Although the philosophy of index funds is indisputably correct,...

Although the philosophy of index funds is indisputably correct, I like LICs for several reasons:

1. Their dividends are more predictable: STW's divs tend to go up and down from year to year, while good LICs' divs are more consistent.

2. LIC divs are fully franked and generally easier come tax time.

3. Although LICs generally employ more managers (and pay them more), the management fees as a percentage of assets under management are lower than those of index funds - i.e. lower MER in LICs than ETFs. From memory, ARG's MER last year was around 12 basis points (cf 28.6bp for STW).

That's enough TLAs (three-letter abbreviations) for now. Don't hesitate to ask anything else and hopefully one of us can help out. Good luck investing and let us know what you end up buying into...