ETF's and LIC's (choose well) are both great passive investments. Trouble is that a number of newer ones may not survive given the small size of the Australian investor base. Hence I tend to favour older/big and boring for a larger part of the portfolio.
I do own a couple of ETFs but LICs are the largest part of the portfolio because of a number of reasons but dividend consistency being one of the more important given we're now retired.
Also the larger/older LICs have been around in Australia for much much longer than ETFs. As for key person risk and/or a sudden change in investment style etc this is unlikely for the older ones given that a large part of the investor base of these are very conservative and rely heavily on consistent income. Plus the investment management team are more likely to be process driven rather than relying on some gun stock picker.
But for the long term passive investor both ETFs and LICs will do the job.
I also agree with the recommendation of reading anything Peter Thornhill has written. And yes Whitefield would be one of his favourite LICs given that it is the only pure listed Industrial share fund available. Even though it is a smaller fund it has been going for a very long time. I happily own this one myself along with numerous others.
A pity just about everything is so expensive at the moment. Having established a reasonable sized share portfolio over the years we don't feel the need to regularly buy nowadays (eg DCA etc). Happy now to do most buying when pessimism dominates the market even if this means only buying every 5 to 10 years or so! What a joy it is when one can buy a growing income stream ridiculously cheap!
I do own a couple of ETFs but LICs are the largest part of the portfolio because of a number of reasons but dividend consistency being one of the more important given we're now retired.
Also the larger/older LICs have been around in Australia for much much longer than ETFs. As for key person risk and/or a sudden change in investment style etc this is unlikely for the older ones given that a large part of the investor base of these are very conservative and rely heavily on consistent income. Plus the investment management team are more likely to be process driven rather than relying on some gun stock picker.
But for the long term passive investor both ETFs and LICs will do the job.
I also agree with the recommendation of reading anything Peter Thornhill has written. And yes Whitefield would be one of his favourite LICs given that it is the only pure listed Industrial share fund available. Even though it is a smaller fund it has been going for a very long time. I happily own this one myself along with numerous others.
A pity just about everything is so expensive at the moment. Having established a reasonable sized share portfolio over the years we don't feel the need to regularly buy nowadays (eg DCA etc). Happy now to do most buying when pessimism dominates the market even if this means only buying every 5 to 10 years or so! What a joy it is when one can buy a growing income stream ridiculously cheap!
