How to leave the Cofunds platform

Sago48

Sorry - had to repost as the title was messed up in the first post.

We moved our ISAs to the Cofunds platform about 2 years ago on the advice of new financial advisers. Our adviser retired and passed us on to someone who has never contacted us. He is currently unavailable for some weeks - I don't know why - and his company have nothing to offer as an alternative. We are actually considering withdrawing our ISAs from the Cofunds platform and reverting to a direct relationship with the actual funds. But Cofunds can only tell us how to cash in the ISAs - which we don't want to do - saying we must ask our adviser about this - but of course he is not available. And we can't as yet find any info online about how to do this.

Can anyone advise on how to do this?

Thanks

psychic_teabag

You don't necessarily have to leave cofunds to take control of your funds. One option might to be change your agent to be someone like Cavendish Online, staying within cofunds.

http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/investments/isas-oeics/cofunds/using-cofunds/

Cavendish charge a one-time £25 fee, but thereafter refund trail commission.
There are other execution-only agents which use cofunds - eg see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3153942

The other option would be to choose a new platform and ask that provider to transfer your ISA from cofunds. Like a cash ISA, you don't transfer it yourself, but ask the new provider to request the funds from the old provider. There may be charges for this (but OTOH some providers may pay you an incentive to transfer to their platform - HL always seem to be offering something or other for the privilege of holding your investments).

psychic_teabag

Sago48 wrote: »

Sorry - had to repost as the title was messed up in the first post.

Perhaps edit your other post to make it clear people should ignore it ?

Sago48

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll have a look later on. In the past we did execution only with I think Torquil Clarke?

I will edit the other post if I can find out how.

Thanks

psychic_teabag

Sago48 wrote: »

I will edit the other post if I can find out how.

There should be a button marked 'Edit' underneath each of your own posts. (Or does that only appear after you've posted a few times, like the ability to post links ?)

psychic_teabag

Sago48 wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll have a look later on. In the past we did execution only with I think Torquil Clarke?

If that's 'tqinvest' then it looks like they can use cofunds
http://www.tqinvest.co.uk/invest/ourservices/fund-platforms/
http://www.tqinvest.co.uk/invest/faqs/

So if you're happy with them, perhaps you could use them as your cofunds agent.

Reaper

I used TQ in the early days when they were practically the only execution only broker available, but these days there is a lot more choice.

I think you will find Cavendish cheaper, though I can't find anything on TQs site that tells you what their charges are. Probably a bad sign!

I arranged Cavendish and CoFunds for my wife's investments. CoFunds do not normally deal directly with customers but Cavendish hand over the account username and password and leave you to it.

Sago

Thanks for the follow-ups. I need to have a real think about what we want to do. Probably stay with Cofunds for now but switch to Cavendish (the online adviser) suggested.

John

Chris75

Am I correct that with Cavendish the 0.25% Fidelity fund supermarket internal funds transfer fee will still apply plus any Cavendish charges?

psychic_teabag

The 0.25% switching fee is internal to the fidelity platform and is not rebated by Cavendish.

There are no additional Cavendish charges for the switch. The switching fee replaces the fund's initial fee. (No switching fee if the fund itself has no initial fee, such as for trackers.) So the 0.25% switching fee, if any, is the only fee you pay.

EDIT: I think Fidelity allows an annual fee to be paid instead of the switching charge. But that has to be arranged through IFA, and I don't know if Cavendish provide access to that.

(Since we're in a cofunds thread : I believe they have a similar 0.25% switching fee, but don't know the details.)

talexuser

Yes, I have stuff in CoFunds and the only real disadvantage is the 0.25% switching fee. But so far I have not needed to churn very often for underperforming funds so the Cavendish simple £25 buy in and full rebates have been very worthwhile.