Kepler Trust Intelligence
Updated 08 Feb 2023
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What we do

We offer investors a library of high quality, up-to-date investment strategy articles and fund analysis all written in-house by experienced analysts.

Our content falls into four categories:

  • Investment strategy articles assess opportunities and developments which could impact or should be considered by investment trust investors, positive or negative
  • Fund analysis focuses on individual trusts, examining them in detail to create a snapshot picture that investors can use to aid their investment decisions
  • News and announcements articles focus on news events like annual and interim results, as well as coverage of our regular live events and trading updates about trusts where something interesting is going on
  • Sponsored content appears where an asset management group or investment trust has paid to place a piece of content into the site. This will be clearly marked with the sponsor's logo and a byline attributing the content to the sponsor.

Our focus is on quality, not quantity, so we tend to publish around four or five articles in a given week. For this reason we recommend that you join our mailing list, and we'll send you an email once a week alerting you to what’s new on the site. We won’t sell your details, and we won’t spam you with useless updates.

How we are funded, and how that relates to MIFID II

Kepler Trust Intelligence provides non-substantive material and analysis. Under MiFID II these constitute a minor non-monetary benefit and are provided free of charge.

Kepler Trust Intelligence is freely to any person (professional or private individual) who wants to access it. We clearly disclose all of our relationships, but our research is either paid for directly by specific trusts and their boards, or more generally by the larger asset management groups who pay to have adverts and advertorial. As a result, all of our research should be considered “non-independent” and readers should consider it as marketing.

All of our clients are keen to keep their trusts “on radar” with wealth managers. There is generally less “centralised” coverage of investment trusts as wealth managers get bigger and bigger, and at the same time there is an increasing burden on wealth managers to prove they are keeping “on top” of trusts they hold. We believe our website and research serves as a useful purpose in this regard.

As we mention above, all of this content is freely available to anyone. We run two versions of the site – one for discretionary fund managers one for other types of investor. The professional site requires readers to volunteer the name of the company they work for – so that from a compliance perspective we can be satisfied that all readers really are a professional.

Our aim

At Kepler Partners we are focused on the needs of the private client fund management community, and we understand that investment trusts are only one of the options available to readers of our research. For this reason, wherever possible we seek to show investment trusts on a level playing field with unit trusts and OEICs, especially in performance terms.

We believe investment trusts, as more and more of them move to capitalise on their structural advantages - gearing, the ability to smooth dividends, and the ability to manage their own liquidity, among them - are on the front foot, and we hope that you find our research as interesting and exciting to read as we have found it to write.

Welcome to Kepler Trust Intelligence.

Pascal Dowling

Kepler Partners

Our team

William Heathcoat Amory
William Heathcoat Amory is a co-founding partner of Kepler Partners LLP and leads the Kepler investment trust research team. William has over 20 years of experience as an investment company analyst. Prior to co-founding Kepler Partners in 2008, he was part of the Extel number 1 rated research team at JPMorgan Cazenove.
Pascal Dowling
Pascal is a partner at Kepler Partners LLP and launched Kepler Trust Intelligence when he joined Kepler in 2015. Prior to this he managed FE Trustnet, one of the UK's largest investment research websites, for ten years. In a former life Pascal was a financial journalist and he has written extensively about investment trusts and other investments for the trade and national press.
Thomas McMahon
Thomas is Head of Investment Companies Research and joined Kepler in April 2018. Previously he was senior analyst at FE Invest, where he was responsible for fund selection for a range of model portfolios. He covered all asset classes over time, but has particular experience with emerging markets and fixed income as well as UK smaller companies funds. He has a degree in Philosophy from Warwick University and is a CFA charterholder.
Henrietta Torrance
Henrietta joined Kepler Partners in July 2019. She is a Business Manager working with the Investment Trusts research and direct marketing teams. Prior to joining Kepler, she was a member of senior management at a well-established NHS primary care provider for six years in which she has gained a wealth of experience in small to medium-sized business. Henrietta read Biology at the University of Nottingham.
Catriona Crellin
Catriona is Head of PR at Kepler Partners. She is responsible for leading the firm's PR activity, both internally and externally, across Kepler's asset management and fund marketing divisions. Catriona joined Kepler Partners from global financial communications agency Edelman Smithfield, where she advised a range of financial institutions on their PR strategy and reputation. Catriona has a BA in Combined Honours from Durham University and an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Alan joined Kepler in October 2022. He has worked in the investment funds industry for over 25 years. The first half of his career was as an investment trust analyst, leading a highly-rated sell-side research team. More recently he has worked in corporate advisory and investment banking roles, with a focus on alternative asset classes.
Ryan Lightfoot-Aminoff
Ryan joined Kepler in August 2022 as an investment trust research analyst. Prior to this, he spent seven years as a senior research analyst at Chelsea Financial Services where he worked on fund selection for their retail clients and on their multi-asset fund range. He holds an MSc in Finance & BA in Accounting & Finance from the University of the West of England.
Josef Licsauer
Josef is an Investment Trust Research Analyst and joined Kepler in September 2023. Prior to this, he was an Investment Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, where he was responsible for fund research across a number of sectors including Japan, Europe and Alternatives. He obtained a first-class degree in Business and Management from the University of the West of England. He also holds the Investment Management certificate.
Jean-Baptiste Andrieux
Jean-Baptiste joined Kepler in August 2024 as an investment trust research analyst. Prior to this, he worked as a reporter for Money Marketing and Trustnet where he wrote news, features and opinion pieces. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a BA in History and from City, University of London with an MA in Newspaper Journalism. He also holds the Investment Management Certificate.
Ailsa Prestige
Ailsa joined Kepler Partners in September 2021 to assist the Investment Trust research team. Before joining Kepler, she was a Senior Account Executive at Engine MHP, where she worked in the Capital Markets team. Ailsa read History at Newcastle University.
David Brenchley
David is an investment specialist for Kepler Trust Intelligence and joined Kepler Partners in June 2024. Before joining, he worked as money reporter for The Times and The Sunday Times where he wrote about all facets of investment for retail investors. He has previously worked for Money Observer magazine, Interactive Investor, Morningstar and Investment Week. He graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a degree in Media and Sports Journalism.
Jo Groves
Jo is an investment specialist for Kepler Trust Intelligence. Prior to joining Kepler Partners, she worked as an investment writer at Forbes Advisor and The Motley Fool. Jo started her career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen, before joining the corporate finance department at Close Brothers where she advised corporate and private equity clients on acquisitions, disposals and other strategic issues. Jo has a BSc in Geography from Durham University and is a Chartered Accountant (ACA).

Important Information

This website is aimed only at providing information to professional investors. Kepler Partners LLP is not permitted to conduct investment business in the United Kingdom with retail clients and accordingly such persons should not access this website.

No information or opinions contained in this site constitute a solicitation or inducement by Kepler Partners LLP to buy, sell or subscribe for any securities mentioned herein or to provide any investment advice or service. Information on this Website may or may not have been prepared by Kepler Partners LLP, but is made available without responsibility on the part of Kepler Partners LLP, who neither assumes nor accepts any responsibility or liability (including for negligence) in relation thereto. No action should be taken or omitted to be taken in reliance upon information on this website.

Opinions expressed are subject to change at any time. The material is based upon information which is considered reliable, but no representation is made as to accuracy, completeness or timeliness, and should not be relied upon. Past performance is not an indication of future performance. This document is a marketing communication under FCA rules and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination of investment research.

Kepler Partners LLP reserves the right to change the information available on this Website without notice and expressly disclaim any obligation to keep the information on this Website up-to-date, free of errors or viruses or to maintain uninterrupted access. Kepler Partners LLP may stop producing or updating any part of this Website without notice.

United States persons (as defined in “Regulation S” of the US Securities Act of 1933) and persons who are residents of the United States of America may not use this website. Information on this website may not be forwarded to any entity in the United States of America. Furthermore, the contents of this site are not intended for distribution to, or use by, any individual or entity in any jurisdiction where their distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation or which would subject Kepler Partners LLP to registration with the jurisdiction.

You should be aware that any rules and/or regulations applicable to providing financial services (and the resultant investor protections that may be available), may not apply to persons who obtain information from the internet and its various applications, of which this material forms part.

Welcome to Kepler Trust Intelligence

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A free Kepler Trust Intelligence account allows you to access premium content including the ‘Kepler View’ – our verdict on the trusts we cover – and historical research so you can see how our view has changed over time. An account also unlocks useful facilities like the ‘follow’ button which lets you keep track of the trusts you’re interested in and as a logged in user you can also download PDFs of our research, and choose the layout of the page you’re reading to suit your preference. We will not share your details unless you give us permission to do so, and we won’t bombard you with emails – we only send one a week.
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The information contained herein is not for distribution and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy any securities in the United States to or for the benefit of any United States person (being residents of the United States or partnerships or corporations organised under the laws thereof). The investment funds referred to herein have not been registered in the United States under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and units or shares of such funds are not registered in the United States under the Securities Act of 1933.
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How will this information be used? Your answers help us to tailor our content to relevant investment trusts, and to ensure that the asset allocation and portfolio strategy research we produce is appropriate to our userbase.
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Current Site Kepler Trust Intelligence is produced by the investment companies team at Kepler Partners and is the UK’s premier source of detailed qualitative research on investment trusts. Absolute Hedge is a market leading UCITS research database providing proprietary research on funds, themes and strategies in the UCITS space. Kepler Liquid Strategies is a Dublin domiciled UCITS fund platform featuring a number of best-of-breed fund managers. Kepler Partners is a corporate advisory and asset raising boutique specialising in the regulated funds market in Europe and investment trusts in the UK.