Stocks & Shares ISAs

supersabw

Keep Pedalling - it's not that I am unhappy with RL, it's the way my business was sold on from what I perceived to be "with advice" to "no advice" . The fact that RL needed to distribute a leaflet explaining this to ex-CIS customers (specifiying that the leaflet was aimed at ex-CIS customers) demonstrates that I wasn't the only one labouring under an illusion. Did someone say that RL had actually done well with this product?

dunstonh

Mega Magnificent Maxi-Meticulous Uber-MoneySaving Magnate: How can you possibly know which funds or trusts or whatever I hold?

Because you told us in post 281.

When I liaise with RL they say they need the exact name of each fund/trust whatever, clearly showing that there are many variations/editions.

RL are home to a number of companies that they have bought over the years. However, CIS only had one range of UT funds. So, its very easy.

it's the way my business was sold on from what I perceived to be "with advice" to "no advice"

You got advice at point of sale from the CIS sales rep. Your perception of ongoing advice is what was wrong.

asc1991

Martins page on this ignore Hargreaves Lansdown as one of the best providers. Perhaps because there's a (quite typical) platform fee.

What Martin ignores is that the annual fund fees are typically lower for funds bought through HL. Jupiter India is about 1.1% with axa but 0.69% with HL.

bowlhead99

asc1991 wrote: »

Martins page on this ignore Hargreaves Lansdown as one of the best providers. Perhaps because there's a (quite typical) platform fee.

It is a money saving expert site after all. Hargreaves's fee is not 'quite typical' but is literally the highest percentage-based fee that you will find anywhere in the mainstream UK DIY market.

What Martin ignores is that the annual fund fees are typically lower for funds bought through HL.

What HL have done is negotiate with certain managers that they will push so much business towards that manager that the manager is willing to give them access to an exclusive class of shares with a lower charge. That way, HL are able to keep billing their customers their outrageous 0.45% a year, but the customers don't mind so much because the all-in price for that particular holding does not end up quite as expensive.

In this way, out of the total cost of running and distributing the fund, HL as the platform administrator/ distributor gets a lot of it and the manager who is doing the actual work to invest the money is left with relatively little. But the fund manager does at least get more money toward his fees and operating costs than if he did not have the investor at all, so some of them will go for it (although sometimes what they give HL is not completely exclusive, it is given to a number of other providers too). But some managers such as Fundsmith have just told HL to eff off.

So, HL have only done this with certain managers. Where discounts are given, they are usually a lot less than HL's total platform fee and in many/most cases are a good bit less than the extra platform fee that HL charges compared to other lower cost providers.

Jupiter India is about 1.1% with axa but 0.69% with HL.

The Jupiter example is certainly an outlier with a saving of over 0.3% compared to the standard Class I. Most are much lower than that.

In return, HL have added Jupiter India to the 'wealth 150+' list of their preferred funds to which investors are directed as being the funds that HL think their investors would be best to invest in out of the options in that sector (although the small print is that HL are not advising you at all, because they are an execution only service, so if your investment goes wrong it is not their fault). Effectively it is a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" relationship. HL's expensive service appears a little less expensive and the fund managers get their name up in lights for investors who do not want to do their own research and look beyond the "150+" marketing list. Of which there are a lot.

The idea that "the annual fund fees are typically lower for funds bought through HL" is marketing spin from HL themselves that you have bought hook line and sinker. The average fund does not have any discount at all. Certain funds favoured by HL and pushed to investors have cost discounts to distract from the high ongoing cost of the HL service, but most of those discounts are not higher than the price differential between HL and a cheaper rival.

For example, HL is 0.45% while the fee at Charles Stanley Direct, Youinvest, Cavendish / Cofunds is 0.25%, a 0.2% saving on your entire portfolio. If you go to HL's "wealth150+" page, there are just over forty funds listed with discounts of no more than 0.2%. There are then just over ten funds with discounts of over 0.2%. There are over two thousand funds which are not on the list of having any special discounts.

This is not to say that HL have a bad product because life is not all about lowest cost solutions. My mum and dad both use them and they have a decent reputation for service and if the amounts you are investing is not so much that 0.45% a year is a large absolute amount of pounds. However, my parents will both be moving their ISAs later this year as the fees are now too big to ignore.

bowlhead99

supersabw wrote: »

For now, in principle, are there any products out there on offer between "safe" (ie negligible growth) and "medium risk"?

Risk is a sliding scale. Yes there are many funds targeting lower than medium risk.

We still don't know exactly what you hold in what proportions to be able to comment whether what you have would fit into a current interpretation of medium risk.

jimjames

asc1991 wrote: »

What Martin ignores is that the annual fund fees are typically lower for funds bought through HL. Jupiter India is about 1.1% with axa but 0.69% with HL.

You've been taken in my the HL marketing I'm afraid. Have a look at an average portfolio (which would have funds other than Jupiter India) in it and you'll find that HL isn't actually cheaper especially for larger sums as savings are wiped out by the higher platform fee. I was with HL but moved to iWeb. Website isn't comparable but it's saving me over £500 per year

supersabw

For those on a learning curve like me, what kind of products are available on an "upwards" scale (ie gradually increasing risk/versus potential for growth) above Cash ISAs and "locked away" investments which seem to me to offer little improvement in growth (small percentage higher interest) for the forfeit of access or degree of risk

bigfreddiel

supersabw wrote: »

Dunstonh -Seems you don't approve of Martin Lewis's crusades to get justice/change for those of us who have been misled, then. What are you doing on his forums -questioning the veracity of the experiences of people who dare to question the fairness of what and how they were sold financial products, and trying to crawl out of the oblivion they find themselves in? Tolerance? Who do you think you are! Your arrogance does not belong on the website of the great man himself who chooses to debunk the myths pedalled by "advisors" of many generations (many before "Independent Financial Advisor" was even part of the industry's parlance) and whose modus operandi is to respectfully encourage us to challenge. Were it not for Martin Lewis, those of us whose skills lie elsewhere would still be the victims of an industry shrouded in mystery and mystique and disparagement; but Martin leads the way of clarity and being unafraid of the false "gods" of the sector - by showing us respect and encouragement. Please grace another thread with your brand of "expertise", whilst I try to benefit from those who I have the right to choose to liaise with. Your self-made strap-line says it all about you....

To true. I like your style. Cheers fj

eskbanker

supersabw wrote: »

For those on a learning curve like me, what kind of products are available on an "upwards" scale (ie gradually increasing risk/versus potential for growth) above Cash ISAs and "locked away" investments which seem to me to offer little improvement in growth (small percentage higher interest) for the forfeit of access or degree of risk

Once beyond cash deposits, there is P2P lending and then the whole world of investment, which includes bonds, shares, funds and a myriad of other instruments - you could do worse than reading up at sites like Monevator and Motley Fool for briefings on the parlance.

However, you've mentioned your 'impending retirement' in an earlier post and that would just be one of many factors that should influence what you do with your money (others include objectives, timescales, pension provisions, cash savings, other investments, other assets such as property, age, health, dependents, etc, etc, as well as the seemingly contentious issue of attitude to risks, in a somewhat more nuanced way than low/medium/high) so at the risk of (re)lighting the blue touch paper, it probably would be worth consulting with some IFAs to get meaningful advice for your individual circumstances, as it is quite late in life to be starting down the DIY route as a novice and the wrong decisions now could be costly. If you think you've fared badly even after taking advice, you should see how some have done without it....

You could post up more detail about your financial circumstances on here, but I have to agree with some of the other posters that you do seem rather thin-skinned and not particularly receptive to input that doesn't coincide with your preconceptions, so that may actually be counterproductive.

riqs001

Does anyone here use idealing's?

I cant find their fx conversion fee anywhere
Also do they handle W-8BEN forms?