The main advantage is the change to single pricing, which means that the
> bid-offer spread vanishes. With unit trusts this can be varied by the
> managers to the disadvantage of the unitholders.
Well, yes, but ... firstly they will still generally keep an initial charge, so there *will* be a bid-offer spread in practice. Secondly, the underlying investments the trust buys still have a bid-offer spread (and stamp duty if applicable), and it certainly isn't the management company picking up the tab for those! They just get absorbed into the general running costs, so long-term buy-and-hold investors are subsidising people who trade in and out.