That Was The Week: Fund, fund, fund until your daddy takes your job away

Go earlier if you can, but it looks like the first fund was sold in the UK in 1693, with the following 325 years of marketing and advertising enough to ensure that these financial products are the prime choice for retail investors, dominating invested assets under management. The length of the love affair makes it appear to be far more than a habit and almost makes it a fact that if a retail investor wants to invest they buy a fund. Dalliances with equities inspired with the state asset sell-of