The RDR required advisers to consider all options when giving advice on investments, and was expected to see a big uptick in the number of private, retail investors using the products.
Anecdotally this is proving to be the case, with a number of trusts seeing private investors become major shareholders through investment platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown.
FE factsheets are used by advisers and private investors researching prospective investments or those they already hold.
The number of views they are getting is a good guide to the level of investor interest in the trusts, although views do not necessarily translate into buys.
However, the rankings do coincide with anecdotal evidence as to the trusts that private investors are most keen on buying.
Here are the top five, which largely coincide with the most popular funds on the website of industry trade body the AIC.
Edinburgh Investment Trust
FE Alpha Manager Neil Woodford took over the Edinburgh Investment Trust on the very day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy: 15 September 2008.
This means the manager has just passed his fifth year at the helm of the trust, in which the trust has doubled the returns of the FTSE All Share, making 120.43 per cent. Performance of trust versus index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
It makes sense that investors looking to branch out into investment trusts would consider a manager with such a good long-term track record within open-ended funds.
Woodford holds largely the same stocks in the trust as he does in his Invesco Perpetual Income and Invesco Perpetual High Income funds, albeit in slightly different weightings.
The trust has outperformed the fund over three and five years, helped by a narrowing discount and the use of gearing: the trust has borrowed 16.7 per cent of its net market cap to invest and boost returns.
It is much cheaper than the funds, with an on-going charges figure of 0.7 per cent; the funds charge 1.67 per cent and 1.68 per cent.
Murray International
Bruce Stout is gloomy, but very popular. The manager’s Murray International Trust has gone onto a premium of 7.7 per cent, such has been its popularity, and investors keep buying.
The reason is the £1.4bn trust’s long-term performance record, which has seen it record consistently strong annual results.
The portfolio has been top-quartile – albeit out of only nine funds – in five out of the past seven years.
In 2011 it made money when its composite benchmark – a 60/40 split between the FTSE World ex UK index and the FTSE World index – lost 5.98 per cent.
In 2008 it lost only 8.1 per cent as the benchmark lost 17.55 per cent.
Stout focuses on companies that he thinks will prosper in poor economic circumstances, and is extremely bearish on the outlook for markets, in the developed world in particular. Debt in particular bothers him, and he says it will weight on growth in those countries for many years.
This means his fund has underperformed in 2013. The last time it was in the bottom quartile was in 2006, just prior to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, which hopefully isn’t a warning sign.
Over five years the trust has made 108.19 per cent in share price terms as the benchmark has risen just 66.64 per cent. It has ongoing charges of 0.71 per cent prior to a performance fee. Total charges were 1 per cent last year, according to the AIC.
Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies
This £361m market cap trust has seen strong investor interest despite a worrying wobble in Asia over the summer.
In fact, the trust has underperformed its benchmark in the year-to-date, making just 4.38 per cent as the index has made 8.57 per cent.
Performance of trust versus index in 2013
Source: FE Analytics
It remains the best-performing of the Asia Pacific ex Japan trusts over three and five years, however, and investors will need to be able to take some volatility to invest in smaller companies in the emerging markets.
Managed by the Asian Equities team headed up by Hugh Young, the fund has won five FE crowns. Ongoing charges are 1.51 per cent.
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust
James Anderson’s £2.3bn Scottish Mortgage Trust is another to get a great deal of attention from retail investors.
Larger trusts are more appealing to private investors as it should be easier to buy and sell their shares without there being a large gap between the buying and selling prices – the spread that gives brokers their profits.
Scottish Mortgage is a global trust run under the auspices of Baillie Gifford.
In sharp contrast to many global funds, both open- and closed-ended, the trust invests heavily in online businesses.
Amazon is the largest holding, at 7.8 per cent of the fund, while Chinese search engine Baidu makes up 7.1 per cent of the fund.
Baidu is often called the Chinese Google, and that US company also makes up 3.5 per cent of the portfolio.
Tencent and Apple are two other technology stocks in the top 10, while Anderson also holds Inditex, the owner of Zara.
Anderson has run the portfolio since 2000, and over three, five and 10 year periods the trust has significantly outperformed the FTSE All World benchmark.
Performance of trust versus index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The trust has very low ongoing charges of 0.51 per cent.
City of London
One of very few investment trusts to have lower charges is the City of London, which charges just 0.45 per cent.
Job Curtis told FE Trustnet last week that the trust was seeing a big uptick in private investor interest, with Hargreaves Lansdown account-holders now collectively one of the largest shareholders.
Like Woodford’s trust, it buys large dividend-paying stocks that are very familiar to private investors and therefore less worrying for investors unused to investment trusts.
The trust has beaten the FTSE All Share over three and five years, returning 94.89 per cent over the latter period as the index has made 60.12 per cent.
Performance of trust versus index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
It is currently yielding 3.89 per cent.