Most cost effective route for funds ISA investment

Froggitt

Want to minimise the amount that gets deducted annually to the IFA and am happy to select my own funds......most discounters seem to rebate the full initial commission.

Hargreaves Landsdown and Fidelity Funds Network Ive looked at, and HL looks cheaper for the Fidelity funds!!!

Any recommendations?

Jonbvn

I have used Fidelity and H-L for holding funds in an ISA.

IMHO, H-L are better for the following reasons:

1. H-L has a much wider range of funds.
2. Fidelity charges you 0.25% to switch between funds, whereas H-L does not.
3. H-L rebates some commission whereas Fidelity does not.

Froggitt

Are there any other companies I should be considering? Cofunds?

Cautious_Investor_3

Hi

As a general question, does it annoy people that HL (an other platforms) get rebates from the fund managers, which are not declared in any particularly transparent way?

I have no axe to grind against HL, just wonder what people think about this practice.

Would love to hear your views.

The Cautious Investor

Froggitt

Not really. Im sure every platform and IFA negotiates the best rebates it can commensurate with their volume or status, and its then upto them as to how much of that they decide to retain or pass on to their customers.

Those that pass on the most will get features in threads like this, and those that dont wont. eg Im fed up with negotiating every single time (for ISAs, my missuses pension, my additional contributions, transfers etc) with the IFA one of my pension funds is with, hence my original question to move to someone who is cheap and honest and open (ie its all laid down on a table on their website) about charging.

jimjames

Cautious_Investor wrote: »

Hi

As a general question, does it annoy people that HL (an other platforms) get rebates from the fund managers, which are not declared in any particularly transparent way?

I have no axe to grind against HL, just wonder what people think about this practice.

Would love to hear your views.

The Cautious Investor

It isn't something that bothers me to be honest.

The one thing that does bug me is that I cannot get the discounts I would get from HL by going direct to the fund manager and you pay the full initial charge that was designed as commission for the IFA. Surely it should be cheaper to go direct as no commission is being paid. If it isn't cheaper direct then I have no problem with a broker like HL discounting even if they are making something back on it themselves.

DavidHayton

I moved my funds to HL about eight years ago and I have been very impressed with their customer services, analysis tools and charges. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. For funds that is. I find their stock broking fees to be expensive.
In answer to the other question on this thread, I really don't get too upset that the fund managers charge more than HL. I wouldn't deal direct in any case ... the biggest advantage of dealing with HL is that I can slosh money seamlessly from one fund manager to another.

David

dunstonh

The FSA confirmed in the last 3 days that it is re-opening the discussion on whether bundled platforms should be banned.

HL are obviously lobbying for bundled to be allowed as they rely on the hidden charges and remuneration to give the impression they are cheap. Unbundled platforms want everyone to be on same basis with rebates refunded to the client where paid. I honestly don't know who will win this.

Unbundled platforms are more ethical. You cant say that about bundled platforms. However, bundled platforms, at the moment, are cheaper. Although they dont usually have institutional funds or non commission paying investments on them apart from a few loss leaders, whereas unbundled platforms do. Institutional funds can bring the cost down.