Regular Investment In Investment Trusts

cloud_dog

Hi

Was hoping someone out there may have good (or bad) experiences of setting up regular investments in to Investment Trusts.

The problem I am coming up against in the different platform providers is that either they don't offer ITs in their Regular Investment account (option) or the ITs they offer are fairly limited.

Some of the Trusts offer direct RI accounts but their own charges can be quite high so something I'm trying to avoid if possible.

I'm looking to add the below two as RI:

• RCM Technology Trust
• Blackrock World Mining IT

RCM don't offer a direct savings plan so, limited to either getting a monthly investment via a platform or buying in a lump sum (defeats the object really).

Blackrock do provide a RI account but they have investment and annual charges.

Any thoughts...... anyone???

EDIT: I've e-mailed iWeb as they don't appear to restrict what RI can go into; certainly not from what I can see on their website.

jimjames

I've used BlackRock but not seen any annual charges. I seem to recall there were charges for ISAs but not direct investments. You do pay dealing charges but they are normally tiny and percentage not fixed amounts.

TCA

I don't know about the specific trusts you mention but I believe You Invest and TD Direct both offer regular investment at £1.50 per share. Neither has holding charges for investment trusts. Same goes for Halifax and IWeb at £2 a go, I see you're investigating the latter.

cloud_dog

jimjames wrote: »

I've used BlackRock but not seen any annual charges. I seem to recall there were charges for ISAs but not direct investments. You do pay dealing charges but they are normally tiny and percentage not fixed amounts.

Thanks for the info. On their FAQ page they keep talking in terms of 'clients' / 'your clients' almost as if a private investor needs aN FA before opening an account.

Under the Charges section it states:

Charges

A dealing charge of 1.25% is payable on all purchases and redemptions.

An Annual Plan Charge is also applicable to any holdings within a BlackRock Investment Trust Stocks and Shares ISA.

This is a charge for managing the Stocks and Shares ISA, which is subject to additional administration and reporting requirements. It is calculated on the 15 March and 15 September each year and is collected by selling the equivalent amount of shares from your client’s BlackRock Stocks and Shares ISA.


In light of RDR changes and revised charging structures I am taking the opportunity to review and move away from funds as.... its getting just too damn complicated to figure out if you are better / worse off. I like things to be simple.

cloud_dog

TCA wrote: »

I don't know about the specific trusts you mention but I believe You Invest and TD Direct both offer regular investment at £1.50 per share. Neither has holding charges for investment trusts. Same goes for Halifax and IWeb at £2 a go, I see you're investigating the latter.

Hi

(somehow I missed your post)

I have an account with TD Direct but they only allow regular investments in the FTSE350, Funds, or ETF/Cs (not sure if this is all or a restrictive list). Ordinarily ITs would be treated as stocks but not many (any?) are in the FTSE350

jimjames

cloud_dog wrote: »

Thanks for the info. On their FAQ page they keep talking in terms of 'clients' / 'your clients' almost as if a private investor needs aN FA before opening an account.

Under the Charges section it states:

Charges

A dealing charge of 1.25% is payable on all purchases and redemptions.

An Annual Plan Charge is also applicable to any holdings within a BlackRock Investment Trust Stocks and Shares ISA.

This is a charge for managing the Stocks and Shares ISA, which is subject to additional administration and reporting requirements. It is calculated on the 15 March and 15 September each year and is collected by selling the equivalent amount of shares from your client’s BlackRock Stocks and Shares ISA.


In light of RDR changes and revised charging structures I am taking the opportunity to review and move away from funds as.... its getting just too damn complicated to figure out if you are better / worse off. I like things to be simple.

Thats the charge for their ISA. If held outside as a share plan only then no annual fees are applied. If the dealing charge includes stamp duty at 0.5% then it isn't too bad and is still a cheap way to hold them as no minimum fees so could be as low as a few pence.

Porcupine

TCA wrote: »

I don't know about the specific trusts you mention but I believe You Invest and TD Direct both offer regular investment at £1.50 per share. Neither has holding charges for investment trusts. Same goes for Halifax and IWeb at £2 a go, I see you're investigating the latter.

IWeb are phasing out their regular investment service, not sure about Halifax (who use the same platform).

cloud_dog

Porcupine wrote: »

IWeb are phasing out their regular investment service, not sure about Halifax (who use the same platform).

Hi

Do you have any info or link that confirms this?

I've just spoken with iWeb regarding my 'needs' and they were able to point me at the Halifax web site, the Support Desk person took me down the 'Funds' route despite me telling him that I was looking for confirmation of Investment Trusts and ETFs..... anyway I used my oh so powerful brain and could see a tab call 'Investment Companies' and have been able to answer my queries.

I am a little concerned by Porcupine's comment but I think I will open an account with iWeb and move my HL Vanguard account monies in to there.

cloud_dog

cloud_dog wrote: »

Do you have any info or link that confirms this?

Have just opened an account and what information do I see......

Removal of regular investments:

We are removing our regular investing service due to low demand. If you have a regular investment set up it will automatically stop from 31st March.

Please note all regular subscriptions will also stop from this date.

NOT HAPPY!!!! :mad:

kidmugsy

Consult p. 44

http://www.theaic.co.uk/sites/default/files/statistics/attachment/AICStats31Dec2013.pdf