Welcome to the ASX LIC Investor blog.

With so many listed investment options to choose from, why LICs? And what exactly is a LIC anyway?

A LIC is simply a Listed Investment Company. These are a special type of company that raise funds from investors to then invest that pooled capital into a portfolio that is built around a specific investment thesis. LIC portfolios are generally actively managed, and as such there is a management fee that is charged by the portfolio manager. LICs are limited by shares, resulting in the portfolio being a closed ended fund. This is a key difference between LICs and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). An ETF is an open-ended fund meaning that new units can be issued whenever additional funds are received from new or existing investors. 

I first became aware of LICs in 2018 after having already been invested in a few ETFs for the previous 5 years. Since then, I have gradually sold my ETF holdings and bought into LICs, which now comprise the majority of my equities portfolio. 

In this blog I’ll share my own experiences investing in LICs and explore some of the opportunities that exist in investing via this type of vehicle. Not everyone will agree with my views on LICs and that’s ok, everybody’s financial goals are different as are their investment strategies to achieve those goals.