Offshore Unit Trust Funds - Known as mutual funds everywhere else in the world but South Africa, offshore unit trust funds are the main generic investment product marketed to South Africans. For this reason many future articles within this website will deal exclusively with offshore unit trust funds.

Life Assurance Endowment Policies - Life assurance endowment policies are marketed in South Africa on a limited basis, mainly by South African life assurance companies with offshore operations, but a wide range of choice is available in offshore jurisdictions.

Property - Property is becoming an increasingly popular foreign investment.

Direct Securities Investment - These are direct investments into either bonds or shares.

Private Equity Investments - In the main private equity investment takes the form of South Africans either establishing an offshore company or buying shares as investment opportunities in an existing company or companies.

Funds of Funds: These unit trust funds wrap together different funds of different management companies, selecting what are considered to be the best funds in the various categories. If you select this route you should check the different types of funds to ensure they meet the demands of an investor in your country. The only decisions the fund of funds manager makes are the choice of funds and the weighting of the different funds. The underlying investment decisions are at the discretion of the various selected fund managers.

Multi-manager Funds: These funds bring together different portfolio managers giving them assets to manage. Rather than picking individual unit trust funds, multi-manager fund managers tend to pick individual investment specialists or specialist investment teams. The assets allocated to each to each specialist may or may not be managed within another unit trust fund. Multi-manager managers tend to have more to say about the underlying investments than do managers of funds of funds.

A unit trust pools your money with that of other people and invests it on your behalf. The pool is divided into identical units, each of which has an equal share in the assets in the fund. Unit trusts are designed to suit the different investment needs of different people. Some unit trusts offer you capital growth – increasing the value of your investment – while others concentrate on providing you with an income stream through dividends and interest. Risk varies from one unit trust to another.

In general, unit trusts focused on the share market carry more risk than those which spread their investments across different asset classes or which focus on the money market. Every unit trust fund is governed by a trust deed which falls under the authority and supervision of the Financial Services Board (FSB). The trust deed specifies the goals of the fund and all fees. Each trust is obliged to appoint trustees who act as custodians of the fund and ensure that it is managed within the terms of the trust deed.