what is the vice fund 
the vice global fund formerly the vitium fund is a mutual fund managed by usa mutuals that focuses its investments on vice industries often considered socially irresponsible investments or sin stocks before this fund was established vice fund was informal slang for any fund that invested heavily in various sin stocks the vice fund was renamed the vitium global fund on may 23 2019 1the fund was renamed to its original name the vice fund on aug 4 2021 2eclipse images getty imagesunderstanding the vice fundthe vice fund primarily invests in stocks generating the majority of their revenue from the alcohol tobacco gaming and defense industries this encompasses casino operators gaming equipment manufacturers defense equipment manufacturers alcohol producers and tobacco producers the fund invests in both domestic and foreign based equities with its holdings ranging from small cap to mega cap companies it has been in operation since 2002 3 from may 2014 to october 2016 the fund was known as the barrier fund 45the fund seeks high quality dividend paying stocks in the vice industries and believes these industries have significant barriers to entry which make successful companies a source of reliable stock returns the fund also believes that its investments are generally market neutral meaning that they do well in both down and up markets because of a steady demand for vice industry goods through all market cycles the fund is also broadly diversified internationally which helps it to avoid broad market volatility additionally it maintains an emphasis on dividend paying companies with positive cash flow which provides for income payouts to investors investing in the vice fundthe vice global fund is structured as an open end mutual fund with four share classes its share classes include a c and investor shares as well as institutional shares it has a management fee of 0 95 with total annual fund operating expenses ranging from 1 24 to 2 24 net expense ratio 63the fund can be traded through both full service and discount brokerages its institutional and investor classes require no sales loads a shares charge a front end load of 5 75 and back end load of 1 through full service intermediaries the c shares charge only a contingent deferred 1 back end load in the 12 months following an initial purchase 3the fund has reported fairly steady annual total returns with dividends consistently contributing to the fund s overall return as of june 30 2022 the investor class has a five year annualized return of 0 74 and a 10 year annualized return of 6 79 3through june 30 2022 it reports an annualized return since inception of 7 82 versus the benchmark set at 8 32 by the msci all country world index 3 as of sept 9 2022 it has a dividend yield of 0 6as of sept 9 2022 the vice global fund had total assets under management of 79 2 million 6 as of june 30 2022 top holdings in the fund included galaxy entertainment northrop grumman raytheon technologies and philip morris international 3