, currencies and commodities.

Contracts for Difference (CFDs)

CFDs is a leveraged ‘derivative’ product which offers the potential to trade on live-market price movements without physically holding the underlying instrument.

Financial Spread Trading (FST)

Financial Spread Trading lets you speculate on the rise-and-fall of international financial markets and delivers a tax-efficient option to other trading alternatives, such as share dealing.

Turbos

Turbos monitor an underlying asset, often a European currency or index and gives investors a way to acquire full exposure to an asset’s price. They also include a "knock-out barrier" and, therefore, offer limited downside risk.

New Issues

New issues opens options to access investments before they are traded on the market and come in two major forms: New Retail Bonds or Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

Cash

Aside from bank and building society accounts, cash investment also involves bank deposit certificates and cash funds offered by fund managers.

The Foundation of Efficient Investing

Research serves as the foundation of what MWI Consultants Inc does. For us to be able to provide the best and most suited strategy for your portfolio, MWI Consultants Inc aim to work only with the most qualified and capable professionals.

To determine the best options in the market, our research-and-analysis teams work hand-in-hand with our account managers to assess your investments and offer valuable insights into the securities you have chosen.

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Individual Stock Analysis

MWI Consultants Inc provides individual stock evaluation for Developed Market as well as for Emerging Market equities. Our team can develop an equity-model portfolio customized to fit your needs and help you come up with educated investment decisions.

Furthermore, all securities analyzed are converted into holdings within our Discretionary Portfolios. Our equity research is also strictly managed by the Structured Products team by consistently covering stocks designed using derivative structures.

Specialized Research Teams

MWI Consultants Inc advisory teams consist of expert financial professionals with broad institutional research experience. MWI Consultants Inc pays close attention to your requirements and provides simple, direct recommendations on the best-suited strategy for your individual situation.

To assure that we obtain the most relevant and well-informed macroeconomic perspective, we collaborate with specialized analysis teams in various sectors. This serves as the foundation of all of our recommendations, whether we deal with bond, equities, funds or alternative investments.

MWI Consultants Inc likewise take full benefit of the knowhow and experience of third-party industry leaders in order to provide you regularly with the broadest possible access to expert advice, while at the same time acquiring the excellent insights.

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MWI Consultants Inc also aims to identify the primary options, trends and developments that affect you. Our team will collate and analyze information pertinent to any possible traded asset type in order to make sure that you obtain only the freshest and relevant advice.