I was trying to do these sums about a week ago and came up with these figures for true total expense ratio, allowing for the discount:
Value and Income IT 0.80%
Blackrock Smaller companies 0.49%
Alliance Trust 0.33%
Temple Bar IT 0.18%
City of London IT 0.16%
Merchants Trust -0.11%
i.e. Merchant's Trust offer a 6% yield and have a negative TER. They are actually paying you to look after your money. They have some fairly expensive debt, and when this is allowed for, I would expect the TER to be similar to Temple Bar or City of London.
By any standards, good conservative investment trusts have active management and lower true charges than even a Vanguard tracker.
