Unit investment trust

In U.S. financial law, a unit investment trust (UIT) is an exchange-traded mutual fund offering a fixed (unmanaged) portfolio of securities having a definite life. Unlike open-end and closed-end investment companies, a UIT has no board of directors. A UIT is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is classified as an investment company. UITs are assembled by a sponsor and sold through brokerage firms to investors.

Types

A UIT portfolio may contain one of several different types of securities. The two main types are stock (equity) trusts and bond (fixed-income) trusts.

Unlike a mutual fund, a UIT is created for a specific length of time and is a fixed portfolio, meaning that the UIT’s securities will not be sold or new ones bought, except in certain limited situations (for instance, when a company is filing for bankruptcy or the sale is required due to a merger).

Stock trusts

Stock trusts are generally designed to provide capital appreciation and/or dividend income. They usually issue as many units (shares) as necessary for a set period of time before their primary offering period closes. Equity trusts have a set termination date, on which the trust liquidates and distributes its net asset value as proceeds to the unitholders. (The unitholders may then have special options for the reinvestment of this principal.)

Investment trust

An investment trust is a form of collective investment found mostly in the United Kingdom. Investment trusts are closed-end funds and are constituted as public limited companies. In many respects, the investment trust was the progenitor of the investment company in the U.S.

The name is somewhat misleading, given that (according to law) an investment "trust" is not in fact a "trust" in the legal sense at all, but a separate legal person or a company. This matters for the fiduciary duties owed by the trustees and the equitable ownership of the fund's assets.

Organization

Investors' money is pooled together from the sale of a fixed number of shares which a trust issues when it launches. The board will typically delegate responsibility to a professional fund manager to invest in the stocks and shares of a wide range of companies (more than most people could practically invest in themselves). The investment trust often has no employees, only a board of directors comprising only non-executive directors. However in recent years this has started to change, especially with the emergence of both private equity groups and commercial property trusts both of which sometimes use investment trusts as a holding vehicle.