Oh and BTL agent fees are usually from 10% of the rental income, for this they will collect the rent and perform a 6 monthly inspection. Tenant finders fees and contract renewal are usually 1 off fees, my agent charges half a monthās rent as a finderās fee and a flat fee for and around Ā£150 for contract renewal.
Hi Angus, thank you so much for your information. Itās a great help. Maybe BTL is not a suitable option for me at the moment as you mentioned that so many things needed to be consider and I wonāt have the time to deal with it, but itās really good to know . Thank you.
How have your thoughts progressed on this. Are you still going ahead. Would be interesting to track. In particular if you take advantage of any discount/premiums.
For example clean energy is the in thing right now, and the majority of the renewable infrastructure investment trusts trade at a premium. That might not always be the case, or the NAVs may be out of date.
https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/find-compare-investment-companies?sec=REI&sortid=Name&desc=false
Take the Thomas Lloyd Energy Impact. I didnāt have funds to take part in its IPO on a more expensive broker, yet itās now trading at a 17% premium even though it didnāt fill its initial IPO.
Itās not even generating revenue yet IIRC.
hi Dougal, I was meant to look at this at the weekend but my children had other plans for me.
Iām interested to look at the morningstar x-ray feature topher mentioned - Iām hoping that will highlight crossover between different ITs, and I understand the NAV is important when looking at these things. I was also going to consider market capitalisation of ITs as well (I was quite used to skipping ETFs under a certain size in my passive pie.)
Iām wondering about diversification for my IT pie - something I coped with quite well with my passive/ETF pie; be it geographic, sector or market (dev/em) based however Iām not sure you can quite look at it like this with ITs as ITs are more discretionary in that they are actively managed by someone. Nevertheless, the aic seem to categorise IT so I presume to factor that in too to my decision making. Someone (you?) mentioned limiting exposure to private equity to 5% of the portfolio - Iām wondering how to decide on allocating the other 95% ā¦
Iām not interested in trending themes, itās all about success for me - Iāll buy coal mines if I think they are going to do well 
For sure some of the ITs I have browsed have high premiums; that some arenāt generating revenue as well is interesting however Iām not going to jumping on fear of missing out - good luck to all those that are in already!
Iāll come back here once Iāve had a look into things, Iād appreciate any feedback, thanks for following up 
Oh I see that MorningStarās x-ray tool is just for mutual funds.
Thatās odd, perhaps theyāve made changes, it definitely used to work for trusts and ETFs as well.
Hereās my first stab at an IT PIE, Iāve put some workings here
Not sure how this will copy/paste, letās see:
| AIC Interesting Sectors | Investment Trusts | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global | Global | 40% | 47% | 20% | FCIT | F&C IT | |
| 20% | MNKS | Monks IT | |||||
| Global Smaller Companies | 5% | 5% | SSON | Smithson IT | |||
| Global Emerging Markets | 2% | 2% | JMG | JPMorgan Emerging Markets | |||
| North America |
North America | 10% | 14% | 10% | JAM | JPMorgan American | |
| North America Smaller Companies | 4% | 2% | JUSC | JPMorgan US Smaller Companies | |||
| 2% | BASC | Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies | |||||
| Europe | Europe | 9% | 12% | 9% | JETG | JPMorgan European Growth | |
| European Smaller Companies | 3% | 3% | ESCT | European Smaller Companies | |||
| UK | UK all companies | 8% | 11% | 8% | MRC | Mercantile | |
| UK Smaller Companies | 3% | 3% | ASL | Aberforth Smaller Companies | |||
| Japan | Japan | 5% | 7% | 5% | BGFD | Baillie Gifford Japan | |
| Japanese Smaller Companies | 2% | 2% | BGS | Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon | |||
| Asia | Asia Pacific | 2% | 3% | 2% | SDP | Schroder AsiaPacific | |
| Asia Pacific Smaller Companies | 1% | 1% | SST | Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies | |||
| Gamble | Private Equity | 3% | 6% | 3% | HVPE | HarbourVest Global Private Equity | |
| VCT Generalist | 3% | 3% | OAP3 | Octopus Apollo VCT | |||
| 100% | 100% | 100% |
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Your list of potential trusts looks pretty solid! Each of these trusts has its own unique investment strategy and track record, so itās important to do your research and figure out which ones align with your personal goals and risk tolerance.
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Thanks, although Scottish Mortgage are looking like theyāre in trouble now having leveraged too much with too much exposure to assets performing poorly in higher interest rate market conditions.
I take a similar approach and own a fair few of the same trusts.
How do you manage the underlying exposure to different countries, themes, styles etc?
You end up with a fair bit of crossover when you mix global and country/region-specific trusts.
For example, you have SSON for global small caps as well as JUSC, BASC, ASL, BGS, ESCT and SST. I think thereās also small caps in JAM and a few others.
I am wary about Japanās economy if not for their weak currency, aging population as well as lack of escaping their debt obligations.
I bought the Small Cap ETF instead knowing if it does fall the smaller companies will change nad hopefully score some winners.
Here is a good list of ETFs that may help:
Yeah good points topher - I did do such research on my ETFās PIE but not on my ITās PIE.
I will perform this on next review
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The economics you mention do not necessarily directly impact on Japanās companies although you would imagine that government intervention to assist the economy would do so (raising corporation tax etc.) I like to keep a toe in for taking the winners and fingers crossed we avoid the losers 
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