Hargreaves lansdown

flopsy1973

Hi
i have around 160K in funds and shares i hold in a vantage account with hargreaves lansdown. what are the views of people on here of using HL ? The fees im paying seem to be a lot, are there better cost effective platforms for holding these? i do get a lot of information from HL but is it worth it ?
thanks

dunstonh

The fees im paying seem to be a lot, are there better cost effective platforms for holding these?

You mention two things there but seem to to treat them as one. "better" and "cost effective".

HL are not cheap. However, there are not many better in the DIY world. So, do you want better or cheap?

i do get a lot of information from HL but is it worth it ?

No. its not worth it as its just marketing. They do send a lot out.

Drp8713

Im happy with HL. Their service is worth paying for in my opinion.

You shouldnt be paying a lot in fees with HL with £160k invested.

They have caps on fees, £45 p.a for ISAs, £200 p.a for SIPPs and £0 for Share Account.

Just make sure you only hold Investment Trusts, ETFs or Shares, not open ended funds. Then your max fees would be £245 p.a or around 0.15% platform fee.

george4064

Drp8713 wrote: »

Im happy with HL. Their service is worth paying for in my opinion.

You shouldnt be paying a lot in fees with HL with £160k invested.

They have caps on fees, £45 p.a for ISAs, £200 p.a for SIPPs and £0 for Share Account.

Just make sure you only hold Investment Trusts, ETFs or Shares, not open ended funds. Then your max fees would be £245 p.a or around 0.15% platform fee.

For funds within HL ISA, there is no cap.

jimjames

Drp8713 wrote: »

Im happy with HL. Their service is worth paying for in my opinion.

You shouldnt be paying a lot in fees with HL with £160k invested.

They have caps on fees, £45 p.a for ISAs, £200 p.a for SIPPs and £0 for Share Account.

Just make sure you only hold Investment Trusts, ETFs or Shares, not open ended funds. Then your max fees would be £245 p.a or around 0.15% platform fee.

Not sure why you'd think HL don't charge a lot.

0.45% on up to £250k sounds high to me when others are much less and for OP could be £720 pa Their website is one of the best though so it depends if you're happy to pay for that.

masonic

jimjames wrote: »

Their website is one of the best though so it depends if you're happy to pay for that.

It's worth mentioning that it isn't necessary to continue paying in order to retain full access to the research and tools on the HL website. I've retained access ever since leaving HL over 2 years ago.

Drp8713

jimjames wrote: »

Not sure why you'd think HL don't charge a lot.

0.45% on up to £250k sounds high to me when others are much less and for OP could be £720 pa Their website is one of the best though so it depends if you're happy to pay for that.

They do if you hold open ended funds, thats why I said in my post:

Just make sure you only hold Investment Trusts, ETFs or Shares, not open ended funds. Then your max fees would be £245 p.a or around 0.15% platform fee.

masonic

Drp8713 wrote: »

Just make sure you only hold Investment Trusts, ETFs or Shares, not open ended funds. Then your max fees would be £245 p.a or around 0.15% platform fee.

Well, your max fees would be £245 plus dealing charges, which you would not pay for open ended funds. Your max overall costs will be £245 plus dealing charges plus stamp duty (ITs/shares) plus spread, none of which would tend to apply to OEICs.

Depending on the size of portfolio and investing style, that could be better or worse than an equivalent open ended fund based portfolio. We are of course only assuming which types of account the OP is using under Vantage, but if utilising ISA, SIPP and F&S account, with say 8 funds in each, annual rebalancing alone could add over £250 to the overall annual costs.

jimjames

Drp8713 wrote: »

They do if you hold open ended funds, thats why I said in my post:

Not much help for the OP who said they hold funds. Even so HL is still quite expensive.

Obviously the amount will depend on the split between shares and funds but if a company charge 0.25% that's a massive amount less per year. Or even a company like iweb that charge a one off flat fee, £200 vs £720 PA is a great saving.

redux

Actually, for shares and investment trusts only, and outside an ISA, it looks good value.

Dividend re-investment at 1%, min £1 max £10, and that's all, no annual fee.

If I do nothing else, the 4 investment trusts I have there will cost me just over £3 a year.

So for someone indecisive about moving away from HL, I'd say consider a split, moving funds away but leaving investment trusts and other shares there for now.

I also have an account at iWeb, opened months ago before the fee went up but only just actually started investing, where dividend re-investment costs 2% pro rata, but apparently no flat minimum fee. No annual fee there either.

Glen_Clark

I don't know what HL would charge for holding my shares, investment trusts and ETFs, but it can't be less than x-o who charge nothing.