Holding multiple Vguard funds with HL

DoctorW

Hi all,

I'm about to start adding a %age of my monthly amount invested into the Vanguard Global Small Cap fund through Hargreaves Lansdown (I already hold the Lifestrategy 100 on that platform) and just wanted to check I'm not missing anything before I set it up.

Global Small Cap is a flat 0.4% a year annual fee

Lifestrategy is 0.1% initial fund manager charge plus 0.29% a year.

The Hargreaves Lansdown platform charge is a %age so does not negatively affect having multiple funds or anything as far as I know? I see the small increased costs in the Global Small Cap fund to be more than acceptable for the increased research effort for Small Cap funds and for the extra diversification to the Lifestrategy just these costs kind of confuse me a little, so want to make sure I'm not making a mistake!

The only bad thing I can see is that in a year or two when I move to a cheaper platform when I feel a bit more comfortable with this type of investing - is that i'll have to pay an extra fund transfer fee (unless they've changed their minds on it by then)

is that correct?

Thanks so much

DrW

JohnnyJet

My understanding is that it costs £25 per fund to transfer out and another £25+vat to close the account. If you converted all funds to cash before you exit then it will cost you £25 to transfer the cash and another £25+vat to close the account.

Please see -
http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/isa/savings-interest-rates-and-charges

masonic

You are right about the effect of HL's platform fee. However, you can't attribute the higher fund charge for the small cap fund to "increased research effort" as it's a tracker! The costs will reflect the cost of replicating the index and rebalancing, which would be expected to be higher in the case of a more dynamic index such as this.

Totton

HL charge 0.45% on funds up to £250,000 after which the fee is tiered lower. It makes no difference how many funds you hold. Full details here http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/fund-and-share-account/charges-and-interest-rates

Personally, if feasible I would hold Investment Trusts in the Fund & Share account as there is no charge levied other than the usual dealing fee and stamp duty.

HTH,
Mickey

DoctorW

Totton wrote: »

Personally, if feasible I would hold Investment Trusts in the Fund & Share account as there is no charge levied other than the usual dealing fee and stamp duty.

Thanks for your reply mate - at the moment I only have a S&S Isa with Hargreaves Lansdown, my only other ISAs are cash at the moment from prev years. As i'll likely have more than 15k to put away this year I will probably open a Fund & Share account but I reckon i'll probably do this with Charles Stanley Direct as they've the lowest platform fees I'm aware of?

Thanks a lot for all other replies. I think for the sake of a £25+VAT closing fee per fund, the extra diversification from an additional fund is worth it so will probably go that route