Have Chartwell stopped rebating part of the trail commission for new investments?

Special_Saver2

Hi Money Saving Experts,

I was just looking at the Chartwell website. They used to rebate initial commission and part of the trail commission (the annual charges). Looking at this page, they have the March 2009 discounts for Stocks and Shares ISAs and non-ISA accounts (they have not updated it for April 2009 yet). There are details of the initial discounts but no trail commission discounts. Likewise, this page has the February 2009 documents and there are no trail commission discounts. Also, this page only mentions initial commission discounts with nothing about trail commission discounts.

I have a copy of their October and December 2008 discounts documents (which I downloaded from their website at the time). After the column "Final Initial Charge to Client" there is a column called "Annual Cashback %." This column has completely disappeared from the February and March 2009 documents.

Martin's page on Discount Brokers still says that Chartwell have discounts for initial and annual charges.

Do any of you know if Chartwell have quietly stopped providing trail commission discounts for new investments?

If so, they have done this from January or February 2009 onwards.

SS2

soulsaver

If they have they haven't informed me of that change - they could still have annual charges discount. The question is are they still rebating trail commission. If not why hasn't it been made clear?
Well I'd know if they had stopped, wouldn't I? Well no actually 'cos I'm in 'cash' in the Cofunds reserve & in money market funds that don't pay trail, having come out of funds at the end of 2007 (more luck than judgement). It's a phone call Tuesday then.

Jake'sGran

Why don't you ask them? I know that Hargreaves Lansdowne are still rebating all of the initial charge (in most cases) and a percentage of the annual commission they get from the fund manager. I am just depressed by the whole thing after doing very well in the stock market and then getting the statement from Fidelity the other day showing that Spec.Sits and Global Spec. Sits have both lost about half their value. No point in selling now. I'll tell my heirs to hang on to them. Must be great to have sold at the top of the market!

Iconic

I was with Chartwell until they started using Cofunds.

Suprised Martin's page on Discount Brokers doesn't mention
http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/ although the linked forum does.

Cavendish are paying me twice as much as Chartwell did on my Shares ISA's and I was able to keep my account with Fidelity Funds Network!

hyposmurf

Sorry to ask another question in the same thread but can this trail commission be reinvested in the same funds that you attain it from?I'm a cofunds customer and have found them in the past a little un user friendly.Wanted to make monthly payments to certain funds but the process didnt seem that easy or quick at all.Their charges were lower than H&L but I'm considering changing to H&L.

dunstonh

I'm a cofunds customer and have found them in the past a little un user friendly.

Cofunds are great. However, they are geared and set up to deal with IFAs. They are not set up primarily to deal with consumers directly. They do have online access but its lip service to their primary role. So, they do not make an ideal DIY solution but they do make an ideal IFA solution.

Wanted to make monthly payments to certain funds but the process didnt seem that easy or quick at all.

Cofunds have a regular payment date of 25th monthly. Its a simple two sided application that has your name, address, NI number, funds you want and direct debit mandate. They really cannot minimalise it any more. Due to direct debit rules they have to give notice of payment amount in advance so any change/commencement would have to be in before the end of the current month to take effect the next month.

Special_Saver2

Thanks for your responses. I am making monthly contributions to Cofunds via Chartwell and I will be a bit upset if Chartwell have stopped rebating part of the trail commission on new investments without telling me. Jake'sGran, you are right, I shall have to ask them after the long weekend.

If that is the case, then I would be better off going to Hargreaves Lansdown - they are offering the funds that I am currently investing in and they continue to offer a partial rebate of the trail commission.

Iconic, thanks for the tip regarding using Fidelity via Cavendish Online. Unfortunately, they do not offer all the funds that I am currently investing in.

Hyposmurf and dunstonh, I have been quite happy with the cofunds platform.

Hyposmurf, I am not sure how it works with Hargreaves-Lansdown but with Cofunds / Chartwell you get the trail commission rebate sent as a BACS transfer to your bank account on a monthly basis. There is no option to have it reinvested directly into your funds.

SS2

dunstonh

There is no option to have it reinvested directly into your funds.

Thats because Cofunds themselves dont offer it. However, it may be coming as Cofunds have recently given information on allowing advisers to have explict charges rather than commission (to allow hybrid fee option).

Skandia allow rebates into the investment except on unwrapped, bond and pensions but not on ISAs where their belief is that refunding natural trail into the ISA is actually treated as a contribution towards your annual ISA allowance. Interestingly HL allow it on ISAs as they dont think it does but they dont allow on it on pensions as they think that does. The complete opposite position.

Special_Saver2

Hi Folks,

Chartwell have answered my question.

They have stopped paying partial rebates of the annual commission to new customers.

They will continue to pay annual commission rebates to existing Cofunds customers on past and present contributions.

I will let the MSE team know as per the instructions on the contact details page of the website so that they can update the Discount Brokers page.

SS2

soulsaver

Special_Saver2 wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Chartwell have answered my question.

They have stopped paying partial rebates of the annual commission to new customers.

They will continue to pay annual commission rebates to existing Cofunds customers on past and present contributions.

I will let the MSE team know as per the instructions on the contact details page of the website so that they can update the Discount Brokers page.

SS2

They tell me this morning that for existing clients trail commission sharing will continue to apply for current AND future investments, not just for what you have with them now. They also say that Chartwell will be offering an enhanced service (not yet finalised, but will be a dedicated individual account manager) for new clients that will be available (choice) to existing instead of (not as well as) trail commission.