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Fidelity vs Cavendish Online

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  • puk999
    puk999 Posts: 552 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Posts
    If you're already using the Fundsnetwork platform then appointing Cavendish as your agent to benefit from lower charges doesn't require either any transfer or re-registration. It's just called a change of agency. See...

    That's very helpful :beer:

    Just wondering, what does re-registration mean? What would trigger that?
  • mike88
    mike88 Posts: 573 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    puk999 wrote: »
    That's very helpful :beer:

    Just wondering, what does re-registration mean? What would trigger that?

    http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/investments/move-your-investment/currently-with-fidelity/
    Take my advice at your peril.
  • Rollinghome
    Rollinghome Posts: 2,729 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    puk999 wrote: »
    Just wondering, what does re-registration mean? What would trigger that?
    Re-registration is just another term for "in specie transfer". It means transferring responsibility for the funds held from one platform to another, i.e. between Fidelity Fundsnetwork, Cofunds, Skandia, Hargreaves Lansdown or whoever.

    Funds from several different managers may be involved and as not all platforms offer the same funds and classes it can get messy. It's only in the last dozen years or so that in specie transfers have been possible and the platform transferring out hasn't much incentive to be more efficient.

    A simple "transfer" normally means just selling the holdings, transferring as cash, then re-buying (so generally much quicker and less complicated but with the risks of price movement and capital gains tax costs if outside of an ISA).

    A "change of agency" just involves telling the platform, in this case Fundsnetwork, that you now wish to be represented by the new agency or adviser you name, such as CavendishOnline. None of of your holdings need to be moved and the fund managers aren't involved.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,646 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Re-registration is just another term for "in specie transfer". It means transferring responsibility for the funds held from one platform to another, i.e. between Fidelity Fundsnetwork, Cofunds, Skandia, Hargreaves Lansdown or whoever.

    A "change of agency" just involves telling the platform, in this case Fundsnetwork, that you now wish to be represented by the new agency or adviser you name, such as CavendishOnline. None of of your holdings need to be moved and the fund managers aren't involved.

    Apologies for any confusion - change of agency is exactly what I was referring to when I called it re-registration, sorry if that confused anyone.

    I originally had no agency - I had dealt with Fidelity directly but now go via Cavendish getting lower rates. It may sound daft but it does make it cheaper.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • jabbahut40
    jabbahut40 Posts: 222 Forumite
    Response from Fidelity. Not impressed...nothing new here


    Thank you for contacting Fidelity regarding our new charging structure.

    Clients investing directly with us pay a service fee of 0.35% for all the funds held under our new charging structure. If they have more than £250,000 invested with us - across all their accounts and including all funds held under our old pricing structure - the service fee drops to 0.20%.

    Any clients investing through a financial adviser pay a 0.25% annual Service Fee. They also pay an Investor Fee of £45.00 which is taken bi-annually from their investments.


    If clients have Cavendish Online Limited as their financial adviser they have a discounted charging structure. They only pay the 0.25% annual Service Fee as the £45 Investor Fee is waived for them.

    I hope you find this information helpful. For any further queries, please contact us by secure email, letter, or by calling our InvestorLine on Freephone 0800 41 41 61, where one of our associates will be happy to assist you. We are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and Saturday from 9am to 6pm. Please have your customer reference number to hand, this is a ten-digit number starting with a one.

    Yours sincerely
  • They should add another line to that standard reply.

    "So yes we have to admit that, on the face of it, it is hard to understand why anyone would want to invest directly with us rather than via Cavendish"
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,646 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 23 April 2014 at 11:06PM
    :p
    They should add another line to that standard reply.

    "So yes we have to admit that, on the face of it, it is hard to understand why anyone would want to invest directly with us rather than via Cavendish"

    I guess it would be anyone with over £250k as that is cheaper with them direct. Apart from that I can't see any reason why you'd go direct, I guess they rely on lack of knowledge so customers aren't aware of Cavendish being cheaper for the same service.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • sorry jim - you're right.

    I guess my point is it just doesn't seem to make too much sense for Fidelity to have these differences in % when there are likely (I presume) to be a larger volume of sub 250k customers shopping around for the best platform.

    anyway i'm ok that they do as I have a smallish amount with them via Cavendish
  • grey_gym_sock
    grey_gym_sock Posts: 4,508 Forumite
    I guess my point is it just doesn't seem to make too much sense for Fidelity to have these differences in % when there are likely (I presume) to be a larger volume of sub 250k customers shopping around for the best platform.

    the theory is that some ppl are price-conscious, and will search out the best deal, and fidelity can get their business via cavendish. if they didn't offer the 0.25% pricing, they would take their business entirely away from fidelity.

    other ppl are less price-conscious, and go for the well-known, more heavily advertized, name. and don't mind, or notice, that they're paying more. if fidelity offered them 0.25%, too, they'd be throwing away 0.1% of margin.

    that's the basic economic argument for this split pricing model.

    1 counter-argument is that ppl may get cheesed off, when they realize how sneaky fidelity are being. as many ppl now are with insurers, for instance.
  • westy22
    westy22 Posts: 1,105 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    There is nothing new in providers charging more to direct customers - just look at the number of people who had been (happily?) paying 5% initial charges on investments made direct rather than through intermediaries and fund supermarkets.
    Old dog but always delighted to learn new tricks!
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