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Trustnet launch new DIY investment platform

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  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,676 Forumite
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    edited 3 January 2014 at 7:46PM
    Some answers from the head of Trustnet Direct, John Blowers in the comments to their article
    Thanks you all for your comments. I'd like to answer a few of the questions asked over the holiday period.

    1. Charges on the account. - We offer a single account, with a single set of charges that includes a General Investment Account (GIA), an ISA and a SIPP.

    We can only control our own charges, not those levied by the fund manager for managing the fund, so our cap on charges can only apply to our own service fee.

    Our fees should still be significantly less than those most people are used to and larger portfolios will really see the benefit of a £200 capped fee.


    2. Launch date. It is important that the site is robust and thoroughly tested prior to launch so it has to go through a process.

    We are hoping to be open for business towards the end of January


    3. Who are FE? - FE, formerly known as Financial Express, is one of the leading providers of fund information in the UK.

    It is natural that a firm that provides investment information, data and tools to the industry and investors adds the ability to transact.

    FE is an international data business based in the UK but with a number of offices in Europe, plus operations in India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

    With Trustnet Direct, all client money is held by 3rd party institutions and spread over 5 banks to mitigate risk. We do not hold your money directly.


    4. Editorial content - We will offer the similar content to Trustnet that we view as relevant to experienced as well as novice private investors, including comment from selected IFA firms and specialists in the UK investment industry.


    5. Will Vanguard funds be available? - Yes. We will offer around 32 funds and ETFs from Vanguard's UK operation


    6. Can you transfer Artemis Income into TND? - Yes, and if you do so, we'll move your holding to a clean share class version at no cost, meaning you'll pay 0.75% per annum (plus our service fee of 0.25%). Looking at Bestinvest and HL, the annual TER/OCF figures quoted for the Artemis Income Acc fund are: HL - 1.54%; Bestinvest - 1.55%; Trustnet Direct - 1.04%


    7. Discounts on an ISA. An ISA is free at Trustnet Direct and all funds and shares can be added to the ISA up to the annual allowance. The funds available on Trustnet Direct are all clean share classes.


    8. Can UK equities/shares be transferred in? Yes - no problem
    I came, I saw, I melted
  • lvader
    lvader Posts: 2,579 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I"m not sure I'd trust a single provider with both my ISA and SIPP even if it did save me some money.
  • pip895
    pip895 Posts: 1,178 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Looks very tempting - I may try them out with a relatively small part of my portfolio - It will all depend on the range of funds available.
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,676 Forumite
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    edited 19 January 2014 at 2:56PM
    Note. There is a £144pa SIPP admin charge on top of the 0.25%pa charge (max £200pa, minimum £20pa across accounts) but it will be waived for the first year.

    Some new answers from John Blowers in their article comments
    Pete – the 0.25% annual service charge (minimum £20pa – max £200pa) reflects all of your costs per annum, barring any transactions you make. To be crystal clear, the fund manager still charges their own AMC and sometimes more (known as the TER or OCF), which are clearly referenced on each fund fact sheet.

    Steven T – For regular/monthly investments, the cost per transaction is just £2. So, your investment costs for five funds would be £10 per month. We will have a special offer for clients setting up regular investments where you can invest in up to four funds or shares per month free for the first year.

    Snowman – The SIPP does have an additional annual administration charge which only starts once you activate the SIPP element of your account. It’s £120 + VAT per annum (£144) but again we have a special offer for all new SIPP clients, where we will waive this fee for the first year.

    Thanks again for all your generous support and I’m looking forward to unveiling the site at the end of the month.
    Trustnet Direct look good value where there are significant funds in each of the dealing, ISA and SIPP accounts (say over 100k in each), because that is where the £200pa cap being across accounts has a big affect.

    In that scenario (figures based on exactly 100K of funds in each of the 3 accounts) platform custody charges (ignoring dealing costs) and ignoring initial offers are

    Trustnet:£344pa
    ATS: £366pa
    Youinvest: £700pa
    Charles Stanley: £870pa
    Interactive Investor: £144pa
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  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,537 Forumite
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    SnowMan wrote: »
    That would be very interesting if the cap is per customer.

    It has always surprised me that it is pretty much standard practice that there are no incentives for having ISAs, dealing accounts and SIPPs with the same provider. You seem to pay the same as the total for 3 individual customers each with just a SIPP, ISA and dealing account.
    Interactive Investor are the exception, as their fee covers ISA and dealing account. It also covers those accounts for family members (spouses, children, parents, in-laws).

    SIPP costs extra, as with TrustNet Direct.
    koru
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,676 Forumite
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    edited 14 January 2014 at 8:33PM
    koru wrote: »
    Interactive Investor are the exception, as their fee covers ISA and dealing account. It also covers those accounts for family members (spouses, children, parents, in-laws).

    SIPP costs extra, as with TrustNet Direct.

    Interactive Investor are indeed an exception and currently far and away the cheapest in very many medium to high value fund portfolio scenarios when compared with Youinvest, ATS, Charles Stanley, TD Direct and Trustnet Direct.

    Comparing Interactive Investor with ATS for example

    - the £80pa Interactive Investor dealing account/ISA fixed fee is lower than the £90pa with ATS (and the additional SIPP admin fee of £144pa is also lower than ATS's £186pa)
    - the £80pa applies across both dealing and ISA accounts making them less than half the price of ATS for people with both accounts
    - and for those with a SIPP and an ISA and a dealing account the £80pa is waived for Interattive Investor so just the £144pa is applied whereas with ATS there are 3 charges £186pa + £90pa +£90pa.
    - the £80pa covers 8 free trades across accounts each year (if spread out 2 per quarter) whereas at ATS all trades are paid for (and at a slightly higher rate)
    - there are no family discounts with ATS that I am aware of

    The big question is will Interactive Investor raise fees soon or even move to percentage based charging? And will they allow penalty free exit if they do raise prices?
    I came, I saw, I melted
  • kidmugsy
    kidmugsy Posts: 12,709 Forumite
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    lvader wrote: »
    I"m not sure I'd trust a single provider with both my ISA and SIPP even if it did save me some money.

    I'm glad I'm not alone in that instinct.
    Free the dunston one next time too.
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,537 Forumite
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    SnowMan wrote: »
    The big question is will Interactive Investor raise fees soon or even move to percentage based charging? And will they allow penalty free exit if they do raise prices?
    On percentage fees, they are still pushing their lack of percentage fees as a reason to transfer to them: http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/transfer-to-us

    “We have no percentage-based fees on our investment, ISA and SIPP accounts, which can make a real difference to the cost of your investments, particularly if you have sizeable holdings.”

    Even for a financial services company, it would be cynical to be running marketing like that, just before switching to percentage fees. Whether they might increase their fixed fees, who knows?

    They did grudgingly allow penalty free exit last time, so would they have the nerve not to offer it if they do another big hike?
    koru
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,676 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    koru wrote: »
    On percentage fees, they are still pushing their lack of percentage fees as a reason to transfer to them: http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/transfer-to-us

    “We have no percentage-based fees on our investment, ISA and SIPP accounts, which can make a real difference to the cost of your investments, particularly if you have sizeable holdings.”

    The big flash banner at the top of their home page also says
    We won't charge you a percentage of your assets. Just a simple flat fee when you buy or sell a fund
    I came, I saw, I melted
  • SnowMan
    SnowMan Posts: 3,676 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    You can register to be notified by email when Trustnet Direct open here.

    I've updated the first post on this thread to include the details we think we know so far.
    I came, I saw, I melted
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