Question
I'm looking for a new fund to add to my ISA portfolio, as a result of one of my current funds intending to close. I would like to diversify into a healthcare fund and rather fancy JPMorgan Funds – Global Healthcare A (dist) - GBP. However, other than the analysis on Morningstar, I can't seem to find out much independant information about the fund, or whether it is available to me on the Cofunds platform.
The information includes the following, which I'm not sure I understand the implications of: "On 01/10/02 the benchmark for this Fund was changed from a gross dividends reinvested basis to net dividends reinvested as this better reflects the tax status of the Fund."
Can you also tell me what the "(dist)" suffix means?Answer
JPM Global Healthcare is a Luxembourg domiciled fund (i.e. 'offshore') that invests in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.
There's no real downside to investing in offshore funds provided they have 'distributor' or 'reporting' status, as this means they'll be taxed in the same way as onshore funds (otherwise gains will be taxed as income, which is seldom desirable). This is what the 'dist' suffix is referring to, it's highlighting that the fund pays out its income (which usually means it'll have distributor/reporting status).
The fund isn't available via Cofunds (yet, at least), nor any of the other main platforms that I can find. You can however buy it via JPM's own Wealth Manager 'mini platform' with no initial charge and annual charges (total expense ratio) of 1.9%, the latter being a bit steep.
The information regarding the benchmark (against which JPM compares performance on the fund factsheet etc) means that it now assumes dividends are paid with some tax deducted rather than gross. This is just reflecting what happens in practice for distributor funds, so not something to be concerned about.
Looking through the fund factsheet, everything on the surface is as you'd expect from this type of fund. There's a heavy bias towards the US and larger companies, the 10 largest holdings are mostly household names and there's a reasonably diverse range of companies held. The management team also has a good performance track record since launch just over three years ago.
I'm afraid I've never done any research on this fund, but on the surface I can't see any obvious reason not to invest if you're happy it meets your needs and fits well into your portfolio. Just bear in mind healthcare type funds can suffer high volatility at times, especially when biased towards biotechnology companies. Similar funds you might also consider include Polar Capital Healthcare Opportunities and AXA Framlington Health (the latter is available on Cofunds).
I'm looking for a new fund to add to my ISA portfolio, as a result of one of my current funds intending to close. I would like to diversify into a healthcare fund and rather fancy JPMorgan Funds – Global Healthcare A (dist) - GBP. However, other than the analysis on Morningstar, I can't seem to find out much independant information about the fund, or whether it is available to me on the Cofunds platform.
The information includes the following, which I'm not sure I understand the implications of: "On 01/10/02 the benchmark for this Fund was changed from a gross dividends reinvested basis to net dividends reinvested as this better reflects the tax status of the Fund."
Can you also tell me what the "(dist)" suffix means?Answer
JPM Global Healthcare is a Luxembourg domiciled fund (i.e. 'offshore') that invests in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.
There's no real downside to investing in offshore funds provided they have 'distributor' or 'reporting' status, as this means they'll be taxed in the same way as onshore funds (otherwise gains will be taxed as income, which is seldom desirable). This is what the 'dist' suffix is referring to, it's highlighting that the fund pays out its income (which usually means it'll have distributor/reporting status).
The fund isn't available via Cofunds (yet, at least), nor any of the other main platforms that I can find. You can however buy it via JPM's own Wealth Manager 'mini platform' with no initial charge and annual charges (total expense ratio) of 1.9%, the latter being a bit steep.
The information regarding the benchmark (against which JPM compares performance on the fund factsheet etc) means that it now assumes dividends are paid with some tax deducted rather than gross. This is just reflecting what happens in practice for distributor funds, so not something to be concerned about.
Looking through the fund factsheet, everything on the surface is as you'd expect from this type of fund. There's a heavy bias towards the US and larger companies, the 10 largest holdings are mostly household names and there's a reasonably diverse range of companies held. The management team also has a good performance track record since launch just over three years ago.
I'm afraid I've never done any research on this fund, but on the surface I can't see any obvious reason not to invest if you're happy it meets your needs and fits well into your portfolio. Just bear in mind healthcare type funds can suffer high volatility at times, especially when biased towards biotechnology companies. Similar funds you might also consider include Polar Capital Healthcare Opportunities and AXA Framlington Health (the latter is available on Cofunds).
Read this Q and A at http://www.candidmoney.com/askjustin/807/view-on-jpm-healthcare-fund
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