Best platform for selected S&S ISA

SteveSilva

Hi guys I have been looking at ready made ISA's from different platforms. To my understanding these are ISA's set up by supermarkets which in turn invest in a variety of funds, which are labelled as low, moderate risk adventuros etc. These look appealing to me as an inexperienced investor. My questions are,

1) If the managers of these ISA's choose a certain selection of funds can I then add other funds from my own choosing, say a specialised BRIC fund.

2) What are your opinions on the best ready made selected supermarket S&S ISA's, H&L, Share centre.......???

dunstonh

To my understanding these are ISA's set up by supermarkets which in turn invest in a variety of funds, which are labelled as low, moderate risk adventuros etc.

Fund supermarkets are paid to market funds of certain providers. They dont normally risk rate funds to just three levels as that would be totally inadequate. However, from the research you can generally get an indication of the risk level. Some fund houses will give you their risk rating for the fund but you have to be careful as they are not all on the same context. i.e. some will benchmark risk using cash as the lowest and highest risk unit trust as the highest. Others will not benchmark to cash but only to funds in the same sector.

1) If the managers of these ISA's choose a certain selection of funds can I then add other funds from my own choosing, say a specialised BRIC fund.

they do not choose the funds. Either you do or an IFA does.

2) What are your opinions on the best ready made selected supermarket S&S ISA's, H&L, Share centre.......???

Each platform has its pros and cons. The industry is moving away from the fund supermarket style platform to a more unbundled and wider investment scope platform that is not reliant on hidden commissions. There is still a place for the fund supermarket (unless the FSA ban them next month) but you need to decide what investments you want to use, what facilities you want and how you want to pay for them. Which is best will depend on what you are after.