Free website needed to compare stockmarket funds with each other-including charges

^opm^

Hi,

At the moment i use bestinvest to manage my stock market money throught one of their own managed funds - its the IFSL Bestinvest growth portfolio fund acc.

Now through their website i can see how its done since launch etc but i wish to know basically am i better off investing there or just finding a low cost ft all share index tracker and moving my money into that.


So i wish to compare on same graph the performance of the two but including the effects off the charges on them and divi payouts on them so i get a total picture. I know at mo the ft100 is paying somewhere in region of 3.5 to 4% a year divi return whereas i only get 0.5 on mine and pay out from memory 2.34% TER rate.


I know i can overlay my graph onto ones of the ft100 or FT all share but can i do it with all costs and divi's included please.

many thanks.

Mark

Linton

Its not a graph but you can get all the basic data (eg 1/3/5/10 yr performance) on most funds, including trackers, from https://www.trustnet.com. You dont need to worry about incorporating charges and dividends as both are included in the performance data.

You cant judge whether one fund is better than another on the basis of the dividend as different funds have different dividend policies - many pay no dividends but simply reinvest all money generated.

Ark_Welder

The Bestinvest fund isn't directly comparable to a UK index because it invests globally, and has an allocation to bonds too. But, depending upon your chosen historical timeframe, it has done better/worse than the All Share. So if you did decide to go the tracker route then you would need to look at using more than just the one (e.g. All-Share) if you wanted to replicate you geographic and asset-class spreads.

The fund is a fund-of-funds, and this does tend to bump up the TER. If using these are your preferred route then have a look at Troy Spectrum (the 'O' class shares) and some of the offerings from CF Miton: these tend to have lower TERS compared to others that go down this route. Some other posters have also suggested the Jupiter Merlin range. It may be worthwhile having a look into these before making a decision as to what to do.

^opm^

I know it invests globally but at end of day im investing to make money-so im not bothered where it is invested as long as it does that-what i wanted to be able to compare is what returns including charges etc i have made over various time frames and then compare this to say a very low cost tracker fund to see if they would of made me more money then i have made, because if all i am doing is even matching a tracker fund then once you add on my more expensive charge and only getting a 0.5% divi which is reinvested then i would be loosing out and adds upto quite a large amount of money.

Linton

^opm^ wrote: »

I know it invests globally but at end of day im investing to make money-so im not bothered where it is invested as long as it does that-what i wanted to be able to compare is what returns including charges etc i have made over various time frames and then compare this to say a very low cost tracker fund to see if they would of made me more money then i have made, because if all i am doing is even matching a tracker fund then once you add on my more expensive charge and only getting a 0.5% divi which is reinvested then i would be loosing out and adds upto quite a large amount of money.

Err if you were matching the tracker you would be matching the tracker. Fund charges are already incorporated in the price, you dont get a bill later.

Secondly I suggest you do consider where you are investing and try be be invested a wide range of different regions and different types of business - diversification. It's not a good idea to go solely for the highest return because returns for different investments vary in different ways over time. Something top of the list this year is unlikely to be next year, and the types of investments that can get you extremely high returns in one year may subsequently fluctuate wildly.

psychic_teabag

The trustnet site mentioned above has a multi-plot charting tool, which lets you show multiple funds on the same graph. I think returns are always after charges, so you don't have to worry about removing them yourself. (well, except for tax, I suppose, if you are a higher-rate taxpayer and have income-generating funds outside an ISA.)

If you choose the ACC versions of funds, those automatically have income reinvested, though the chart does have an option to show the result with income reinvested.

But BestInvest's site also offers the ability to put multiple funds on the same graph.

gadgetmind

^opm^ wrote: »

Now through their website i can see how its done since launch etc but i wish to know basically am i better off investing there or just finding a low cost ft all share index tracker and moving my money into that.

I have a SIPP with BestInvest but tend to use trustnet and even Hargreaves Lansdown as web sites on which to play "what if".

BestInvest are a great place to hold trackers and I even toss £120pa in their direction for the privilege of holding Vanguard trackers, ETFs and shares.

^opm^

So if i go back to bestinvest website and plot a graph of my fund and then i get a choice of what else i want on same grpah-these are all figures with charges included so you are seeing exactly what you are getting back in actual terms in back pocket so to speak?