SIPP - 'best' provider?

Axion

I've been a member a long time but have rarely if ever posted - more of a passive reader!

Since the change in legislation affecting the discount brokers, which is currently the best/cheapest SIPP provider out there?

Essentially I am looking for the cheapest provider with a broad range of investment options.

from my research thus far I have short-listed:
- Hargreaves Lansdown
- BestInvest
- SippDeal

I would also like to open a S&S ISA at the same time - preferably with the same provider to reduce the amount of admin hassle, but equally if this is best done at separate providers I'd rather get the best deal!

I don't need any investment advice, just good and cheap service!

Thanks in advance for anyone's input/opinions.

BLB53

As I have both sipp and isa with them, I would say Sippdeal.

grey_gym_sock

alliance trust are worth a look if you have quite a lot in a SIPP. especially for funds, where they have "clean" share classes, i.e. ones that don't pay commission so lower AMC.

snowcat53

I'm with Bestinvest, though only for 2 months to date. Excellent website and clear info on funds (better than Sippdeal and Alliance Trust when i researched them) and they were good on the transfers from my other pensions and ISAs and reimbursing costs on the latter . On the other hand I have had some concerns recently about the time they have taken to execute fund transfers and deals - i need to check this with them.

dunstonh

Since the change in legislation affecting the discount brokers, which is currently the best/cheapest SIPP provider out there?

There has been no change for discount brokers. The platform review is running late and is likely to hit in 2014. The FSA is looking at bringing SIPP only providers into the platform review.

Daniel_Elkington

It depends what you are buying - the charges for direct holdings (property / shares / bonds) are massively different on each platform.

If you are talking about funds then the charges are irrelevant as the charges published don't actually include all the charges anyway.

If you give us a bit of a clue what you are buying and your levels of activity then we could probably help out a little bit.

Aegis

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

If you are talking about funds then the charges are irrelevant as ....

Charges are never irrelevant.

jamesd

Axion wrote: »

Since the change in legislation affecting the discount brokers, which is currently the best/cheapest SIPP provider out there?

The only DIY discount broker I know of that has changed to the new style is Alliance Trust and it has now standardised on managed funds with 0.75% annual charge and no commission instead of the old 1.5% with 0.75% commission included. It won't be easy to beat compared to other DIY platforms for amounts over £100,000 if you don't trade much, and even £50,000 might make it a good deal.

IFAs have other platforms available using similar terms and those might be cheaper.

The amount you have to invest, the way the money is split between investment types and how often you change investments are critical concerns that will affect pricing. Larger pot sizes and infrequent trading will strongly favour Alliance Trust while small amounts and regular fund trading might favour Hargreaves Lansdown even though they take perhaps 0.6% from the fund commission, down from perhaps 0.75-0.8%, varies by fund.

It's entirely possible that you might find that it's most efficient to have two or more pension providers, perhaps one for core holdings that are seldom traded and another for adding new money and more regular trading. Then transfer to the core one every few years.

You can expect that during this year and early next year there will be significant changes in the pricing availability for the DIY market as providers adjust to and compete with the IFA and Alliance Trust pricing even before the FSA makes it mandatory to take charges from something other than commission.

Axion

Thanks for all the replies guys

I have a pension that my employer contributes to (I also contribute a small amount, just enough to get the maximum contributions from them)

this will be an entirely separate SIPP so the amounts will be <50k for the next ~2 years.

I don't intend for it to be hugely high frequency - there are CFDs and spread betting for that (obviously this is outside the SIPP) - whilst frankly I don't have the time for high frequency anyway! Lets say it's unlikely I'll do more than 2-3 trades per month on average.

As for composition I honestly haven't given it that much thought yet, as it will be largely affected by my risk sentiment/views but I will likely have a core holding in a either a couple of funds, or index trackers. Whilst complementing that with a few etfs/single stocks or bond positions depending on market conditions.