What is The People’s Trust?
Most people think that investment isn’t for them. We’re trying to change that.
The People’s Trust will be a new and different kind of investment fund. We'll be owned 100% by our customers. And we'll have a structure that ensures we’ll always be independent of any external commercial interests.
You can be confident The People’s Trust will be run entirely for your benefit because we’ve designed our structure to make sure that we do. This gives credibility to our purpose: better returns for you and a better impact on society by investing for sustainable wealth creation.
We’ll aim to fulfil our purpose through true long-term investment, which means that we’ll have the time and patience to work with our investment managers and the companies they select. Our mission will be to help them deliver sustainable long-term returns for you and a better future for employees, the environment and the economy.
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A fund you can trust
The People’s Trust will be owned 100% by you, its customers, and it will put your interests first every time.
Read moreFrom as little as £10 a week, you’ll be able to put your money into the fund by buying People’s Trust shares. This means you, along with every other customer, will be a shareholder – an owner with a right to share in the fund’s profits and a voice in how it’s run.
We won’t pay our employees any bonuses, which ensures that there won’t be any unintended incentives that could damage your interests.
Instead, we’ll pay employees part of their salaries in People’s Trust shares, which they’ll have to hold for at least seven years. This ensures that their interests will always be perfectly aligned with yours.
Total costs will be crystal clear, so you’ll always know what you’re paying for the returns you’re getting.
And all of the economies of scale we gain as we grow will be put back into The People's Trust to bring down costs because we serve no one’s interests but yours. -
Better returns for you
Over the long term, we believe that our approach can deliver you better returns.
Read moreWe will free up fund managers to think long-term – and encourage the companies they invest in to do the same.
The People’s Trust’s selected investment managers will invest in the companies that they believe are best able to achieve sustainable, long-term growth.
Our aim is to get you the best possible returns over seven-year periods. That’s how long we think it can take to give you a strong likelihood of doing really well.
Our strategy is to achieve this by backing companies for the long term and working with them to help them do even better.
Nobody can be sure what returns will be, but we believe that over a typical seven-year period, our strategy should be capable of turning £100 into £160 - that's a total return of 7% a year compound, after costs, and assumes that inflation runs at 2% p.a. over the period.
In terms of your spending power, this would means a 5% increase on your £100 every year, after costs, turning it into a value of around £140 in seven years, after inflation.
We are projecting that our costs will between 1-1.5% a year in the early days, before falling as The People's Trust gets bigger and the power of the economies of scale are given back to you.
Actual returns will be affected by general inflation and economic and market conditions. Some seven-year periods will be better and some worse than the target and it is possible to lose money, even over a seven-year period.
Every year, but in particular at the end of the seventh year and every year thereafter, the Chief Executive will write to shareholders to explain how performance has measured against our targets, how that performance was achieved and any lessons learned.
The Chief Executive will be accountable for performance and Shareholders will be invited to vote on the retention or replacement of the Chief Executive, based on the performance report and explanation at the Annual General Meeting.
Your money is at risk and the value of shares and any income from them may fall as well as rise. But we believe that investors who invest with The People’s Trust for the long haul and who can “keep calm and carry on” when markets are turbulent are likely to be highly satisfied with the outcomes of our approach. -
Better returns for everyone
We’ll work with the companies we invest in to encourage them to focus on long-term, sustainable wealth creation. In this way, we’ll help to change society for the better.
Read moreWe’ll seek to invest in companies that have business strategies, market strength and the people to deliver sustainable, long-term growth. We will encourage companies to innovate, invest in their people, pay their taxes, and protect the environment. With The People’s Trust backing them long-term, those companies should be able to deliver better returns for you, better growth for the economy and better jobs for their people.
The People’s Trust will also improve lives directly and immediately, by using a small proportion of the fund to lend to charities and community interest companies that have a direct social impact. This is not charity; we expect a modest return on these loans – but you’ll know this money is being used for good.
