Stocks & Shares ISAs
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Comments
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I disagree. An IFA should be using tax preferred options where it is no more expensive and could be beneficial later even if not now. An ISA for investing makes complete sense as they are such long timescales involved and you don't know what may change. I was basic rate tax when I started investing and would get hit now if I'd not used ISAs.Yes for you the convenience outweighs the cost and constraints, but I suspect you are unusual for a basic rate payer. An IFA should normally say not to bother unless trying to avoid CGT for a lump sum (e.g. for house purchase and need to sell investments all at once instead of sell yearly in chunks
interested in tax credit teatment of isa divis, as I thought assessment took into account all income. If true then yes, could be a big consideration for basic rate taxpayer.Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
Wrong here, CS have punishing charges if you do not deal regularly i.e. 6 time in 6 months. You cannot buy & forget, but have to choose between unwanted trades or high charges and if you inadvertently only make 5 trades then you pay BOTH!
Does this mean that if I want to invest in Vanguard LS I cannot just buy through Charles Stanley and forget it for the next 10 years? Would Cavendish be a better option?0 -
I stopped paying any attention to the information on the main site a long time ago. The quality of information that can be gleaned through reading the forums is much better and it appears this article is no exception.
Hence my subscription to this thread
Though, in fairness, considering the wide scope of all the clever forum members, the forum is pretty hard to beat.0 -
Yes you are right it can be cheaper to go direct, and with a broad fund in the first place you might decide you don't need fund switches, and I guess your investing is very maintenance- free!. . .
For many years I've invested into index trackers with Legal and general directly. I have only gone with platforms for active managed funds as the platform reduced the initial and annual management fees and hence it was cheaper to invest via the platform.
From my reading of the fees, it is better for people to invest in two of the funds listed (The L&G UK Index and the L&G US Index) directly with L&G themselves. It certainly was in comparison with investing via H&L as H&L gave no reduction in the AMCs (there are no initial fees) and added their own platform fee on top.
So am I right in that in this case (L&G) the charges are lower going directly? In which case why would anyone use a platform for these funds?
Stockmarkets seem to run up for 5 years and then stutter, and then plummet, so at times you must have felt the urge to sell some stockmarket index and move into cash with a decent interest rate At present you can't do without losing the isa wrapper. Let's hope in July that that we are offered a hybrid cash/shares isa so that the wrapper itself does not sway a decision towards staying in shares when we should be switching to cash.
PS S&P500 US or UK FTSE 100 index can be cheap as London listed ETF (e.g Vanguard ETFs, using cheap ISA broker provider such as x-o, iweb, interactive, esp as you won't have to trade in and out too much, and now has no stamp duty. Again possibly in July we could hope one of these brokers starts offering decent % on cash held for a pullback in the stockmarket.0 -
If by CS huudi means Charles Stanley Direct he is incorrect if he is referring to funds. CSD do not charge for dealing in funds. You can buy your VLS and leave it there for 10 years only paying their 0.25% charge, payable quarterlyDoes this mean that if I want to invest in Vanguard LS I cannot just buy through Charles Stanley and forget it for the next 10 years? Would Cavendish be a better option?0 -
MSE, and you, are saying that you first chose a platform and then choose your investment. This indicates that neither MSE nor you actually do understand anything about investments since it is totally obvious to anyone thinking this through is that you start with defining your investment portfolio, not with opting for your investment vehicle.
This is getting silly!
I never said you had to choose your platform first, neither did MSE. The word they used was "invest".
Please explain how you the average investor can invest in a fund without having a platform first? Which is all they are saying as I read it.
There is really no need to be offensive or to pontificate on this matter.Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.0 -
too true.This is getting silly!
You defended MSE, who saidI never said you had to choose your platform first, neither did MSE. The word they used was "invest".
Whether you agree or not, it is a terrible idea to choose your ISA and then decide which funds to put into it - which is what MSE suggest you should do.MSE_article wrote:Investing in a stocks & shares ISA is a two-stage process. First you need to pick which provider to buy your ISA from, then you need to decide what investments to put in it.
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It is very easy for the average investor to read up about investing. Every one of the papers, from tabloid to broadsheet, runs articles on investing in general, and S&S ISAs in particular. Plenty of books to read about investing. Plenty of good websites to find, too, including the MSE forum where people with expertise do answer questions. Nobody who understands the first thing about investing suggests you first pick your ISA and then choose your fundsPlease explain how you the average investor can invest in a fund without having a platform first? Which is all they are saying as I read it.
There is really no need to be offensive or to pontificate on this matter.
If you think re-stating this is offensive or pontificating, so be it. It still doesn't make the MSE advice, and your defense of it, correct.0 -
Stockmarkets seem to run up for 5 years and then stutter, and then plummet, so at times you must have felt the urge to sell some stockmarket index and move into cash with a decent interest rate At present you can't do without losing the isa wrapper. Let's hope in July that that we are offered a hybrid cash/shares isa so that the wrapper itself does not sway a decision towards staying in shares when we should be switching to cash.
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You are correct, there were times when I wanted to move money out of stocks and I did. L&G have bond funds and cash funds that you can move money into too.
Note I'm not being an L&G salesman here, I'm just asking "Why would people use platforms" in this case. I see that you agree but not sure that everyone else does.
In response to your other comment yes, the options come July should hopefully get a lot more flexible. To my knowledge, at the moment you can only invest in one cash and one stocks ISA in one tax year. I'm hoping that restriction will go too.0 -
There was a calculator in the old guide - where has it gone? It calculated potential final size of investment by asking you to enter: growth, term, initial investment, fees.0
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You are correct, there were times when I wanted to move money out of stocks and I did. L&G have bond funds and cash funds that you can move money into too.
Note I'm not being an L&G salesman here, I'm just asking "Why would people use platforms" in this case. I see that you agree but not sure that everyone else does.
In response to your other comment yes, the options come July should hopefully get a lot more flexible. To my knowledge, at the moment you can only invest in one cash and one stocks ISA in one tax year. I'm hoping that restriction will go too.
I had a few thousand in an L&G FTSE All Share tracker ISA (and Pep before that) for years and years. No need for a platform, and in it's day, about the best value around in my opinion.
I'd also collected a few other fund ISAs with different fund managers, that I'd acquired over time.
Additionally, I had a modest directly-held stocks and shares portfolio in an ISA at The Share Centre. It was getting slightly out of hand keeping track of progress everywhere, so I moved everything onto my Share Centre ISA platform. Because The Share Centre charges a modest FIXED monthly administration fee, rather than outrageous 'ad valorem' charges (ie a percentage of the value of your total investments), it costs nothing extra to lump everything into the one place and I can now see by looking at a single ISA account how my total portfolio is performing.0
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