S&S Isa Novice trying to open one

Drother

Here's my situation, for years I've nurtured my savings with bonds and cash isa's, a few months ago my wife and I inherited a large 50K + lump sum, so with rates being low and never being exposed to stocks and shares ( I roughly about shares pro's and cons and charges etc ) I thought I could just pop along to a bank or building society like cash ISA fill the forms in and bingo.

Question 1: Have all the banks / building societies outsourced their advisor's as they all seem to be IFA's working with the likes of Legal and general etc, so you can no longer just pop in

Question 2: I have seen 3 advisors from HSBC/ Lloyds / Skipton, each seem only to state they usually only deal with 50K plus investments ( so the person making the appointment obviously mislead them not explaining I'm only interested in a toe in the water 2 x £5K investment for my wife and my ISA allowance) so the first meeting is a get to know you only and the quotes I've had so far tend to be for the larger type investment, so how do I get an advisor to just quote on the S&S ISA

Question 3 : how have the returns on S&S ISA's been during the last 3 years, again it seems difficult to get figures to know what to look for as a guideline

Any advice who be really helpful :think:

xylophone

returns on S&S ISA's been during the last 3 years,

That would depend on what was held within the S&S Isa.
The advisers at the banks and building societies will only suggest their own products.
An Independent Financial Adviser will look at a wider range of options but £10000 is not really IFA territory?

You might consider "dipping a toe in the market" by investing through a broker like Cavendish. http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/investments/our-service/
You might consider a distribution fund?http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/14521/inflation-hits-distribution-fund-returns

Drother

Really good suggestion, many thanks, will look into the Cavendish option, I would still like to know if any other investors have found the S&S ISA route to be more awkward than expected regarding taking out their yearly option

dunstonh

I would still like to know if any other investors have found the S&S ISA route to be more awkward than expected regarding taking out their yearly option

No they havent. It is an absolute doddle.

Question 1: Have all the banks / building societies outsourced their advisor's as they all seem to be IFA's working with the likes of Legal and general etc, so you can no longer just pop in

They are not IFAs. They are FAs. Big difference. The ability to just pop in and sign a form hasnt existed for nearly 25 years.

Question 2: I have seen 3 advisors from HSBC/ Lloyds / Skipton, each seem only to state they usually only deal with 50K plus investments ( so the person making the appointment obviously mislead them not explaining I'm only interested in a toe in the water 2 x £5K investment for my wife and my ISA allowance) so the first meeting is a get to know you only and the quotes I've had so far tend to be for the larger type investment, so how do I get an advisor to just quote on the S&S ISA

Most of the banks are pulling out of investment advice or only dealing with people above a certain amount to invest. This is a consequence of the retail distribution review by the FSA.

Question 3 : how have the returns on S&S ISA's been during the last 3 years, again it seems difficult to get figures to know what to look for as a guideline

Over 30,000 investment options and a near infinite variety. It is impossible to answer that question.

jamesd

Over the last three years returns have probably been quite good in general because that starts near the end of 2009. If you waited a month and asked again but for four years instead of three the answer would be extremely good because that would be starting just after a big drop. Do it for five years instead and it'd have been down to so-so instead because of that big drop that has in a fair number of cases not fully recovered.

The investments within a stocks and shares ISA go up and down like that. The long term trend beats savings accounts but along the way it'll be higher or lower.

jimjames

For getting started a site like HL http://www.hl.co.uk/ is a good place to look. You can open the ISA online and have a huge choice of funds to put in it - possibly too big a choice if you are starting out!

innovate

I would have thought the OP needs to start by reading some general stuff about investing. Such as the book "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale. Or at least the Passive Investing section on Monevator.

Drother

Thought I'd post an update regarding my quest, finally going ahead, I actually found an IFA provided through the Chelsea building society who was more than happy to spend lots of time explaining the in's and out's of investing......and happy with my wife and me investing our remaining 11K allowance....without trying to wrestle our larger sum from us, upshot is he will probably get the same in April, so 22K in 5 months, perhaps the likes of HSBC should be aware there are other customers out who need to be treated with respect rather than being made to feel uneasy about putting 50K in their basket .

PS: thanks to everybody who replied to my post each provided me with options and suggestions which helped enormously

jem16

Drother wrote: »

I actually found an IFA provided through the Chelsea building society

As far as I can see, the Chelsea Building society don't provide IFAs but financial consultants who work for Legal & General.

Drother

Thanks Jem16, you are quite right sorry I automatically called them all IFA's, for me the Financial consultant hit the right level I was looking for, so I'm looking forward to see how things progress, I don't think the IFA route is for me at the moment.......