Books that cover the investment trust sector used to be pretty thin on the ground, reflecting the low profile nature of the industry, but we’ve seen a resurgence in interest in the past couple of years.
If you purchase any of them through the links below then I earn a small referral fee but some of the histories of individual investment trusts are available for free. You might find that the older titles are out of print however there are often second-hand copies available.
Investment Trusts Handbook 2024
The seventh edition of this annual round-up of investment trusts, edited by Jonathan Davis, is due to be published on 12 December 2023.
Like the previous versions, it has plenty of excellent insights on the year just gone, thoughts on what might come next, and informative interviews from numerous industry experts. The Kindle/ebook version is free or you can pay for a hardcover edition.
I have been working with Jonathan on his Money Makers site and have written a few chapters for this edition.
You can get a copy here via Amazon (Hardcover/free Kindle book) or at Harriman House (Hardcover/free eBook).
Investment Trusts – A Complete Guide
Written by Andrew McHattie, who has published the monthly Investment Trust Newsletter since 1996, this is the most recently published book on this list.
I’ve known Andrew for a couple of decades and he kindly sent me a review copy. It’s a comprehensive look at the sector, packed with useful and up-to-date examples to illustrate many of the nuances of investment trusts.
Financial Times Guide To Investment Trusts
The FT’s guide is probably the best-known title on investment trusts. It’s written by John Baron, who runs his own subscription service offering investment trust portfolios and who also writes a monthly column for the Investors Chronicle.
The second edition was published in August 2020.
Built On A Lie
This book covers the rise and dramatic fall of Neil Woodford.
Most of the focus is on his income funds, both at Invesco Perpetual and at the ill-fated Woodford Investment Management. It also touches on Woodford Patient Capital Trust, now run by Schroders, which was the largest investment trust IPO for a number of years until Smithson came along in 2018.
There is another book covering the Woodford saga called When The Fund Stops.
Money Observer Guide To Investment Trusts
I haven’t read this one but I thought it was worth flagging at it runs to just 92 pages and was selling for only £1.99 the last time I checked. Money Observer magazine was first published in 1979 but was closed down in 2020.
Put Not Your Trust In Money
This book covers the birth of the investment trust industry in the 1860s and its subsequent development. It’s over 20 years old now and only second-hand copies seem to be available.
A Century Of Investing: Baillie Gifford’s First 100 Years
Baillie Gifford, the firm that runs Scottish Mortgage, Monks, Scottish American etc, has had a very rich history.
This was published in 2008 and second-hand copies crop up every now and again.
Investing For Generations
For a long time, Alliance Trust seem to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, with a long-running saga over its online investment platform and management changes, but it now seems to be back on track these days using a multi-manager approach.
This book was published in 2013, just before the kerfuffle of a few years back, but there was plenty going on in the trust’s first 125 years.
The Split-Capital Investment Trust Crisis
In the early 2000s, these niche investment trusts gave their shareholders a whole world of pain. There are still some split-capital trusts around today but they are now very much a niche part of the trust sector.
It’s a reminder of the twin dangers of too much debt and too much complexity when it comes to investing. Not the industry’s finest hour!
F&C: A History Of Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust
The oldest investment trust, which dates back to 1858, recently ditched its full moniker in favour of just F&C.
100 Years Of Murray International
I came across this 44-page PDF on the Aberdeen website while researching an article. It’s essential reading if you hold this popular global equity income fund. This is the second edition published in 2018.
Aberdeen Standard has also produced something similar for Dunedin Income Growth, which was the first investment trust to be launched in Scotland in 1873 by Robert Fleming.
125 Years Of AVI Global (British Empire Trust)
This is a free 58-page PDF that covers this trust’s history from 1889 to 2016.
Disclaimer
Please note that I may own some of the investments mentioned above -- you can see my current holdings on my portfolio page.
Nothing on this website should be regarded as a buy or sell recommendation as I'm just a random person writing a blog in his spare time and I am not authorised to give financial advice. Always do your own research and seek financial advice if necessary!
Subscribe to IT Investor
Get an email alert every time I publish a new article. Your email address won't be used for anything else.
This is a great list, thanks for putting this together. Would you happen to know where I could find a copy of “A Century Of Investing: Baillie Gifford’s First 100 Years”? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
I don’t I’m afraid. There seemed to be the odd copy around when I added it to the list but the last few times I’ve looked I haven’t seen it either.
It might be worth contacting Baillie Gifford directly to see if they are able to help. You would have thought it would be a good candidate for an update and/or an e-book version.
Hi Stuart,
I’ve just finished my copy of the 150th-anniversary history of the Scottish American Investment Company (SAINTS) and found it more interesting than I’d expected. This sparked a search for other detailed investment trust histories and that led me to this page, so thank you very much for putting this list together.
John
No problem John. A lot of the Baillie Gifford trusts now seen to have had brief histories done but they are often hidden away on the Insights page on their trust websites.
Here is one for Edinburgh Worldwide for example:
https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/individual-investors/insights/ic-article/trust-histories-ewit-history-10006695/