HL's future charging structure: any hints, guesses, predictions?

Ark_Welder

gterr wrote: »

I know it's a bit of a crystal ball, but would anyone feel able to predict what HL will do next regarding charges, and/or if we might be best putting our money elsewhere?

No crystal ball, just the suggestion that putting the lump sum onto your existing platform might save having to move later. If the platform turns out to be the cheapest, then you're already there. If it's more expensive then you're moving from just the one platform, whereas using several platforms might mean several moves. If the lump sum was put elsewhere and HL did turn out to be the cheapest then you would probably have to move the funds from the other platform.

HL isn't alone in charging per fund for in specie transfers, it isn't that unusual - it covers the platforms' admin costs of the transfer as much as anything.

Totton

I wouldn't consider any of the announced or soon to be announced charges to be definitive for too long. This is a business where many people are looking to pay the lowest charges, hence we will continue to see platforms tweaking things in the future.

planteria

Totton wrote: »

I wouldn't consider any of the announced or soon to be announced charges to be definitive for too long. This is a business where many people are looking to pay the lowest charges, hence we will continue to see platforms tweaking things in the future.

i agree. on one hand, i don't like charges to be eating into my investments, so like most people, i am interested in this subject. on the other, perhaps being an investor via HL or any other major platform, we should just relax on the basis that they will have to remain/become fairly competitive in order to maintain/grow their business.

chineplate

dunstonh wrote: »

She may do. However, many of the unbundled platforms allow family linking for charges. i.e. the total amount invested on platform by direct family members is what is used as their charging tier.

This interests me, can you point me in the direction of these platforms Thanks

jamiex

Hi all,

This might be useful to some of you. A clubfinance account costs 0.35% per year for anything you hold, and I believe they offer 'clean' share classes for funds, with no trail commissions etc.

I don't currently have an account but am waiting to see what HL do before making any decision to move.

It's a more complicated decision for me because 0.35% seems good for funds, but not for shares. There's a £100 minimum per year charge so if you have less than about £28k then you'll pay £100. Since I mostly hold shares rather than funds, it's cheaper for me to stick with HL and a cheap online broker (SVS). This may change when HL announce their new charging structure.

Regards,
Jamie

dunstonh

This interests me, can you point me in the direction of these platforms Thanks

They are mostly IFA platforms. Unbundled charging happened on the IFA side before the DIY side. Some platforms have been unbundled for many years. There are some DIY platforms that have moved to unbundled method already.

It's a more complicated decision for me because 0.35% seems good for funds, but not for shares.

The idea of unbundling is that the platform charge should not be different across the different type of assets (other than trading costs which may or may not apply). So, you will probably have to stick to what you have.