# BOI Evergreen fund...time to bail out?



## gebbel (7 Nov 2007)

I had €11,000 spare sitting in my current account 2 years ago earning nothing. A BOI investment manager advised me to put it into their Evergreen fund for 5 years, as the fund had been performing very well. Sure enough in March of this year more or less, I got a letter to say that the original 11 grand was now worth almost €13,000. Very satisfied indeeed!
Since then, however, almost €900 has been wiped off it and seems to be reducing. I have called them to express concern but they only say "don't worry, these funds tend to fluctuate".
But surely this is not independent impartial advice? My main question is should I clear everything out of this fund and transfer it all into my safe and secure RaboDirect a/c? 
By the way I respect those who give the opinion that one should never try to "second guess" how these issues go but, any advice appreciated.


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## ClubMan (7 Nov 2007)

gebbel said:


> A BOI investment manager advised me to put it into their Evergreen fund for 5 years


As ever - don't depend on a tied agent sales person for independent, professional advice in your best interests.


> I have called them to express concern


 Why? Do you understand the nature of such equity based investments and the potential risk/volatility involved? If not why did you choose this investment other than being sold it?


> but they only say "don't worry, these funds tend to fluctuate".
> But surely this is not independent impartial advice?


 No - but they are not incorrect either.


> My main question is should I clear everything out of this fund and transfer it all into my safe and secure RaboDirect a/c?


 Do you need the money now? Why did you choose this investment in the first place? What was your investment timeframe? Equity based unit linked funds and deposit accounts are not really directly comparable savings/investment options so to consider a seemingly knee-jerk switch from the former to the latter in the light of short term marke volatility betrays a certain naivety about such issues in my opinion.


> By the way I respect those who give the opinion that one should never try to "second guess" how these issues go but, any advice appreciated.


 If you are confused get help from an independent, professional advisor now or next time you are shopping around for savings/investment options best suited to your specific personal needs.


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## jpd (7 Nov 2007)

Did you expect "independent impartial advice" from a BOI Investment manager ?

What are your investment goals and time horizons ? How much risk are you happy to take on ? What other investments do you hold ? What is your financial situation ?

These questions need a reply before anyone can answer your question in a suitable manner.


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## bungaloid (7 Nov 2007)

Looks like the fund is 60% stocks and 20% property.

The top stock holdings according to BOI website are:
Allied Irish Banks
Anglo Irish Bank
AXA
Bank of Ireland
BNP Paribas
CRH
ENI
Irish Life & Permanent
Ryanair
Lots of property/banks in this fund. If you already own property you are _increasing_ your exposure to a possible property slump by owning this fund. That should be a factor in your decision.


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## gebbel (7 Nov 2007)

Since I put the money in that fund, I now have a mortgage that works out at €950 pm. The deposit for the mortgage came from other savings. Today I have 12K with Rabo and 6K in credit union, I have a good job but am not permanent there and my company have just laid off 300 people on voluntary redundancies. This cash in the evergreen fund was invested there 2 years ago when I was in a different job that would not have permitted me to get a mortgage. Therefore I wanted it in something low risk with fairly good return. This fund was sold to me in those terms. I put in €11000. Today it's worth €12100. For sure less if I took it out today, before the agreed 5 year term. I have just been thinking lately that it is suicide leaving it there, when high rate deposit accounts like Rabo are around. If I had known about Rabo, or the likes, 2 years ago, I probably would have gone straight for them as I am not somebody who is prepared for the risk that such investment accounts bring.


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## ClubMan (7 Nov 2007)

gebbel said:


> Therefore I wanted it in something low risk with fairly good return. This fund was sold to me in those terms.


This is not a low risk investment. If you were told that then you were misled. If they wrote it down then you could have strong grounds for a case of misselling. I would imagine that they were not that stupid though.


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## gebbel (7 Nov 2007)

No ClubMan they did not write it down, but I was aware there was the possibility of poor performance, however small this was implied. shows the good performance of the fund since 2002, so perhaps it could recover.


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## ClubMan (7 Nov 2007)

Past performance is no guide to future returns. In my opinion you should start reading the key posts in this forum.


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## gebbel (7 Nov 2007)

Trust me I have done!


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## PMU (7 Nov 2007)

As far as I know the BoI Evergreen funds have been very good performers over the long term.  The fund looks reasonably diversified (but perhaps has too much IE exposure).  I’d also say it’s a reasonably low risk fund but by risk I mean volatility.  But even low risk funds have negative returns – they are low risk only in the sense that the probability of negative returns will be low.    If you quit now you’ll pay 23% tax on your profit and you’ll expose your cash to the risk of inflation if you put it in a deposit account. The only reason to cash it in is if there is a better investment opportunity around.  And there might be: you could cash it in and use it to pay off some of the capital of your mortgage.  This is the equivalent of a tax free investment in a deposit account paying your mortgage rate, which will beat a taxable deposit in NR / Rabo any day of the week.  But it’s not suicide to leave it invested in the fund as equities / property historically have outperformed cash deposits, but if you leave it invested you must be willing to accept fluctuations in its value.


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## P88JJH (7 Nov 2007)

just a few things to consider, if you left the money in the current account, what it be worth now ? The evergreen fund does have a very good track record and has never lost money over any 5 year period since launch, it appears to be the best balanced managed fund in ie on the moneymate site. why dont you go in and speak to one of there Investment Managers about looking at fund switches ?


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## joe sod (7 Nov 2007)

this is where it pays to do some research and not be casual about your money, the fund is heavily invested in the iseq, and yes this has been a winning strategy for a long time when the irish economy performed so well, best performing funds can become worst performing funds, the heavy exposure to the irish economy was this funds winning ingredient, now it is its losing ingredient, irish banks are still living off their reputation as being sound stable institutions and people still trust them too much, in reality they are glorified salesmen, it is too easy for people to walk into a high street bank where the bank already has your money and takes advantage of peoples financial ignorance


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