HSBC FTSE All Share Tracker Fund

krish123

Hi Guys,

i currently have invested £500 in the above fund (income version), this was my first investing decision and perhaps a naive one as im aware this tracker is not diverse enough.

i have also £650 invested in Vanguard LS80 fund, and would like your thoughts on what to do with the cash in the HSBC fund.

Is there any reason to keep this tracker ? i currently dont invest anything more into it just the initial amount of £500 and its given £7.50 worth of cash divedends. Is it worth at all keeping this funds and taking the cash divedends it provides?

Or even start investing monthly like i do with my LS fund?

Or is the best thing to do take all the money out of the HSBC fund and put this into the LS80 fund?

Let me know yout thoughts.

tigerspill

I guess the LS80 has a much wider diversification and as such if that is what you want, it may be better to move it to the LS fund. Will you lose out in costs top move?

krish123

im not 100% but dont think it will cost to move the money out.

Im with Hargreaves Lansdown.

krish123

anyone else have views on this?

Im aware that the VG LS 80 fund invests in the UK so i dont want to double up on investments.

Also im thinking it will be easier to build my portfolio in one place and i think generally Charles stanley(where my LS80 fund is currently) is cheaper than HL.

so im thinking transfer my money out of the HL account and transfer this into the charles stanley account and invest the £500 in the the LS80 fund in a lump some.

My plan then is once i have build some sufficent funds in the LS80 fund look for other opportunites with other funds where the LS80 doesnt invest in and take advantage of, and build up a diversified portfolio int this one account.

What do you guys think?

masonic

If you're happy with CSD then there doesn't seem much point keeping the fund at HL and if you intend to sell and move the proceeds to avoid HL's transfer/closure fee, then adding it to your LS80 is a good option as it seems premature to use the money to diversify into other funds while the balance of the LS fund is relatively low.

AlanP_2

Plan out where and what you want in your diversified portfolio first.

Asset Allocation - Percentage of overall investments to different geographies, to bonds and equities and to different company sizes - not forgetting having a sensible cash pot for emergencies.

Then comparing where your VLS80 is invested, and allowing for the FTSE investment as well you can see where you are under or over allocated / invested.

krish123

masonic wrote: »

If you're happy with CSD then there doesn't seem much point keeping the fund at HL and if you intend to sell and move the proceeds to avoid HL's transfer/closure fee, then adding it to your LS80 is a good option as it seems premature to use the money to diversify into other funds while the balance of the LS fund is relatively low.

yes thats waht im thinking, see i intially used HL adn the HSBC fund but after more research i realised CSD is cheaper.

im not sure what it will cost to move my money out of HL if at all so need to contact them in regards to this.

How much would you say i should have invested in LS 80 fund before i begin to think about diversifing into other funds?

masonic

krish123 wrote: »

How much would you say i should have invested in LS 80 fund before i begin to think about diversifing into other funds?

It depends where you want to end up. Suppose you want LS80 plus 2-3 diversifiers at 10% each. Then you might want to be able to rebalance those smaller holdings when they drift more than, say, 25% from target. So what is the smallest buy/sell order you can make? That would dictate how much you'd need to hold in the smaller funds and in turn how much you would need to hold in LS before it became viable to run the other funds alongside it.

Ryan_Futuristics

I think at under £5,000 invested, Hargreaves is cheaper than Charles Stanley (CS only gets appreciably cheaper over £50k)

I'd also say (unless you're a very hands-off investor) the speed and efficiency of Hargreaves' fund dealing has saved me a fortune


On the funds ... I'd say the relative success of the Vanguard fund (being heavily invested in US equities) against the FTSE tracker makes you feel much more positive and optimistic about it

Well, no one knows how this whole QE business is going to play out, but historically, when the US has done this well for this long (when its valuations are this high) it's only returned on average 0.5%/annum over the next decade

In other words, people are paying a LOT more to own US stocks than they are to own UK stocks at the moment, and over 5-15 years, these imbalances generally correct themselves (with the US set to drop about 50% of its value, and the UK potentially to climb)

Generally, with experience, you learn that taking profits from the one that's done well, and putting them into the one that's struggled, works out much better than dropping the loser


I prefer active funds for the UK market, but otherwise I'd go 1 part each FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and UK Small-caps (okay, let's say an active there, like MFM Slater Growth - negligible extra fund charge split three-ways) ... I certainly feel the Vanguard fund's underweight UK (for UK investors)

masonic

Ryan_Futuristics wrote: »

I think at under £5,000 invested, Hargreaves is cheaper than Charles Stanley (CS only gets appreciably cheaper over £50k)

How so? HL charge 0.45%, while CSD charge 0.25%. Neither have trading fees when dealing funds. CSD is therefore a little more than half the cost and HL only begins to claw back some of that difference at over £250k.

I'd also say (unless you're a very hands-off investor) the speed and efficiency of Hargreaves' fund dealing has saved me a fortune

I couldn't comment on whether HL are quicker or more efficient at fund dealing, having had no experience of their platform, but several others have transferred to CSD from HL and so far there has been no negative feedback.

This isn't Interactive Investor we're talking about.

Vortigern

krish123 wrote: »

im not 100% but dont think it will cost to move the money out.

Im with Hargreaves Lansdown.

Don't they have an account closure fee?