H & l sipp

dunstonh

itm2 wrote: »

Interesting...I just entered details of my current H&L SIPP holdings into comparefundplatforms.com and it told me that "none of the platforms offer the combination of funds you've selected". I guess this means they either don't included H&L in their assessment or their logic is flawed. Either way, it caused me to lose a little confidence in it....

Remember that some platforms restrict fund choice. So, some could be eliminated for that reason. Or they may not hold the master fund but a different class and could be eliminated that way. I found the IFA platform comparators weak for that basis as they would eliminate for different share classes or use out of date data saying it wasnt available when it was.

grey_gym_sock

it says on the homepage of http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/ that HL isn't included because they declined to supply data. and that some of the platforms that are included haven't yet supplied complete fund lists. hopefully the site will become more comprehensive over time.

ozzage

My reasoning might be a bit unorthodox, but personally if you are interested in learning more about this topic then I would absolutely get a HL SIPP.

Sure you might get a slightly cheaper deal using a stakeholder or with another SIPP provider, but for me personally, the analysis tools and website design of Hargreaves Lansdown encourage me to continually research and learn more about investing and the type of funds available. I have no doubt that over the length of my investing "career" this is worth far more than a fraction of a percent saved in fees.

I can do an x-ray analysis across all/part of my holdings and see in which countries I'm invested, which sectors, which individual shares my funds are holding, do very quick and simple comparisons against indices, other funds etc. YES you can also find this from Morningstar etc but it's much more convenient to do it in the same platform that's holding your investments. There is no real comparison between the websites of HL and the other providers.

I used to have a personal pension with Standard Life and I really knew nothing about my investments. It was difficult to find information and compare my funds with others, plus the costs were far more opaque than with HL! I could not recommend them for DIY at all. It's fine if an IFA is monitoring things for you but if you want to know what's going on yourself it's a nightmare.

You also don't absolutely need to go for a low-cost tracker which attracts the £24 fee, even though I am generally a fan of passive investment. Personally for somebody starting out I think you could do much worse than looking at something like the Jupiter Merlin Income Portfolio. It has MUCH higher fees than the trackers but historically (and it has a long history) has more than made up for those costs with its over-performance. It was originally recommended by my IFA, if that helps :P

A HL SIPP with a fund with no platform charge is a very cheap option, and you could do far worse.

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4467587
have you looked at this thread?

simreb

HL SIPP is expensive compared with other platforms around some of which are refunding all the trailing annual charges and initial fees. Look at Alliance, Cavendish and the other companies coming on the market.What appear to be small annual renewal fees can add up to a huge amount over a period. HL may provide good information on their website but it is all available in more comprehensive form elsewhere on the internet eg Trustnet, Morningstar. If you are srious abourt investing then even if you are with HL then you need to enter your portfolio up into something like Trustnet, MorningStar or iii, in order to get a full analysis. HL are only refunding a very small amout of the annula trailing charge back to customers. They say up to 0.5% but the average is well under 0.2% and many it's 0%. Most current comparisons in the press eg Moneymail put HL as the most expensive current platform. Now if HL reduced their trailing fees or cancelled them and charged in amore transparent way then I would go for HL but not with their current charging.Also beware of signing up for their managed SIPP where they will make a % annaul charge on your fund and they also take and keep the trailing refunds from the fund companies. They also put most of your funds into their own funds which is suspicious to me.

itm2

I've just done a couple of spot comparisons between Cavendish and HL, but am having problems comparing them because Cavendish quote a "Renewal Commission Rebate" (typically 0.5%), whereas HL don't explicitly refer to renewal commission in their charge breakdown. Would this be what HL refer to as "Fund manager's other expenses"?

grey_gym_sock

no, the equivalent of cavendish's "renewal commission rebate" is HL's "loyalty bonus".

"Fund manager's other expenses" will be the same amount for the same fund via any platform. they are extra costs incurred by the fund on top of the fund manager's annual charge.

itm2

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

no, the equivalent of cavendish's "renewal commission rebate" is HL's "loyalty bonus".

"Fund manager's other expenses" will be the same amount for the same fund via any platform. they are extra costs incurred by the fund on top of the fund manager's annual charge.

In that case unfortunately my brief analysis of 10 of my current HL ISA holdings shows Cavendish not competing very well with HL - 5 of them aren't available at all through Cavendish (including Ruffer, Odey, Troy) and 3 of the other 5 have higher AMC's than HL (and only one lower). The initial charges are identical.

That's a shame, as I was really hoping to find some decent competition to HL, if only to spread my eggs into a 2nd basket.

grey_gym_sock

i'm a bit surprised by the higher AMCs. care to give an example?

itm2

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i'm a bit surprised by the higher AMCs. care to give an example?

- Jupiter Strategic Bond - 1.15% at HL vs 1.25% at Cavendish
- Std Life Global Abs.Return Strategies 1.4% at HL vs 1.5% at Cavendish
- M&G Global Macro Bond - 1.13% at HL vs 1.25% at Cavendish

I've just had a couple of IFA's warning me that HL screw you on the "hidden" annual management charges but on the basis of this small and unscientific analysis I'm not sure I'm prepared to take their comments at face value!