Fidelity Investment > Reviews > Fidelity is hot on research

Author's product rating:   

Quality of service	Excellent
Quality of fund management	Excellent
Value for money	Average
Range of products available	Excellent
Quality of investor information	Good

Advantages:	Low online prices
Disadvantages:	All eggs in one basket

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you've decided to buy a unit trust to invest some of your money in the stock market, then Fidelity is a good company to use. You want to invest in shares, a unit trust is a group of shares which have been picked by a professional fund manager.

I first invested in unit trusts through Fidelity many years ago. Some of their funds performance is outstanding over long periods of time. Their 3 headline funds are:

Fidelity European
Fidelity American
Fidelity Special Situations (UK based)

There are many different types of fund to choose from. The 3 listed above are very popular and have performed particularly well. Each one will buy shares in companies in that particular geographic area. The UK Special Situations buys shares in companies which are seen to be very under-valued by the fund manager.

The performance of these 3 funds is exceptional. For example, the UK Special Situations so far this year it has returned 12.8 per cent. 24.8 percent over the past year, and 18.4 percent over 3 years.

Obviously investing in shares is a risk, but Fidelity has a good track record and is known for being very hot on research. It's a lot safer than trying to pick shares yourself.

The best way to invest through Fidelity is online. They run something called a funds supermarket, which means you can buy into unit trusts run by Fidelity and also ones run by other companies. The charges are the same. Once you register with them online, you will generally pay an initial 2 percent fee plus annual charges of around 1-1.5 percent. The beauty of the online supermarket is that you can if you decide switch your investments around into different unit trusts for a 0.5 percent charge. This gives you alot of flexibility. It is also very easy to do.

I have always found Fidelity to be a very good company. When you contact them it is a free-phone number. You can do your deals online, over the phone, or through the post. As I said it is considerably cheaper online. You may well pay 5% initial fee otherwise.

Their website is also very good. It has masses of info on all of their own funds plus many other companies funds which you can also buy through them. All in all a very good company.

For further info please visit www.fidelity.co.uk.