The trust has returned 4pc over the past year, compared with the index's loss of 5pc. The relatively small – £7.5m – Aim-listed fund has done well over a three-year view as well, returning 40pc compared with the FTSE 100's growth of 26pc.
You may be forgiven for thinking that behind the Avarae fund's returns lies some excellent picking of recovery stocks – but this fund doesn't invest in small or undervalued companies. Instead, the fund manager has built the portfolio entirely out of coins.
Buy a slice of the Avarae fund and you buy exposure to, among other rarities, a £1m 1344 double florin – one of only three known in the world – an Emperor Claudius aurei, and a William the Conqueror silver penny.
Of course, with an investment fund you get none of the thrill of holding a 3,000-year-old hand-beaten gold coin – a piece of history – in your hand. But you get none of the storage hassle either – nor do you have to be an expert numismatist to make money from this trend.
"The Avarae fund is the passive way to access coin investment," said Ian Goldbart of Noble Investments, the specialist advisers behind Avarae. "Financial advisers bring their clients in to the shop and they discuss the three ways to access the coin market. You can buy a silver Roman didrachm, you can buy some stocks in this company or you can buy the fund. It depends on the kind of exposure you want."
The fund is listed on the Aim market and so can be bought through a stockbroker or the London Stock Exchange website.
Avarae, launched in May 2006, may be the only coin fund of its kind in Britain, but it isn't the only alternative asset to package itself in this way.
Rare stamps have risen sharply in recent years. Stanley Gibbons, the stamp dealer, offers various "capital protected" investment plans. Customers need to deposit at least £10,000 for between five and 10 years. This buys a portfolio of between five and seven rare stamps which can be kept at home or stored and insured at Gibbons' Guernsey office for free.
At the end of the term, if the stamps have not risen in value when compared to the prices listed in its own catalogue, the company will refund investors' money. But as with other "alternative assets" this is an unregulated area, so customers' money is not covered by any ombudsman or compensation scheme.
There are also a number of funds investing in fine wine. Many certainly make persuasive claims about returns. The Wine Investment Fund's website states: "Fine wines can make you money. It is a fact." However, it does later remind investors that "past performance is no guarantee of future performance and that you may not get back the amount originally invested".
The Wine Investment Fund is open-ended and invests in fine wines specifically from the Bordeaux region. Although it has only broken even over the past 12 months, if you had invested five years ago you would have a return of 54.5pc.
The majority of the fund is invested in the five left bank "first growth" wines – Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild and Haut Brion. "First growth", also known as "premier cru" is the classification for the best of the best Bordeaux wines.
The fund has a similar fee structure to an equities unit trust – 5pc initial charge and a 1.5pc annual management charge – but investors must deposit a minimum of £10,000 for a five-year term.
The manager targets returns of 20pc at maturity.
The Fine Wine Fund is another open-ended investment investing in similar "investment grade" Bordeaux wines. With £15m under management, the fund has lost 8pc over the past year, but returned 28pc over three years and 49pc over the past five years.
There is no duty, VAT or capital gains tax to pay on wine investment or these wine funds, making it popular with tax-efficient investors.
It isn't all rosé-tinted investment, however.
Will Beck of the Fine Wine Fund said that – as with equities – wine investment is as much about timing as picking quality holdings for your portfolio.
"The fine wine market enjoyed almost two years of unchecked growth from the summer of 2009 to that of 2011, rising by around 60pc. It would not be difficult to argue that some kind of correction was due.
"The fine wine market traditionally gets spooked by macroeconomic events that lead to financial market turmoil – the oil crisis in the Seventies, the stock-market crash in the late Eighties, the Asian currency crisis late Nineties, and now the recent recession and sovereign debt crisis. Stock risk and market risk is relatively low, but when you get financial market systemic risk, then even fine wine is affected."
Patrick Connolly of AWD Chase de Vere is wary of the Wine Investment Fund and the Fine Wine Fund. He said that while wine investments had performed well since 2009, this was almost entirely due to strong demand from the emerging markets, particularly China, where Hong Kong's decision to abolish import income tax on wine has had a significant effect.
With economists such as Asianomics's Jim Walker predicting a "crash landing" for China, this over-dependence could be bad news for wine investors.
"China now imports 40pc of all fine wines produced and holds a quarter of the world's reserves," said Mr Connolly. "The investment performance of wine can be influenced by sentiment and the economic environment. In 2008, the price of wine fell by 20pc, largely due to the global economic problems at that time, and so a further slowdown, particularly in China, could affect demand."
These alternative asset classes are also unregulated, and so are recommended solely as a very small part of a balanced portfolio.
Wealth adviser Philippa Gee said she would recommend alternative investments to very few clients.
"The issues for me would be charges, liquidity, volatility, access and potential loss of capital. For some clients, I completely understand the merits of diversifying and the current markets only help to reiterate that need, but I would envisage the higher net worth investor holding wine, gold, art or antiques directly and therefore being more in control of that asset, as well as limiting it to a containable portion of their portfolio," she said.
Mr Connolly agreed. "Investors need to be aware that alternative investments come with additional risks such as requiring specialist knowledge, lack of liquidity, changing fashions, high transaction costs and, crucially, no protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if it all goes wrong."
The fund is listed on the Aim market and so can be bought through a stockbroker or the London Stock Exchange website.
Avarae, launched in May 2006, may be the only coin fund of its kind in Britain, but it isn't the only alternative asset to package itself in this way.
Rare stamps have risen sharply in recent years. Stanley Gibbons, the stamp dealer, offers various "capital protected" investment plans. Customers need to deposit at least £10,000 for between five and 10 years. This buys a portfolio of between five and seven rare stamps which can be kept at home or stored and insured at Gibbons' Guernsey office for free.
At the end of the term, if the stamps have not risen in value when compared to the prices listed in its own catalogue, the company will refund investors' money. But as with other "alternative assets" this is an unregulated area, so customers' money is not covered by any ombudsman or compensation scheme.
There are also a number of funds investing in fine wine. Many certainly make persuasive claims about returns. The Wine Investment Fund's website states: "Fine wines can make you money. It is a fact." However, it does later remind investors that "past performance is no guarantee of future performance and that you may not get back the amount originally invested".
The Wine Investment Fund is open-ended and invests in fine wines specifically from the Bordeaux region. Although it has only broken even over the past 12 months, if you had invested five years ago you would have a return of 54.5pc.
The majority of the fund is invested in the five left bank "first growth" wines – Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild and Haut Brion. "First growth", also known as "premier cru" is the classification for the best of the best Bordeaux wines.
The fund has a similar fee structure to an equities unit trust – 5pc initial charge and a 1.5pc annual management charge – but investors must deposit a minimum of £10,000 for a five-year term.
The manager targets returns of 20pc at maturity.
The Fine Wine Fund is another open-ended investment investing in similar "investment grade" Bordeaux wines. With £15m under management, the fund has lost 8pc over the past year, but returned 28pc over three years and 49pc over the past five years.
There is no duty, VAT or capital gains tax to pay on wine investment or these wine funds, making it popular with tax-efficient investors.
It isn't all rosé-tinted investment, however.
Will Beck of the Fine Wine Fund said that – as with equities – wine investment is as much about timing as picking quality holdings for your portfolio.
"The fine wine market enjoyed almost two years of unchecked growth from the summer of 2009 to that of 2011, rising by around 60pc. It would not be difficult to argue that some kind of correction was due.
"The fine wine market traditionally gets spooked by macroeconomic events that lead to financial market turmoil – the oil crisis in the Seventies, the stock-market crash in the late Eighties, the Asian currency crisis late Nineties, and now the recent recession and sovereign debt crisis. Stock risk and market risk is relatively low, but when you get financial market systemic risk, then even fine wine is affected."
Patrick Connolly of AWD Chase de Vere is wary of the Wine Investment Fund and the Fine Wine Fund. He said that while wine investments had performed well since 2009, this was almost entirely due to strong demand from the emerging markets, particularly China, where Hong Kong's decision to abolish import income tax on wine has had a significant effect.
With economists such as Asianomics's Jim Walker predicting a "crash landing" for China, this over-dependence could be bad news for wine investors.
"China now imports 40pc of all fine wines produced and holds a quarter of the world's reserves," said Mr Connolly. "The investment performance of wine can be influenced by sentiment and the economic environment. In 2008, the price of wine fell by 20pc, largely due to the global economic problems at that time, and so a further slowdown, particularly in China, could affect demand."
These alternative asset classes are also unregulated, and so are recommended solely as a very small part of a balanced portfolio.
Wealth adviser Philippa Gee said she would recommend alternative investments to very few clients.
"The issues for me would be charges, liquidity, volatility, access and potential loss of capital. For some clients, I completely understand the merits of diversifying and the current markets only help to reiterate that need, but I would envisage the higher net worth investor holding wine, gold, art or antiques directly and therefore being more in control of that asset, as well as limiting it to a containable portion of their portfolio," she said.
Mr Connolly agreed. "Investors need to be aware that alternative investments come with additional risks such as requiring specialist knowledge, lack of liquidity, changing fashions, high transaction costs and, crucially, no protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if it all goes wrong."
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