In recent years smaller investment trusts have been under pressure. The demand for smaller vehicles has been reduced by two factors: the consolidation in the wealth management industry and the increasing prevalence of centralized buy lists used by DFMs and advisers. If a large amount of money is being managed to a model, then allocations can be impossible to deal into a small trust. Anecdotally, the lower limit of viable size for professionals has been rising. £200m is a more realistic cut off point than £100m, and even that is not enough for some. The lower charges and greater liquidity of larger vehicles also makes them more attractive in the current environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed forces which seem to be increasing this pressure. Lower demand for assets has been caused by concerns about market direction and worsening personal circumstances, reducing the ability or willingness to invest. This trend is visible in flat investment trust industry assets over the first half of 2020. In addition we see this trajectory in the widening of the average discount in the universe from c. 1.9% at the end of January to c. 8.6% by the end of June – even if certain assets seen as invulnerable to the crisis have bucked this trend. Wide discounts can bring the long-term viability of a vehicle into play. Whereas the lack of investment demand creates greater competition for capital, which could further starve the smallest trusts of attention. However there are many investors who do not have the same liquidity restrictions as large, consolidated wealth management businesses operating model portfolios or buy lists. These include wealth managers with greater discretion over which funds they can use for individual clients, and individual retail investors managing their own money. For them the 50% of investment trusts which have less than £200m in market cap offer a variety of opportunities, which their peers can’t or won’t access. While some smaller trusts follow similar strategies to larger trusts, others are clearly differentiated and offer a way to diversify asset exposure of sources of alpha. Moreover the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to an alternative source of return: wind ups or mergers which close persistent discounts. There has been a spate of recent corporate actions which show that some boards are willing to take extreme action, including the merger of Perpetual Income & Growth and Murray Income. While these two trusts both have over £500m in net assets, we think the boards of some smaller trusts could be considering this approach. The board of the £24m JPMorgan Brazil has recommended that shareholders vote against continuation at its 17 September annual general meeting.