Investment Platforms for SIPPs/ISAs-Close Brothers, Charles Stanley, Best invest, HL

OldDIYer

Just thought I'd share my experience of moving SIPPs & ISAs for relatives. Mine are with Interactive Investor having left Hargreaves Lansdown due to their fee increase a few years ago - fine for larger porfolios.

I opted for Close Brothers initially as their 0.25% fee was competitive for the amounts involved (£20k - £40k), but their website is useless. I chose an Investment Trust and a Fund and was surprised to find no useful information. A performance chart only on the IT and on the Fund there was no factsheet or KIID!

As I hadn't gone too far through the process I cancelled and moved on to Charles Stanley, where we already had JISAs. I'd discounted them earlier due to their £120pa SIPP fee. But I discovered that they waive this if you have £30k across all accounts, which was fine as they count JISAs - so we just made it.

I had used the Compare Fund Platforms website for comparisons, but they fail (unhelpfully) to recognise the waiver of the £120pa fee on SIPPs even if you start your comparison with £30k+. I have informed the website of their error - but no response yet.

CS seems to be ok. One criticism - they don't automatically invest the tax rebate on SIPP contributions - you have to DIY later. Best Invest are the same, but still ok - but a bit more expensive fee wise.

Hargreaves Lansdown are good, but not worth the excessive fee in my view. Afterall you can use any website for research, including theirs, so why pay too much?

dunstonh

CS seems to be ok. One criticism - they don't automatically invest the tax rebate on SIPP contributions - you have to DIY later. Best Invest are the same, but still ok - but a bit more expensive fee wise.

For providers/platforms that do not prefund the tax relief, that is normal.

DesG

dunstonh wrote: »

For providers/platforms that do not prefund the tax relief, that is normal.

Fundsnetwork do.

grey_gym_sock

i think HL will automatically invest the tax relief in the same way if you have regular SIPP contributions going into funds, but not for regular contributions into shares.

(just FYI. i wouldn't encourage anybody to HL if they're expensive for you )

Thrugelmir

OldDIYer wrote: »

I chose an Investment Trust and a Fund and was surprised to find no useful information.

Surely you'd use the investment managers website. As the information is free. Why pay for something you have no need of.

OldDIYer

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Surely you'd use the investment managers website. As the information is free. Why pay for something you have no need of.

I agree. I do my research elsewhere and use the cheapest platform for the investments. So I'm not paying for info on my chosen platform, but I do expect to find, at least, something. CS have the same platform fee as CB, if assets >£30k, so it's clearly better to go with the one with the better website.

OldDIYer

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i think HL will automatically invest the tax relief in the same way if you have regular SIPP contributions going into funds, but not for regular contributions into shares.]

Yes, that's right. I was comparing my new platform to HL.

Chordeiles

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

i think HL will automatically invest the tax relief

Yes they will. But take care to ask them to invest only a proportion of your monthly contribution (I think the tax relief will be invested in the same proportion) as you need to make sure there is wads of cash in the account to pay the outrageous charges

Sparrow_Hawk

You make mention of Bestinvest in your title but not your post. What about them, how good are they?

I am driven to believe your comment about Close Brothers. I have just been informed by my SIPP administrator that AJ Bell is closing down SIPPDealextra ,my SIPP holders (all very complex for me) so I'm desperately shopping around for a new home for my SIPP. I've called Close Brothers twice in the last hour without receiving a response. I left a message though

talexuser

I looked at Best for my small value SIPP (i can only put in £3600 a year). It is not too bad for relatively low pots (mine is only 20k) as a % based SIPP, but beaten by Cavendish/Fidelity on fees. Once into drawdown it gets more complicated and difficult to suggest because the fees vary widely depending on your pot and what you want to do.

bowlhead99

Sparrow_Hawk wrote: »

I have just been informed by my SIPP administrator that AJ Bell is closing down SIPPDealextra ,my SIPP holders (all very complex for me) so I'm desperately shopping around for a new home for my SIPP.

Sippdealxtra was AJ Bell's pension product that let you use another stockbroker or platform (from a shortlist on AJ Bell's panel) to handle the trading, buying / selling of investments ; while AJ Bell did the pensions administration side of things. You paid the broker / funds platform for trading and platform services, while you paid AJ Bell a quarterly fee for quarterly pensions admin and other fees for handling any drawdowns, taking income from the pension etc if necessary.

AJBell also had their plain Sippdeal product (not 'xtra') whereby they provide the pensions administration and also provided the brokerage / funds platform trading front-end themselves, so it was an all-in-one product handled by their company from end to end. These days that product is branded AJ Bell Youinvest. (https://www.youinvest.co.uk/sipp)

If you are comfortable with AJ Bell's competence at handling the pensions admin side of things (which presumably you are, or you would have moved a long time ago), is there any reason you aren't just going to switch to Youinvest, which would seem quite an easy change given it is all still with AJBell?

Their charging structure isn't extortionate and you wouldn't need to be 'desparately shopping around'. You mention it is all very complex, are you holding types of investments that are not offered by mainstream platform providers such as Youinvest? I assume not, if you're looking at Close or Bestinvest?