Stocks & Shares ISAs

eskbanker

jicms wrote: »

I am completely new to stocks & shares ISAs and have £40k to invest and possibly another £40k in April.

Unless you actually mean 'we' rather than 'I', you're restricted to putting no more than £20K into ISAs in any given tax year.

jicms wrote: »

Should I go for what looks like the safest option with say Hargreaves Lansdown or go for one with lower charges like Nutmeg, ii or Wealthify. Is it worth trying to save on charges which might be outweighed by better returns from a more experienced platform’s fund. I presume changing platforms means having to sell and buy a different fund?

Start by identifying the fund(s) you wish to invest in and then choose the most suitable platform on which to hold it/them - if it's a fairly mainstream fund then chances are that all the mainstream platforms will offer it. In general funds that are only offered by one platform will be poor value for money so keep an eye on both the fund and the platform costs.

jicms wrote: »

Also should I hold back the money to drip feed as seems to be the recommended route.

Recommended where? The prevailing view on here and other investment sites is that when starting with a lump sum, on average it'll be more advantageous to invest it all as soon as possible rather than drip-feeding, on the basis that markets are generally expected to rise over the long term, and therefore there should be more months with increases than drops. The concise version of this being 'time in the market, not timing the market'.

jicms wrote: »

Also is it usual to put the whole lot with one provider and fund or split it with someone like Vanguard?

£40-80K doesn't need to be split, but once beyond that then it would typically make sense to consider multiple platforms, although it's just a rule of thumb rather than something cast in tablets of stone....

jicms

eskbanker wrote: »

Unless you actually mean 'we' rather than 'I', you're restricted to putting no more than £20K into ISAs in any given tax year.
Yes I do actually mean we to include my partner investing the same.
Start by identifying the fund(s) you wish to invest in and then choose the most suitable platform on which to hold it/them - if it's a fairly mainstream fund then chances are that all the mainstream platforms will offer it. In general funds that are only offered by one platform will be poor value for money so keep an eye on both the fund and the platform costs.
This is great to clarify as I couldn't find this information elsewhere and wondered how to choose the fund if it meant ploughing through a dozen or so platforms.
Recommended where? The prevailing view on here and other investment sites is that when starting with a lump sum, on average it'll be more advantageous to invest it all as soon as possible rather than drip-feeding, on the basis that markets are generally expected to rise over the long term, and therefore there should be more months with increases than drops. The concise version of this being 'time in the market, not timing the market'.
I'd read about drip feeding being better for nervous investors so again this is good news that lump sum investing is the way to go.
£40-80K doesn't need to be split, but once beyond that then it would typically make sense to consider multiple platforms, although it's just a rule of thumb rather than something cast in tablets of stone....

Many thanks for answering all my questions so clearly!

Musselwhite

Can anyone help, I want to pay £50 a month into a shares ISA for my grandson, is this a good option rather than a standard junior ISA? Thank you

eskbanker

Musselwhite wrote: »

I want to pay £50 a month into a shares ISA for my grandson, is this a good option rather than a standard junior ISA?

Possibly - it keeps the money in your own name which leaves you in control of exactly when he gets access to it, rather than this being automatic on his 18th birthday. However, retaining the money in your name means that it's legally yours if the level of your assets ever needs to be evaluated for benefits, care, divorce, etc....

Tavistock

Hi - I am looking to open a S&S ISA into which I will be investing £250 - £1000/month for the foreseeable future. I am expecting for it to exist in this fashion for at least 6 years.

Is one of the ubiquitous Vanguard funds a sensible and simple option for me? I am not sure if their transaction fees are competitive with a regular investment of that sort or if there are any better alternatives. I'm currently thinking LifeStrategy 80.

Any tips welcome,

Thanks.

ColdIron

At this level of investment Vanguard's Lifestrategy is as sensible and as simple as any. If you are happy to limit yourself to Vanguard funds and use Vanguard Investor as your platform then there are no transaction fees for funds. ETFs are also free to trade if you use their bulk dealing service. In common with all investments there is an ongoing charge (0.22% for LifeStrategy) taken from within the fund but this will be the same regardless of who you use as your platform

Alexland

Depends what "at least 6 years" really means. Generally I would stick to VLS60 for an investment of 7-10 years but if you are happy money could be tied up longer if markets were low then VLS80 is also a good fund. Also consider if investing in a pension, etc might be more beneficial for your circumstances than a S&S ISA.

pUbLIS

I've made the mistake of registering on 2 different apps (Moneybox and Plum) last week, whilst setting up both to use the Stocks and Shares ISA.
I initially thought that the ISA was something centrally controlled by HMRC, to which I was capped to use (up to) £20k per FY... but now I'm not so sure. It looks like I can only open 1 S&S ISA per FY.

I basically just wanted to get to know the platforms, just so I could make an informed decision on which one to use.
Now that I've made up my mind, I don't know if canceling/closing the unwanted accounts in the platforms will at the same time cancel the ISA.
As a side note, I haven't invested any money while I was testing the platforms.

Any ideas? Worst case scenario, I guess I'll wait for 6th April to open the new account...

eskbanker

pUbLIS said:

I've made the mistake of registering on 2 different apps (Moneybox and Plum) last week, whilst setting up both to use the Stocks and Shares ISA.
I initially thought that the ISA was something centrally controlled by HMRC, to which I was capped to use (up to) £20k per FY... but now I'm not so sure. It looks like I can only open 1 S&S ISA per FY.

I basically just wanted to get to know the platforms, just so I could make an informed decision on which one to use.
Now that I've made up my mind, I don't know if canceling/closing the unwanted accounts in the platforms will at the same time cancel the ISA.
As a side note, I haven't invested any money while I was testing the platforms.

Any ideas? Worst case scenario, I guess I'll wait for 6th April to open the new account...

The rule is that you can only pay new money into one ISA of each type in any given tax year - you can open as many as you like.  So, as long as you haven't paid anything into both of these then you're OK....

danielquery

Hi all,
I'm looking at getting an S&S ISA and pay an amount into it every month. A friend of mine however told me that you have to close your S&S ISA every year to avoid being taxed, whereas I thought I could just keep paying into the same single account every month for years to come as long as I don't exceed the 20k limit per tax year. Can't seem to find anything around these rules, anyone any idea?