archivenews

Income can come in many different shapes and sizes, and that's the gist of the latest fund launch to come from BlackRock. The asset manager is bringing two income-focused exchange traded funds (ETFs), iShares World Equity High Income (WINC) and iShares US Equity High Income (INCU), to the European market. Bar the fact that these are, unusually, a pair of actively managed ETFs, they seem to follow one of the income playbooks of buying dividend-paying stocks but also selling index call options on top of that to boost the income.Plenty...

As the FT noted last week, this month marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the mutual fund. Unlike the investment trust, the fund was a US invention. Over on those shores, however, its modern-day prominence is being squeezed by a range of factors, not least the greater tax-efficiency of exchange traded funds (ETFs).ETFs don’t enjoy the same kind of tax breaks in the UK, which is one reason why the open-ended fund has retained its top-of-the-pile status over here. There are plenty of others, too. Consider the big...