Hargreaves Lansdown "playing hardball"

Algie

I have just read my letter from HL.
I have 500k invested in Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% equity.
If I am reading the new charging structure correctly it looks like I will be charged £1750 per year in future, up from my current annual charge of £24! I am clearly one of the losers with this change

zaspa

I have a SIPP worth about 300k in low cost Vanguard trackers & ETFs. Looks like I'm not going to get a great deal.

I invested in them because of the super-low charges - 0.15-0.3% annually. The idea of giving HL 0.45% on top of that defeats the object of having such a low-cost portfolio. They say they will be launching very low cost L&G and Blackrock trackers. I don't want those, I want my Vanguard ones!

Account currently costing me £2/month for 5 funds (£120/year). I can bear that. A 1100% increase to £1350/year? Don't think so.

As pointed out earlier, I'm in the sweet spot for people who really should consider moving their SIPP somewhere else.

Oh well....

Lokolo

hyposmurf wrote: »

Here's another change to their charging:

Account closure fee £25 +VAT

It was free before, but other platforms charge a lot more.

(This fee will apply to all cash transfers to other providers from 2 June 2014.)

So people will need to move before then to get it free.

edit... Transfer forms at the ready! Cavendish have just emailed me theirs.

qwesterr

Algie wrote: »

I have just read my letter from HL.
I have 500k invested in Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% equity.
If I am reading the new charging structure correctly it looks like I will be charged £1750 per year in future, up from my current annual charge of £24! I am clearly one of the losers with this change

Similar situation here. Does anyone know who is the best provider to move to?

Gaaraz

~£20k invested in the Vanguard Lifestrategy fund through an ISA
~£15k invested in Cazenove, Unicorn funds outside an ISA

And my wife has ~£10k invested in Vanguard also through an ISA

Is there anyway to easily work out which platform will be the best for us? iii looks good if we keep adding to the pot, otherwise Cavendish could be a good shout?

Lokolo

Gaaraz wrote: »

~£20k invested in the Vanguard Lifestrategy fund through an ISA
~£15k invested in Cazenove, Unicorn funds outside an ISA

And my wife has ~£10k invested in Vanguard also through an ISA

Is there anyway to easily work out which platform will be the best for us? iii looks good if we keep adding to the pot, otherwise Cavendish could be a good shout?

How much do you put in? Regular investment or one offs? iii charge £1.50 per regular investment, or £10 trading charge. So a £50 a month investment would incur a 3% loss at buy. (then you want to sell it will cost £10)

Gaaraz

Thanks Loko, we'd add to the ISAs as a single one off deposit each year, hopefully maxing out the allowance.

The funds are another matter, I try to add to them if/when we have any surplus but that is quite rare...

No plans to sell any funds any time soon, so hopefully we won't have to touch it From what you said though, maybe looking elsewhere (Cavendish or similar) would be more flexible.

jimjames

qwesterr wrote: »

Similar situation here. Does anyone know who is the best provider to move to?

For just funds Cavendish may be cheapest up to a certain amount BUT they don't have all the same funds as HL available such as Vanguard.

gterr

Gaaraz wrote: »

~£20k invested in the Vanguard Lifestrategy fund through an ISA
~£15k invested in Cazenove, Unicorn funds outside an ISA

And my wife has ~£10k invested in Vanguard also through an ISA

Is there anyway to easily work out which platform will be the best for us? iii looks good if we keep adding to the pot, otherwise Cavendish could be a good shout?

Yep, we are looking at iii too, since we have mainly Vanguard Lifestrategy funds, and can make use of the 'family' discount. However, iii has some very poor reviews for customer service. if you read the reviews most of these stem from the introduction of the £20 per quarter charge - which was perhaps unusual at the time, but is common now. I'm afraid you have to do your own research on this, but for us moving to iii seems to be a no-brainer. I'm not rushing: I'll have a good read of this forum during the next few days before deciding.

dunstonh

Algie wrote: »

I have just read my letter from HL.
I have 500k invested in Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% equity.
If I am reading the new charging structure correctly it looks like I will be charged £1750 per year in future, up from my current annual charge of £24! I am clearly one of the losers with this change

You are. However, you are unprofitable to them and were effectively a loss leader they could get away with when others were cross subsidising you. With the cross subsidy gone, you now have to pay your way. You may well be better off with a personal pension given your basic investments. A SIPP really isnt suitable for you.