Special report | Asset management
The money doctors
The asset-management industry is at last sorting the quacks from the true specialists, argues John O’Sullivan
IN MARCH 1868 a prospectus appeared for a new kind of money-market scheme. The Foreign & Colonial Government Trust would invest £1m ($5m at the time) in a selection of bonds. For £85 an investor could buy one of 11,765 certificates giving an equal share. The trust promised a 7% yield. Its aim was to give “the investor of moderate means the same advantages as the large capitalist in diminishing the risk of investing…by spreading the investment over a number of different stocks.” The modern asset-management industry was born.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “The money doctors”
From the November 14th 2020 edition
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