# Evergreen Fund - anyone heard of this?



## Nolan (25 Oct 2006)

Looking for some of your good advice!

My Mother has €10,000.00 she wants to ‘put away’.   BOI are recommending an investment option called the ‘Evergreen Fund’ for a 5 year period.  Its fund performance is shown at 4.9% for the 5 year period, net of taxation and fund management charges of 1.5%.  Has anyone heard of this?  She wants something that has no risk to it.  

Would you recommend another type of investment? 

Thanks


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## Protocol (25 Oct 2006)

Yes, this fund is well known and is going for a long time. It is a Bank of Ireland fund, marketed as one of their Smart Funds.  See here: 

Here is the details about the Evergreen fund:



Note that BoI staff are not independent and will of course push their own products.

Also, note that this is NOT a deposit account, and so there is an element of risk.  It is a managed fund, invested in a mixture of shares, bonds, property and cash.


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## Nolan (25 Oct 2006)

Thanks for that.   Would you recommend another investment (sorry I know nothing about this!).


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## conor_mc (25 Oct 2006)

The Best Buys thread on funds http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=37142

would seem to suggest that going through myadvisor.ie would get you a management charge of .75% as opposed to 1.5% directly with BoI.

Worth giving them a call.

Looking at  would seem to suggest that Evergreen isn't a risk-free investment, by any stretch of the imagination. But then again, putting €10k away "risk-free" into a deposit account for a few years carries a 99% risk of inflation eroding its value anyway.


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## diarmuidc (25 Oct 2006)

Nolan said:


> Thanks for that.   Would you recommend another investment (sorry I know nothing about this!).



No.

 You say that your mother wants *no *risk. If you want no risk then don't invest in funds with equities/property making up 87% of the fund.


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## therave (29 Nov 2006)

does the evergreen fund guarantee your capital.. a relation has put 30k in and was told that the investment  capital sum is guaranteed.. and also the annual management fee was not mentioned.. i'm not too au fait with these funds and any advice would be appreciated


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## Guest124 (13 Dec 2006)

Was in my local BOI this morning and opened up a BOI 6% a/c with my SSIA money and set up d/d for monthly amounts.
They had a look at my nice little balance and then suggested I put €40,000 in the Evergreen Fund. The person mentioned the 6 year one but wanted me todo the 5 year option. The only charge they mentioned was the 1.5% charge. I didnt ask about other charges. Are there any other? The six year has a guarantee but five year is totally high risk. Could there be better options for me? Dont know much about shares etc.
I havent signed up for the Evergreen Fund as yet -any advice appreciated.


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## Janman07 (13 Dec 2006)

I'll give you one piece of advice - never take investment advice from someone sitting across the desk from you in a bank.

The Evergreen funds themselves are not bad but you should talk to an independent financial advisor who will show you a wider range of investment products and explain the pitfalls and benefits of each. They may even be able to get you an extra allocation of funds i.e. 101% of your lump sum is placed in funds or they may be able to get a reduced management charge.


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## shipibo (13 Dec 2006)

With the type of money you are both talking about , maybe some research into the different types of funds would be advisable.


Evergreen is,nt bad, has performed average ove last few years ( have earlier tranche) , if BoI guarantee 4.9% over next five years (25+% compound) , get the bank to send you a letter to state this explicitely.

I assume by no risk you mean initial sum ( 10K), if so, maybe a high interest deposit account, if mother is over 65 she can reclaim all CGT on interest / gains on funds.

If she will take some risk, check out Quinn, RABO or Eagle Star funds.


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## Fergal (15 Dec 2006)

I'm about to buy into this fund and am wondering if conor_mc is correct in thinking that the mngt fee is cheaper when bought indirectly.

However this link is not valid. [broken link removed]

Any suggestions? 



conor_mc said:


> The Best Buys thread on funds http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=37142
> 
> would seem to suggest that going through myadvisor.ie would get you a management charge of .75% as opposed to 1.5% directly with BoI.
> 
> Worth giving them a call.


 
PS Even though it's almost Christmas, BOI do not guarantee a 25% increase over 5 years!!


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## bos4 (18 Dec 2006)

I recently put €15,000 into smart funds. The reason that I came to this was that I couldnt find a rate that would beat inflation and basically putting in a fraction of my savings could prove to be a good investment while not putting at risk the whole sum that I saved.
                I put 5,000 in evergreen, 5,000 into the property fund and 5,000 into a fund entitled Trilogy II. In terms of the administration fee, Trilogy is 1.75% while the other two are 1.5%. When you cash in the money invested, it is taxed at the standard rate of tax plus 3%, so you pay 23% tax on any money made, along with the admin fee. From what I understand, you receive a statement every six months letting you know how things are faring. It is possible to move things around and if you do this it attracts a charge of €32. As I have the minimum in each of the funds, I wouldnt be able to do this. The idea is that the fee is to stop you moving the money around every other day. Encashment seems fairly straight forward and can be done at any time.
               Evergreen seems to be performing well but there are no guarantees. When you go down this road, you have to be prepared to take a loss or so. I also have to say that if you dont get a return of at least 5.5%, the whole experience isn't really going to be worth it either!
               If you go to the website  you will be able to see how the funds are faring. Note that some of them are in negatives, these are generally those that have invested in more 'risky' markets and the yields are either very high or can take a big hit. Evergreen has been fairly stable and done quite well. However it is not guaranteed.
               If you are looking for an investment that is capital guaranteed. Anglo Irish bank had one that involved you placing €20,000 into a property fund based on the English market. When I looked at it, there was a closing date on the opportunity, so it may no longer be viable.Anyway, the sum is locked away for 3 years and 11 months and you receive 80% of the growth on the investment. The main advantage of it is that even if the fund made a loss, you would not lose any of your initial €20,000. Your money will be waiting for you at the end of it. I didn't choose this avenue as I would want the option of encashment if I hit an emergency or something arose over the next four years.


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## Protocol (18 Dec 2006)

Fergal,

it's www.myadviser.ie

Not www. myadvisor .ie


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## Fergal (18 Dec 2006)

Thanks for the tips bos4 & Protocol. I'll be putting in a 6 figure sum so need to do some homework fast;
- is there a bid offer spread (i.e. different buy and sell price)
- how is the Evergreen Fund price established (i.e. is the price someone's estimate of the value of the Fund's property, shares etc. Or is the punter supposed to work out what a fair price should be?)
- when I buy in, does the Fund price automatically go up or do they buy more shares etc?
- the price has been going up steadily in the last few weeks. Anyone care to speculate that lots of punters are selling actual property and hedgeing their bets on this Fund?

PS I've already bought into the AIB fund where captial is guaranteed over a relatively short period (3 yr, 11mth).  Wish I put more in as the offer is now closed!


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## goodtiming (28 Dec 2006)

Hi All from a newbie. I've been lurking here for a while and appreciate the excellent information available here. My wife and I invested considerable funds in BIAM on DEC1st and have been able to get daily updates on the smart funds website mentioned above. It's supposed to be updated at the close of business the following day but has been unchanged since dec 20th. Does anyone know of an alternative site where I might get the latest figureson BOIs funds. 
BTW we've invested in Evergreen, Trilogy, Geared Irish and 4 or 5 others and between 1st Dec and 20th Dec they had collectively risen by about 6%. Pretty good I think


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## roland (28 Dec 2006)

Goodtiming, 6% in a matter of a month sounds great but you have to realise the sort of funds you are in are probably medium to long term investments?  Given this, it really doesn't make sense to follow the value on a daily basis.  You'll only give yourself a heart attack as the daily values swing about from highs to lows!  I did this in the past and ended up making snap decisions on timing the market and moving money into cash after a fall, only to miss out when the market bounces back (no guarantees it will of course!).  Presumably you invested in these funds in order to get a higher return than you would by just leaving the money on deposit?  However, if I know one thing about investments it's that the prospect of a higher return means you have also accepted the risk that goes with that i.e. the risk that you lose some or all of your money.  Bear in mind that if you're in an investment that has gone up 6% in one month, it could just as easily go down 6% (or more) the following month (or in another day!).  The potential for a higher return is achieved by a heavy investment in equities.   The funds you are in are probably all heavily invested in equities.  'Geared Irish' sounds like the fund is also borrowing money to invest in equities - geared investments are generally very high risk and values are likely to swing about a lot.  Are you ready for the ride?  If you are then enjoy the view along the way, but if you've paid for a rollercoaster trip then know how long it's for as it generally doesn't make sense to try and see if you should get off every metre along the way.


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## bos4 (31 Dec 2006)

I think you are raising a number of good points there Roland. The main reason for going into funds such as Evergreen is to get a better return than if you leave it on deposit.
However, it's hard to know how long you should leave the money in for. I guess it's a case of individual situations dictating the action. If an emergency occured, I am sure someone would be more than happy to cash in at 6%, even if it means that they lost out on the figure of 10% later on down the line.
I guess time can be a great solver too, especially if you are looking at a loss of 6%, well you are better to try and see if it will go up again. However, if you continue to watch it drop, maybe you would have been better off getting out at the 6% loss.
With these examples, I think it's a completely relative thing. There is no good or bad time to get out. When you get out, you are missing future gains or maybe you are missing future losses. No one can know until afterwards. 
I am going to leave my money in these funds for a year and have a look at how they get on. If it's not looking like it was a better option than leaving it on deposit, I am going to bail out from it.


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## bos4 (7 Jan 2007)

I was just thinking about this again. Inflation is running at 4.4%, so to keep pace with it, your money would need to be getting a return of 5.5% before DIRT takes its bite. If you are paying a management fee, of something like 1.5%, then you are looking to get a basic return of 7% for the year so that the whole thing was worth your while.
It's an interesting question as to how long you should hold onto the investment. Should one bail if it does not make the 7% in the year or should you hope for better things in the future and that the later years will make up for the disappointment of the initial year.
    These kinds of funds are viewed as Medium term but how does one determine how long to keep money in them or develop a technique that you get the best return from them?


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## G123 (22 Jan 2007)

The Evergreen _Guaranteed _Fund uses a principle known as CPPI - funds are switched between a deposit fund and the evergreen fund _after _the markets have moved. The Guaranteed Evergreen fund states that, if the market falls by 10% you will end up with 80% of your money in the deposit fund.

The standard Evergreen Fund is a tried and tested fund that would fit into a balanced portfolio. Doesn't carry a capital guarantee though.


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