First post

notsosavy

Apologies for my limited financial knowledge as much of the investments made have been through a Financial Adviser. My OH and I have investments, mainly SS Isas, although some cash as well. The FA uses Transact and the fund has a value of £179000. My first question is if I wanted to use a cheaper method of investing such as a Tracker, how do I go about it and can we keep our ISA status. I have read about Vanguard Lifestyle 40 (which follows our risk analysis). How do I go about investing? I have already used all the current accounts such as Santander, TSB and Nationwide to maximise the return on cash. We are both retired and are not using the income from these investment to live on.

eskbanker

notsosavy wrote: »

My first question is if I wanted to use a cheaper method of investing such as a Tracker, how do I go about it and can we keep our ISA status. I have read about Vanguard Lifestyle 40 (which follows our risk analysis). How do I go about investing?

Cheaper than what, i.e. how much are you currently paying and what are you getting for that? S&S ISAs are just wrappers and most investments can be held within these, including individual shares or funds, trackers or otherwise, what do you currently have within these wrappers?

If you choose not to invest through an IFA you obviously need to be comfortable and confident with the principles, terminology, risk profiling, costs/fees, etc - probably worth spending time on sites such as Monevator and Motley Fool to get a grounding in all this before deciding if DIY is right for you....

notsosavy

All but 30,000 is in S/S Isa and we are paying 0.5% to IFA. I am not sure whether there is an additional fee for Transact.There is a selection of S/S such as Artemis High Income, Fidelity Extra Income, Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond and Distribution Class 2, Inc, and Income Plus. Newton Asian and Global, Rathbone Ethical, Schoder A and Z, Threadneedle Global and High Yield.
I have been reading Monevator and Motley Food for a while now and am trying to increase my knowledge,

eskbanker

I'm not quite sure what you're suggesting - are you looking to use Vanguard as well as or instead of all the products recommended by the IFA? Either way, on what basis do you plan to balance the portfolio, with your objectives and risk profile in mind?

dunstonh

My first question is if I wanted to use a cheaper method of investing such as a Tracker, how do I go about it and can we keep our ISA status.

If you want to keep the IFA but move to passives then tell the IFA that you want your portfolio to be made up exclusively with trackers.

However, some of the managed funds you mention are very good and you will probably be compromising your returns.

notsosavy

Thank you for your replies so far. I was planning not to use a financial adviser to remove some of the costs. I have been looking at Monevator etc and I have read that over the long term often Tracker funds out perform the managed funds taking into consideration the additional expense of managed. I was considering Vanguard instead of the existing managed funds, Can anyone one tell me what is the additional cost of using Transact please?

dunstonh

I have read that over the long term often Tracker funds out perform the managed funds taking into consideration the additional expense of managed.

Some do. Some don't. It is not quite as one sided as the pro-passive sites tell you. There is a bit more balance between to understand. That is not to say that managed is better. For most a bit of both is best. However, before you jump out of some good funds you may want to do a bit more research.

I was considering Vanguard instead of the existing managed funds, Can anyone one tell me what is the additional cost of using Transact please?

Your IFA can. Whilst Transact have a default set of charges, they also have specific deals that may not be on the default.

BLB53

I was planning not to use a financial adviser to remove some of the costs.

As I understand it, Transact is a channel used by IFAs only so if you wanted to go it alone you would need to open an ISA with the likes of Halifax Share Dealing and then ask them to transfer the ISA funds (or cash if the funds are sold) over.

When the transfer is completed you can then invest the money in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 40 fund. The annual charges with Halifax will be £12.50 p.a.

If you have done your research and are happy with the LS funds, there would not be much need for ongoing advice from an IFA and fees of ~£1,100 p.a.

Monevator is a great source of info for diy investors. I suggest Halifax as I think you will benefit from a flat fee rather than percentage. You may find this post useful on diy investor when selecting your diy broker
http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/selecting-your-diy-online-broker.html

notsosavy

We have £30000 in a GIA which we were considering using for this years ISA allowance. Would that be considered `the best of both`, ie managed and tracker if we invested it through Vantage?