Moving Investments

irm

My wife set up an investment fund that was originally opened via Allied Dunbar in 2002, and has since moved to Zurich. It's now worth just shy of 20K.

After lots of phone calls to them, we believe the fund is actually managed by Threadneedle, with a name of 'Managed G4 Al'.

The reason for sussing this out was to see if we could actually move the investment to someone like Cavendish, who - to my untrained eye - appear to offer a better deal in terms of running the fund, with (I assume) lower fees and rebates on trail commission.

Here's my questions though:

1) We don't actually know if trail commission is paid on this. I guess the only way to find out will to play phone menu roulette once again? If it *isn't* paid, perhaps there isn't much point in moving?

2) She currently has a direct debit to Zurich for £100 a month. Would this continue (to Zurich or to Cavendish?) or would this part of it need to be set up again.

3) And finally, short of just cashing it in, are there any other options we should be looking at?

If it helps, a brief email I got from Cavendish basically stated:
[FONT=&quot] You will need to investigate whether any trail commission is paid on this fund then we will rebate it back to you each year, less a £10 administration fee. So you should also work out whether the trail commission that you would receive back is greater than the £10 administration fee.[/FONT]

Thanks

gadgetmind

Is this help inside a tax wrapper such as pension, ISA, investment bond, etc?

irm

gadgetmind wrote: »

Is this help inside a tax wrapper such as pension, ISA, investment bond, etc?

Sorry, I should have mentioned that. It's not in an ISA wrapper. We have cash ISAs (approx 50K between us) but this is the only S&S related thing we've ever dealt with, apart from our 3 year old son's child trust fund.

gadgetmind

And you're sure it's not a S&S ISA (nee PEP, etc.)?

You may be able to change your "IFA" to Cavendish t avoid trail, but it might be that you're be better selling up your funds and starting again in a NISA after July. As current value is £20k, it's more then likely that you won't exceed your CGT allowance in the process.

irm

gadgetmind wrote: »

And you're sure it's not a S&S ISA (nee PEP, etc.)?

99.9% sure it's not an ISA.

It was locked in for the first 10 years although I believe it can be cashed in now without penalty. It's classed as a "Zurich Maximum Investment Plan". Annoyingly we have very little documentation on it.

gadgetmind

Sounds like an old school deeply-opaque high-fee product.

You might be better checking what penalties (and tax, but unlikely) might be involved in getting your hands on the cash and then treat re-investing as a separate process.

xylophone

http://factsheets.financialexpress.net/zuri/ALMGD1_AL62_ZUR.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2001/oct/28/shares.wheretobuyshares
The MIP was just reinvested on maturity?

Assuming there are no penalties, on selling the units, you/your wife could invest in stocks and shares ISAs and contribute regularly?

http://langcatfinancial.co.uk/2014/01/big-bristol-beasts-bring-beat-back-hl-unveils-pricing/

You might consider Charles Stanley?

irm

Thanks, both. It sounds like cashing in (assuming we can do so without (much) penalty) is probably the best option. At least then we'd be starting fresh with something we'd have a better chance of understanding.

This policy was actually sold to my wife by her brother. Make of that what you will...