When something moves from the minority to the mainstream, it’s worth paying attention

YFSOL’s Legal Marijuana investment opportunity does just that. It allows you to invest in the growing market for legal cannabis products. Globally, laws relating to cannabis products are being relaxed, bringing marijuana products in line with tobacco and alcohol products. Legal cannabis is far from mainstream yet, so the potential for investment growth is there.

Unsurprisingly, then, dedicated legal marijuana investment funds have appeared—for example, the Horizons Life Sciences Index and the Alternative Harvest ETF. Our Polaris platform enables you to invest in this growing sector.

The benefits of investing in this opportunity

Marijuana is gaining acceptance

Marijuana has been legalised for medical use in 29 US states and recreational use in eight and Washington DC. Canada has legalised recreational use of marijuana nationwide. Analysts predict that other advanced economies will be watching with interest to see what happens in Canada, with an eye to following suit. Why? Bottom line: tax revenue. When a product is sold, it generates tax income for the state. 

Significant growth forecast

Legal cannabis sales are set to quadruple from around US $6.5billion in 2016 to US $24.5billion by 2021 in North America alone, according to a study by investment data house Arcview Market Research. Whether other countries follow the US and Canada remains to be seen, but were they to do so, then the global market could increase significantly over the next decade. Bear in mind: changes to legislation don’t happen overnight. We believe legalisation of cannabis use is a long-term investment play, not a quick short-term profit. 

Spreading your risk

We believe that a fund-based approach to these type of risk- based investments in the only way to manage risk, so your money will be put into three funds.

Horizons Marijuana Life Index
US$ 830,992,310 under management in 43 separate holdings at the time of writing
Redwood Purpose Marijuana Fund
US$ 14,000,000 under management in 27 separate holdings at the time of writing
ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF
US$390,070,876 under management in 40 separate holdings at the time of writing

 At the time of writing, just under US$ 1.25 billion was already invested in the 100+ holdings in these three funds combined.

Not only does this investment opportunity give you a stake in Hipgnosis, you also receive a share of the music royalty payments generated by the Hipgnosis catalogue on a quarterly basis.

Our take

The risks:

While the signs are promising, the future of legal marijuana is hard to predict. While the decriminalisation of cannabis use is gaining momentum, that doesn’t mean it won’t stop or even be reversed at some point in the future.

Also, marijuana is a commodity. That means as demand grows, more people may farm it. Supply growth may outstrip growth in demand.

And super important: while marijuana funds have shown good returns in the past, there is no guarantee they will do so in the future. As with all types of investment, the value of your investment can go down as well as up.

Summary: We think that for the right type of investor, legal cannabis offers the potential of some excellent returns. But the risks are commensurate with that, so this investment opportunity isn’t suitable for everyone.

YFSOL Special Opportunity: Legal Marijuana

We’ve identified three marijuana funds for this YFSOL Special Opportunity: two with a solid track record and a relative newcomer with exciting potential.

The minimum investment is US $10,000 for existing Polaris clients and US $25,000 for new ones. There is no upper limit.

To participate, you will need to set up a YFSOL Polaris account if you don’t already have one. Don’t worry. It’s simple and you only need to do it once. We’ll help you.

Legal Marijuana in a nutshell

Structure:
You will be investing equally in three funds through YFSOL’s Polaris platform:

1. 1/3 in Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (Canada)
2. 1/3 in Redwood Marijuana Opportunities Fund (Canada), the new boy on the block
3. 1/3 in ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (USA)
   

Valuations:

Valuations are completely transparent and are done daily by the exchanges where the funds are traded. You can check prices at any time.

Redemptions:

At will. You hold the investment directly through our Polaris platform.

Base Currency:

US Dollars

Minimum Investment:

USD 10,000
 for existing Polaris clients; USD 25,000 for new Polaris investors. There is no upper limit.