My ISA with St James Place

AnotherJoe

Pound to a penny the charges on the SJP funds are horrendous.

And, I've just managed to dig in and find one at random, and it was 1.7% which is massive these days. It's like the bad old days of the 1980's. The vanguard funds i mentioned are 0.25% or less.

Say your SJP fund returns 6%. At 1.7% that means that you are losing more than 25% of the return which is outrageous. Over 10 or 20 years that makes a massive difference to your returns.

xylophone

I think that you mentioned that you are aged 60 and your new state pension statement showed a "starting amount" of around £134?

You also mentioned that you are not working and are unsure as to when you will take up paid employment.

You might withdraw £2880 from SJP and use it to open a SIPP with HL - tax relief of £720 would be added.

If you withdrew your 25% PCLS, you would have more than enough to buy a year's voluntary Class 3 NI contributions which would benefit your state pension.

You might choose to invest the balance in a multi asset fund ( perhaps Vanguard) or you could stay in cash, taking the view that the £720 was your "interest".

http://monevator.com/lifestyle-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds/

You might do the same in succeeding tax years, and continue to make the Voluntary Contributions to fund your state pension?

HL are not the cheapest but for this purpose and a modest portfolio might suit you for ease of use.

MonroeM

purplelavender wrote: »

Thanks Joe, it just states how much in each of the listed funds.
So now if I do want to invest elsewhere this brings me to my OP, what to do with it? Bearing in mind I'm not very confident with all this.

We all have to start somewhere so don't worry.

I'm my humble opinion I personally would go with a multi asset fund in your circumstances. Something like the Vanguard Life Strategy Funds or the L&G Multi Index Funds or HSBC Global Strategy Funds.

These are all low cost funds which all give you quite a well balanced and diversified asset allocation. Then if you read up some more you can always add some other holdings that are not in your chosen multi asset fund?

jimjames

Stubod wrote: »

NB I don't think they can charge exit fees for SS ISA's..(we haven't been).

I don't know the details for SJP but that's unfortunately not the case. Exit fees can be charged as anyone with HL will know or find out

MPN

purplelavender wrote: »

Thanks for the advice and help tonight. Seems as though I have a choice
Leave it where it is knowing I've paid out initial fees and continue to pay annually (but need to find out how much)
Withdraw (hopefully not paying exit fees) and invest elsewhere
Second option is the most difficult as I don't really know where to start .....
And on that note goodnight all

I have got about £12,500 in a SJP S&S ISA which I have had for a while and you are quite right you pay an initial fee of 5% which is outrageous! However, you don't pay anything else at all while it stays invested and you can cash in at any time.

I also have an SJP Pension which is in its 5th year. There is a sliding scale of exit fees for pension investments from 6% for the 1st year to 1% for year 6 which again is crazy but I signed up for it because I thought it was the norm at the time. I have decided that this April I will look to transfer my SJP pension fund into a SIPP and choose my own funds. I will have to pay a 1% exit fee of the £130,000 I have invested but I think it will be worth it bearing in mind the overall charges for the SJP pension fund.

If only, I did more research 5 years ago (and came onto forums like this), then I know I would never have taken out any investments with SJP - but you 'live and learn'!

ColdIron

MonroeM wrote: »

I'm my humble opinion I personally would go with a multi asset fund in your circumstances. Something like the Vanguard Life Strategy Funds or the L&G Multi Index Funds or HSBC Global Strategy Funds.

With respect, be careful of suggestions like this. We know little of your circumstances or objectives but your advisor (partner) has these details and will have provided appropriate advice as he has a legal requirement to do so. This could be a solution to a problem you do not have. There is nothing wrong with SJP's products other than cost. You have a cost problem for which there are many solutions that do not require changing your investment strategy

MPN wrote: »

However, you don't pay anything else at all while it stays invested and you can cash in at any time.

No charge for running the platform? No fund manager fee? Nothing for ongoing advice? You may not be sent an invoice for these but you can be sure you are paying top dollar for them whether you know it or not which was the whole point of RDR

From the Sunday Times

It also gives the example of the annual management charge attached to the SJP UK High Income fund, managed by Neil Woodford, of 1.67 per cent, including a 0.87 per cent charge to SJP, a 0.5 per cent fee paid to the adviser, and a 0.3 per cent fee to the fund manager.

Stubod

I think it would be a good idea for the OP to understand how much he is "making" from this investment, and what the exit fees are likely to be. If you are happy with whatever the return is, and assuming it is better than inflation then at least you have some time to think about any other options. As stated before it would probably cost you more if you changed to another FA / IFA. I understand that some offer a "free" initial meeting although they would need to understand how much money you are considering investing and I would guess that most would not consider sub £25k to be enough...?

MonroeM

ColdIron wrote: »

With respect, be careful of suggestions like this. We know little of your circumstances or objectives but your advisor (partner) has these details and will have provided appropriate advice as he has a legal requirement to do so. This could be a solution to a problem you do not have. There is nothing wrong with SJP's products other than cost. You have a cost problem for which there are many solutions that do not require changing your investment strategy.

I am not the only poster who has suggested a multi-asset fund such as Vanguard could be more appropriate for the OP which obviously depends on his circumstances (bearing in mind the information he has provided us with)?

purplelavender

Thanks for all the interest in my predicament. As some have asked a bit more about me:
I'm a 61 yr old female. It's a long story but I was self employed for 10 years and the business sold last year as my partner retired. He has his SP. My only income is a very small Local authority pension and variable hours waitressing (zero hour contract). I'm still paying into a stakeholder pension but only £80pm and only had this set up on my divorce in 2004 so you can imagine it's not much. My future SP (payable at 66) is indeed reduced as I was contracted out for about 4 years (the LA pension)
The SJP funds were invested about same time 2004 and I did add a bit over the years but haven't for some time so as I said it has just sat there! It wasn't until I read some of the recent articles on SJP that I questioned whether this money was in the right place! OK so it's not much but it is a "nest egg", I don't need the money at the moment but who knows what the future might bring. It stands at just over 23K.
There is a lot of advice and information for me to assimilate. I guess my first move is to contact SJP to get answers on charges. I'm not able to do that until next week as sadly I've got a very poorly mother who lives a couple of hundred miles away who I'll be visiting for a few days,
Once again thanks for all the input