Low Cost Investement

hollie.weimeraner

I have a approximately £50,000 to invest long term (10 years minimum). Both my wife and myself are basic rate taxpayers and I also havean appointment booked with an IFA within the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime I have received an investment pack from Harmans offering a discounted Investment Service. Basically the fees they will charge are 1% for their funds.

I am not too happy with too much risk but would like the funds to grow a little faster than inflation.

I am a novice when it comes to investment and would not be happy managing my own portfolio.

My questions are:

Are the funds below a reasonable spread of funds with a sound history?
Are the fees reasonable ? (I know they are relatively cheap but are they reasonable for the work being done)
What alternatives are there, bearing in mind I do have an appointment with a firm of IFA's (McCauley Financial) who will obviously be wanting me to invest with them as opposed to Harmans.
The funds are:

Cautious:
Jupiter Merlin Worldwide Portfolio 13%
M&G Property Portfolio 11%
Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha 23%
Invesco Perpetual Income 13%
Invesco Perpetual Global Bond 8%
M&G Strategic Corporate Bond 32%

Conservative:

M&G Property Portfolio 20%
Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha 17%
M&G Strategic Corporate Bond 22%
Invesco Perpetual Global Bond 6%
Invesco Perpetual Income 18%
Jupiter Merlin Worldwide Portfolio 17%

Balanced:

M&G Property Portfolio 21%
Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha 12%
M&G Strategic Corporate Bond 22%
Invesco Perpetual Global Bond 4%
Invesco Perpetual Income 11%
Jupiter Merlin Worldwide Portfolio 19%
M&G Recovery 11%

dunstonh

Are the funds below a reasonable spread of funds with a sound history?

Looks like a random hit and hope. Well, not quite as you can see what they are trying to do with those but its more the reason why.
Nothing wrong with most of the funds but mixing and matching fund of funds with sector specific funds seems a bit pointless. You are not getting the benefit of the fund of funds by mixing and just paying the extra costs that come with it.

i.e. for the cautious one, why not just use Jupiter Merlin Income portfolio if you want a lazy investor cautious portfolio. If you dont want a lazy investor spread then dont use a fund of funds.

Are the fees reasonable ? (I know they are relatively cheap but are they reasonable for the work being done)

You havent told us the fees. You have mentioned 1% but is that 1% initially or 1% p.a? What are the annual fees? are they normal retail or are there rebates or platform charges on top (is it bundled or unbundled to use the current industry terminology)?

Remember that investing is about opinion. You will never get the same opinion from anyone.

Reaper

Looking at that I wonder whether it is a standard set of funds they have come up with once and have recommended ever since regardless of what is going on in the markets.

For example while bonds are traditionally low risk right now some people (not everyone) think there may be a bond bubble and they are overpriced.

Likewise property used to be considered low risk but at the moment many would consider it less so.