How To Read A Fund Factsheet (KID) | The Investing Couple

Not a recommendation. We use VUSA as a worked example throughout because it's one of the most widely held UK ETFs and makes the concepts concrete. This is a guide to reading factsheets — not advice to buy any particular fund.

Step 01

What Is A KID?

Every fund sold to UK retail investors must publish a Key Information Document (KID) — or its older equivalent, the KIID. They're required by law and must follow a standard format. You can find them on the fund provider's website, usually under "Documents" on the fund page.

For a VUSA example: go to vanguard.co.uk, search for VUSA, click the fund page, and look under Documents. The KID is usually a two-page PDF.

Where to find them

Provider	Where to look
Vanguard	vanguard.co.uk → fund page → Documents tab
iShares (BlackRock)	ishares.com/uk → fund page → Literature tab
HSBC / Invesco / Fidelity	Same pattern — fund page → Documents or Literature
Your platform	Most platforms (Freetrade, Trading 212, HL) link to the KID on the fund's information page

Step 02

The Six Things To Find

These six items are required in every KID by law. The layout varies between providers and between the old KIID and new KID formats — but they're all there. Here's what each one means and what you're looking for.

Fund Name & ISIN

The ISIN is a 12-character code that uniquely identifies this exact fund and share class. Two versions of the same fund (distributing vs accumulating) will have different ISINs. Always check you have the right one before buying.

✓ Good — ISIN matches what's on your platform ✗ Watch — ISIN doesn't match — you may be buying the wrong share class

Your fund's ISIN

Domicile

Where the fund is legally registered. For UK investors, Irish-domiciled UCITS funds (ISIN starts with "IE") benefit from a reduced 15% US dividend withholding tax rate rather than the full 30% applied to US-domiciled funds like SPY or VOO.

✓ Good — Ireland (IE) or Luxembourg (LU) ⚠ Think twice — US-domiciled (ISIN starts with "US") — higher tax drag and estate tax risk

Domicile shown on your KID

Ongoing Charge (OCF)

The annual cost of holding the fund, expressed as a percentage. This covers the fund manager's running costs. It's taken automatically from the fund — you never see an invoice. Lower is better, all else equal.

✓ Under 0.10% — excellent for a broad index tracker ⚠ 0.10%–0.50% — fine, especially for niche or thematic funds ✗ Over 0.75% — needs a strong reason to justify it

OCF shown on your KID

Income Treatment (Distributing vs Accumulating)

Tells you what the fund does with dividends. Distributing: dividends are paid out to you as cash. Accumulating: dividends are automatically reinvested back into the fund. For long-term ISA growth, accumulating is usually simpler. For income, distributing.

✓ Accumulating — for long-term ISA growth (look for "Acc", "VUAG", or "income is accumulated") ⚠ Distributing — fine for income but requires manual reinvestment (look for "Dist", "VUSA", or "income will be paid out")

What the KID says about income

What Index Does It Track?

The fund's objective section describes what index it aims to replicate. Two funds can both call themselves "S&P 500 trackers" while tracking slightly different versions of the index. Check they're tracking the same thing before comparing costs.

✓ The index name matches what you're trying to track ⚠ "Optimised sampling" or "representative sample" — the fund doesn't buy every stock, just a subset

Index the fund tracks

Past Performance Chart

A bar chart showing the fund's return versus its benchmark index, year by year. The gap between the two bars is the tracking error in action — how much the fund diverged from what it's supposed to track. Past performance is no guide to future results, but a consistent small gap is reassuring.

✓ Small, consistent gap each year (roughly equal to the OCF) ⚠ Growing or erratic gap — the fund is struggling to track the index cleanly

Notes on what you see in the chart

Step 03

Quick Reference — What You Want To See

Item	For a UK ISA, long-term growth	Red flag
Domicile	Ireland (IE) or Luxembourg (LU)	US-domiciled (ISIN starts "US")
Ongoing charge	Under 0.20% for broad index funds	Over 0.75% without good reason
Income treatment	Accumulating for long-term growth	Distributing if you don't want to reinvest manually
Index tracked	Matches what you think you're buying	Vague description of "a broad basket of equities"
Performance vs index	Consistent small gap ≈ the OCF	Erratic or large gap — poor tracking
ISIN	Matches the share class on your platform	ISIN differs from what platform shows — wrong class

Step 04

Use It — Compare Two Funds

Pull up the KIDs for two funds you're considering and fill this in side by side. Five minutes of this is worth more than an hour of forum-reading.

Side-By-Side Comparison

Fill in from the KIDs of the two funds you're comparing

Fund A — Name

Fund B — Name

Fund A — ISIN

Fund B — ISIN

Fund A — Ongoing Charge

Fund B — Ongoing Charge

Fund A — Income Treatment

Fund B — Income Treatment

Which am I going with, and why?