Vanguard launching in Britain

Pincher

With all the name dropping around here, I always assumed you could invest in Vanguard directly in the UK, but I read in

Money Section, Sunday Times, 14th August
on page 3, near the picture of a Big Mac.

"Expect to hear more about expenses and value when Vanguard Asset management is launched in Britain, selling funds directly to investors, later this year."


Looking at the UK website:

https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/portal/investing-with-us/investing-in-mutual-funds

"If you approach us directly, the minimum initial investment into our funds is £100,000 per fund."


Anybody know more? Rather tempted to buy some.
Bypassing the platform middleman, sounds good.

I wish Costco did mutual funds, so I can use my Executive Membership to get 2% cashback on the charges.

masonic

Erm, this has been available for 2-3 years at least. You won't be able to invest within an ISA or SIPP, which makes it less attractive for most. Have you picked up a copy of the Sunday Times from yesteryear?

Pincher

masonic wrote: »

Erm, this has been available for 2-3 years at least. You won't be able to invest within an ISA or SIPP, which makes it less attractive for most.

So what is this "later" thing Ian Cowie (it's his column) is talking about?

I assume he means a retail presence, not £100,000 or more big clients.

masonic wrote: »

Have you picked up a copy of the Sunday Times from yesteryear?

No, it's from the 14th August 2016.

masonic

Pincher wrote: »

So what is this "later" thing Ian Cowie (it's his column) is talking about?

I don't know. You're the one with the article in front of you.

I assume he means a retail presence, not £100,000 or more big clients.

If they are going to start selling direct to customers without a high minimum investment, that could be great for some people, although they would need to offer ISA and/or SIPP wrappers to really compete with what's already available. Edit: see below

TheTracker

Was previously discussed here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5330658

masonic

TheTracker wrote: »

Was previously discussed here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5330658

Yuck! FNZ's reputation is mud with anyone who has experience of what they did to Interactive Investor when they took over the funds part of their platform.

It sounds like this new offering will probably not be without a platform fee if FNZ hope to make any money from the venture.

Pincher

So it's details to be confirmed.

Ian Cowie was saying that with low yields, charges are more significant, and the Vanguard UK launch could start a price war.
But no details.

Since they are passive low cost funds, ideally I need the FTSE to fall to 3,500 so I can jump in. Boom and bust in 2018, please.

dunstonh

FNZ are good. Their software is used by many platforms. Although the front ends vary significantly across them.

masonic

dunstonh wrote: »

FNZ are good. Their software is used by many platforms. Although the front ends vary significantly across them.

I'm sure their software is very nice. But a platform that cannot credit dividends to customer accounts until a few months after they are paid, and cannot deal with things such as tax reclaims on interest distributing bond and property funds for 6-9 months after the distributions are paid, let alone more exotic things such as in specie transfers into the plaform and production of a consolidated tax certificate containing the correct information, is not offering a good service in my view. While I wouldn't want to lay the blame on FNZ completely, none of these problems seemed to exist at Interactive Investor until it switched from Cofunds to FNZ in March 2014.

dunstonh

But a platform that cannot credit dividends to customer accounts until a few months after they are paid, and cannot deal with things such as tax reclaims on interest distributing bond and property funds for 6-9 months after the distributions are paid, let alone more exotic things such as in specie transfers into the plaform and production of a consolidated tax certificate containing the correct information, is not offering a good service in my view.

All those things run smoothly on other platforms using FNZ. I would say that they were specific to II

jimjames

dunstonh wrote: »

All those things run smoothly on other platforms using FNZ. I would say that they were specific to II

If it was a migration from accounts held at Cofunds to FNZ then it might be more likely that it's the migration process that's at fault rather than the underlying software. System migration is rarely a smooth process!