Changing Cofunds advisers

Sago48

Hi. We have two portfolios of ISAs moved over to the Cofunds platform on the advice of AWD Chase De Vere several years ago. Unfortunately since our own adviser retired we have been unable to get any response from the new adviser. We would like to change advisers and believe that Cavendish would be a good bet. Is this a wise move? Are Cavendish good and/or good value? Thanks.

111KAB

As a bit of an aside I use AWD Chase (Birmingham office) and the guy who looks after me is great. Can you not just put a bullet up AWD - get a decent advisor and save on Cavendish's set up fee?

grey_gym_sock

i think cavendish no longer charge a set-up fee.

cavendish don't provide any financial advice, and instead rebate the trail commission (which would go to your advisor) to you. very good value if you don't want advice. not so good if you do want advice.

dunstonh

Are Cavendish good

Cavendish are neither good or bad. They put in place what you request at the agreed charges and that's it. It is a DIY service. Not an advisory or discretionary service.

Sago48

Thanks for the replies. I did know something about Cavendish's not being advisers and their fees being lower. In any event have just been advised by Cavendish that they don't deal with Cofunds now. Need to think through what we want out of this. Thanks to all.

jimjames

I'm with Cavendish and very happy with them. It was a very easy to transfer from BestInvest to them for my Cofunds account, literally one form to sign and all happened behind the scenes.

It's a shame if they are no longer allowing re-registration for Cofunds.

talexuser

jimjames wrote: »

It's a shame if they are no longer allowing re-registration for Cofunds.

News to me, I also have some Cofunds stuff with them and have been very pleased, the refunds are well worth it for reinvestment, and the one minor mistake I made at first was quickly put right.

I think the Cofunds 0.25% switching fee is looking un-competitive compared to Fundsnetwork, although I can't remember if you have a yearly fee for free switching with Fidelity.

Rollinghome

talexuser wrote: »

News to me, I also have some Cofunds stuff with them and have been very pleased, the refunds are well worth it for reinvestment, and the one minor mistake I made at first was quickly put right.

I think the Cofunds 0.25% switching fee is looking un-competitive compared to Fundsnetwork, although I can't remember if you have a yearly fee for free switching with Fidelity.

They haven't been allowing new Cofunds accounts for a while. There's no Fidelity switching fee for clients of CavendishOnline.

Also worth noting that due to likely RDR changes Fidelity won't be returning commission rebates quarterly as cash but will be used to buy more units. http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/investments/changes-to-rebates/

Rollinghome

Sago48 wrote: »

Hi. We have two portfolios of ISAs moved over to the Cofunds platform on the advice of AWD Chase De Vere several years ago. Unfortunately since our own adviser retired we have been unable to get any response from the new adviser. We would like to change advisers and believe that Cavendish would be a good bet. Is this a wise move? Are Cavendish good and/or good value? Thanks.

This is likely to be a question facing a lot of investors as RDR makes it clearer just how much they are paying for financial advice.

I understand that AWD Chase De Vere are moving to charging a straight 1% of assets. (I also heard that they’ll be paying their IFAs a higher base salary and so making them less dependent on sales commission which at least should be a good thing.)

On top of that 1% clients will have to pay the AMC to the fund managers (without the commission formerly paid to the adviser), plus the charges of Cofunds or whatever platform is used, plus other costs, some of which will appear in the TER and some which won’t such as the costs of trading the underlying assets. At 1% the total is likely to be 2.5% to 3% or more taken out of returns.

If the period ahead is one of low returns as many forecast, then investors are going to have to ask if paying so many layers of costs is justified when it’s known the majority of managed funds actually return less than you’d expect from random chance – less than a monkey with a pin.

Bill Mott of the PSigma Income fund recently said "We believe there is a 60pc probability of gradual recovery over several years of slow economic growth but, alternatively, there is also the risk of deflation like that seen in Japan over the last 20 years if deleveraging of debt proves too great, or the risk of rising inflation if QE pumps too much liquidity into the system".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9590785/Dividends-the-magic-pill-for-investors.html No one will need reminding that Japan’s Nikkei still sits at less than 25% of where it was over 20 years ago.

Paying large fees on top of small or negative returns will be painful. Most advisers can be useful for guidance on pensions and the like but generally poor at investment management. Investors will have to consider paying high fees on low returns make sense when there are other options.

gadgetmind

If I could have thanked Rollinghome ten times then I would have done!

The three key steps for the next few years are cut costs to the bone, diversify widely, and chill. All three are important and none can be skipped.

grey_gym_sock

gadgetmind wrote: »

The three key steps for the next few years are ... and chill.

ah, but that doesn't work for red wine