Hi Jarg, thanks for the post, but imo this is a little...

Hi Jarg, thanks for the post, but imo this is a little simplistic. For example some of the Wilson funds trade at a premium, others at a discount. Yet one can assume that the quality of management for each fund is roughly the same. I think there are other factors at play including (but not limited to) quality of marketing / self-promotion (Wilson is usually good at this !) and also the track record of the fund over a number of years. New funds by definition are unproven and almost always trade at a discount because of this. Yet the "Hearts and Minds" fund traded at a premium for quite some time (maybe still does, not sure) simply because it captured the public's imagination.

Having invested in both ETFs and LICs (and unlisted managed funds) I like the ETF structure the best.

I think an interesting initiative of an LIC would be to say that once a month (say) there would be a buyback offer where you can sell your shares back to the manager at or near NAV (say 1% discount to cover costs). That way arbitrageurs would ensure that the Share Price was always close to NAV at month end and it would give you a reliable way of cashing in your units without the managers having to do anything. Just a thought.