The right platform for me?

SnowMan

Totton wrote: »

Rubbish, you know no better than anyone else if in the future they will be expensive or not :-)

According to Candid Money Hargeaves Lansdown are running at a margin of 0.6% per annum currently.

This Telegraph article suggests that HL are going down the percentage charge fee model.

Charles Stanley charge 0.25% pa.

So unless HL cut their margins massively it is hard to see how they won't be expensive.

Remember that the RDR platform paper indicates that the platform charge has to be consistent across investments so HL can't obviously charge a lower percentage platform charge for trackers than active funds.

There is talk about HL trying to obtain preferential super clean share classes, but as the cheapest trackers have very low charges then that isn't going to make much difference for these cheap tracker funds.

So it is a pretty reasoned argument to say they will probably be expensive. I don't know of course but it is certainly not 'rubbish' to suggest that they will be expensive.

Rollinghome

Wouldn't think that SnowMan is saying anything controversial: those who value the free envelopes, a snazzy website and lots of hand-holding will need to pay for that; for those who just want the highest return on their investments there will be more suitable options.

For someone with perhaps just a £5k ISA then the extra convenience of HL at a cost of £30 a year might be a sensible choice. For those who have, or with ambitions to have, much larger sums, probably less so.

There's been some hints that they'll introduce a sliding scale of some sort to make them more competitive for larger investors but they won't have much margin for that without squeezing small investors. How they try to square the circle should be interesting.

Ark_Welder

Totton wrote: »

Rubbish, you know no better than anyone else if in the future they will be expensive or not :-)

Irony is such a misunderstood form of humour.

dunstonh

There is talk about HL trying to obtain preferential super clean share classes, but as the cheapest trackers have very low charges then that isn't going to make much difference for these cheap tracker funds.

HL are a big player but they are not the biggest. A number of the IFA platforms are bigger. So, what they get, you cant see the other bigger platforms wanting the same.

I wonder if this is in part with fund houses actually charging more on many clean share classes to allow them to come in with suiperclean via chosen fund platforms later? (theory and opinion only - nothing to support that view)

maryjanell79

Cavendish are cheaper than Hargreaves. You can compare the cost of providers here: http://www.rplan.co.uk/compare

JohnRo

I rather trust this table.

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/