advice on this investment

dunstonh

jem16 wrote: »

Presumably a typo here and you really meant put £10,200 into the ISA?

Thanks Jem. that is the case and I have corrected it.

daniel80

When i say going back to Lloyds it wont be for any paid advice i shall be having a word about a possible mis sell but i cant see that we will get anywhere. I dont bed & isa as i wont make the amount of gains on the funds and £20000 of the money is National Grid shares that were bought in share save schemes and incentive bonuses. I can see what you mean about the isa allowance but i think my wife wanted it all in one place. I also got the investment date wrong it was August 08,so taking off the start up fee this has made about £13000 up to today, does anyone know if this return is about average,good or bad considering the investment type.

dunstonh

I can see what you mean about the isa allowance but i think my wife wanted it all in one place.

Thats a poor excuse. Ultimately, if that was a requirement then an IFA would have used a platform that offered bond and ISA. Platforms give a consolidated valuation as can most IFAs.

The reason its a poor excuse is that the bond charges and extra tax are about 2% p.a. more on the iSA (estimate as we dont have the asset mix). On £100k (if she used ISA every year to get it all in there eventually) that equates to an extra £2000 a year in tax/charges. If she was told that the decision to have all the money in the bond tax wrapper instead of a mix of ISA and bond would cost her £2000 a year, would she really be happy to pay that?

does anyone know if this return is about average,good or bad considering the investment type.

Tell us the fund names as we need to put the return in context. It could be good or bad depending on the asset mix and the funds will let us know what the asset mix is.

daniel80

Hi dunstonh i have at last found out more about my wifes investment. The scottish widows flexible option bond that we have is made up of 80% in the life assurance mixed fund which covers uk, europe,north america, pacific/emerging markets etc which has risen by about 10% last year. The other 20% is in the mixed property fund which is split between mainly retail and industrial property around the country, mainly west midlands, south east london etc, this had risen by about 13% last year. Now i know how the fund is invested and how i can check its performance i feel happier. It looks to me that the fund is starting to pick up after a turbulent couple of years when we first invested. Just wondered if you or anyone had any views on this investment,we are investing for the long term at least another 7 years. Any opinions would be welcome.

pqrdef

daniel80 wrote: »

does anyone know if this return is about average,good or bad considering the investment type.

Fund performance since August 2008 - pretty much random. Could be anything. Average depends on how you weight it.

Then there's risk profile to consider. If a cautious fund shows lower returns, that should be for a good reason.

In any case, past performance has no bearing on whether you're in the right places now. Not that anybody knows. We live in uncertain times.

Presumably a life assurance fund will concentrate on ensuring it can meet its commitments, and let the bonuses take care of themselves.

Loughton_Monkey

This seems to be a typically sad case involving 'advice' from a bank, where all too often you find yourself arranging the words "Like Kipper up stitched a" into a well known phrase or saying.

Totton

I find it disgraceful that you were given an initial fee and an exit fee for such simple advice, perhaps one of those would be reasonable to some but for me you were seriously over-charged. Hopefully you come out of this a winner in the long term.

Mickey

daniel80

So are you saying its not a good investment for our present needs, i now know we paid over the odds to set up the investment but thats done now. Would you say we are ok to stick with it as i think the mix is pretty good.I know everything is a gamble and i have looked around and this seems quite a standard type for what it is, i suppose if we could see into the future timing is of the essence.

feesarefare

daniel80 wrote: »

I suppose if we could see into the future timing is of the essence.

Did your Lloyds salesman ask you about how you saw the future panning out?

Any reason he didnt recommend paying off your wife's credit card balance?

dunstonh

So are you saying its not a good investment for our present needs

We dont know your current needs (or future). So, we cant say specifically what is best. However, the fund choice is basic in the extreme. Although that is consistent with what you expect from a bank. Lloyds dont give their staff the remit to portfolio build. So, you tend to end up with one of their default funds or portfolio funds. That doesnt make it bad advice as its within their remit. Indeed its better for someone who doesnt know what they are doing and not getting servicing to have a basic investment as its unlikely to go wrong. Basically, she paid over the odds for a basic recommendation using a mid table product (on pricing). How that product fits with the needs is impossible for us to say really. I am still concerned about the tax wrapper used as being a potential issue though.