What is a Unit trust?
Unit trusts and open ended investment companies (Oeics) are forms of shared investments, or funds, that allow you to pool your money with thousands of other people in the stock markets.
You can invest in a unit trusts and Oeics with as little as £25 a month or a £500 lump sum, which means it can be a relatively painless way to get a foothold in the stock market.Typically you will pay an initial charge of up to 5% and an annual management charge of between 0.5% and 1.75%.
Unit trusts and Oeics are both open-ended investments, which means that investors can freely buy and sell shares in the fund, which then grows or shrinks accordingly. It means the value of the shares you own in an Oeic, or units in a unit trust, always reflects the value of the fund's assets.