The 28 investment trusts that would have created ISA millionaires

Of the 28 trusts, eight would have provided a return of £1.5 million.

Almost 30 investment trusts had the potential to make investors an ISA millionaire, according to data from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).

The trade body worked out that investing the full ISA allowance each year, between 1999 and 2020, would equal a total of £246,560.

Had an investor used this full amount to invest in a single investment trust and reinvested all dividend payments, 28 of them would have provided a return that turned the original amount into £1 million or more. 

The 28 investment trusts are listed below. 

Meanwhile, a total of eight would have provided a return of £1.5 million. These were: Scottish Mortgage (LSE:SMT), Biotech Growth (LSE:BIOG), Allianz Technology (LSE:ATT), Pacific Horizon (LSE:PHI), JPMorgan China Growth & Income (LSE:JCGI), Edinburgh Worldwide (LSE:EWI), Polar Capital Technology (LSE:PCT) and HgCapital Trust (LSE:HGT).

Scottish Mortgage would have provided the best return and resulted in a pot of £2,541,100, more than 10 times the original investment. The second best was Biotech Growth, which would have turned the original amount in £1,901,581, followed by Allianz Technology trust, which would have left investors with £1,837,161. While all three are classified in different sectors, they are all largely focused on technology-enabled growth companies. 

In terms of sectors on the list, a total of 13 are represented. UK Smaller Companies appeared most frequently. Half of all trusts in the list were in a smaller companies sector.

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Commenting on the data, Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director of the Association of Investment Companies, said: “Twenty-eight investment companies would have made investors millionaires if they had invested the ISA limit in the same company each year, with many companies returning far more than £1 million.

“The investment companies come from a wide range of sectors, which demonstrates the benefits of the investment company structure for delivering strong returns over the long term.

“It’s worth highlighting that half the investment companies that have made investors ISA millionaires are in the smaller companies sectors. Their closed-ended structure makes investment companies particularly suitable for investing in harder-to-sell assets such as smaller or unquoted companies.”

However, while these investment trusts would have seen investors become ISA millionaires, its important to note that without the benefit of hindsight it is generally not a good idea for investors to have their entire portfolio invested in a single investment trust.

As Brodie-Smith notes: “While it’s always fun to dream of becoming an ISA millionaire and have that ‘what if’ moment, it’s important not to put all your eggs in one basket. No one can tell which will be the best-performing investments in future and it’s important to have a diversified portfolio which suits your long-term needs.”

ISA millionaire investment trusts

Source: AIC/Morningstar. Performance is share price total return to 31 January 2021 if the maximum ISA limit for each year had been invested on 6 April in each company annually from 1999 to 2020.