Vanguard direct to customer offering confirmed

dunstonh

aajax42 wrote: »

As I am always trying to learn more, do you invest through the US because you live there or do you believe it is a better option. If so how do you invest through the US?

Forget how they do it in the US. They have different taxation to the UK. Different tax wrappers and different distribution. The UK is more highly regulated than the US in retail financial services.

There is also a different mentality to investing in general by US investors. Much more inward looking than UK/European.

A UK investor would not use US products and shouldn't be looking to mimic US methodology.

jamesd

koru wrote: »

If you leave less than £30 of stock in the account, then in practice you will have reduced the closure fee to the amount that you left in the account. ...Unless the T&Cs give them the right to charge the rest to your credit/debit card?

It's a debt that they are fully entitled to collect by going to court and the terms and conditions specify that you are liable for their costs in doing that. The terms also allow them to take the money from any other account with them including a joint one and to sell investments if necessary.

There is no account closure fee where the money is transferred to another account with them.

bostonerimus

aajax42 wrote: »

As I am always trying to learn more, do you invest through the US because you live there or do you believe it is a better option. If so how do you invest through the US?

I grew up in the UK and have lived in the US for 30 years. I might move back to the UK in a few years time.

I think using a Bogleish methodology is good wherever you live, indexing and keeping costs down is the way to go.. The tax efficiency of indexing vs active in the US isn't quite as advantageous in the UK, but the cost savings are still there and you avoid the active manager lottery and all the marketing BS and hubris; Woodford is a good example. However, a US asset mix would not be appropriate for the UK. I'm 40% US equity, 20% International equity and 40% US bonds.......a UK investor would want to have a far smaller domestic equity allocation, and more international stocks and bonds.

MarcoM

I have just opened an ISA with Vanguard to transfer my HL holding.


I have been asked to send evidence of the bank account registered on the ISA as they could not recognize my bank details.


Has anyone else experienced this with the vanguard platform or
could it be a glitch?

dunstonh

Has anyone else experienced this with the vanguard platform or
could it be a glitch?

Most platforms that have electronic withdrawals request either a cheque or statement. It allows them to validate the bank account so they know it is yours. i.e. it becomes a "known" bank account.

MarcoM

Hi,


For those who have transferred their ISA from HL to Vanguard, how long did it take for HL to send the holding to Vanguard?
Do they have a deadline they have to stick to?
If I am not mistaken HL can transfer the holding electronically.


Thanks

george4064

MarcoM wrote: »

Hi,


For those who have transferred their ISA from HL to Vanguard, how long did it take for HL to send the holding to Vanguard?
Do they have a deadline they have to stick to?
If I am not mistaken HL can transfer the holding electronically.


Thanks

I recently transferred from HL to AJ Bell YouInvest, it took approximately 6 weeks from me requesting the transfer to it's completion.

A transfer requires co-operation from both parties, so it may be different for HL-Vanguard but I would imagine it is similar to the time frame I experienced.

Little_Miss_Moneysaver

I already hold VLS 60 + Vanguard Target Retirement 2065 funds via I-Web. Size of total holdings = £50k with I-web ISA.

I found this formula to be useful in deciding whether to stay with your current platform (or move to Vanguard Direct):

Total annual costs of Fixed Fee Platform A / Percentage Rate of Vanguard Direct. So,

If fixed rate costs at Iweb = £80 (comprised of £25 opening fee + 10 Buys at £5 trading fee each time), AND
Vanguard Direct Platform Fee is 0.15%,

Then, £80 / 0.0015 = £53333 (which is the breakeven point, at which Iweb becomes cheaper than Vanguard Direct).

BUT - if you tend to deposit large lumps of ££ in one go, rather than drip feed small amounts regularly, the breakeven point is even lower. For Eg:
If fixed rate costs at Iweb = £35 (comprised of £25 opening fee + 2 Buys at £5 trading fee each time), AND
Vanguard Direct Platform Fee is 0.15%,

Then, £35 / 0.0015 = £23333 (which is the breakeven point, at which Iweb becomes cheaper than Vanguard Direct).

Hope that helps anyone trying to figure out the math on whether to switch to Vanguard Direct!! :j


Also, I called Vanguard directly, and asked them if they could be more specific in their SIPP launch date.

The person on the phone checked with management, and said SIPP launch date is likely to be in the "final quarter of 2018". Which is a tad more than 1 year away. :cool:

I have a personal pension with Friends Life, !nd I'm not impressed with the performance of my Friend Life Funds - which averages 4% per year, over the last 10 years... Which is why i'm particularly keen to move my money from Friends Life to Vanguard SIPP when it launches.

Navigating the rest of the SIPP offerings re: charges, is becoming a bit mind-boggling!

Question for all you clever people :A on this forum:

My Friends Life Personal Pension charges an AMC 0.57% (+ fund costs) on amounts invested over £100k (and higher charges on amounts less than £100k).
Does anyone know if I am being fleeced on these Personal Pension Charges? Is this considered excessive charges??
If so, what platform would be lower cost re: AMC, and monthly contributions of £1500?
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!

dunstonh

My Friends Life Personal Pension charges an AMC 0.57% (+ fund costs) on amounts invested over £100k (and higher charges on amounts less than £100k).
Does anyone know if I am being fleeced on these Personal Pension Charges? Is this considered excessive charges??

Are you sure it is 0.57% PLUS fund charges?

If you are invested in FL internal funds then you would expect to have a single charge. If you use external funds then you would expect the 0.57% base charge plus an increment to reflect the higher cost.

You can hardly call 0.57% being fleeced (if that is the total charge).

If so, what platform would be lower cost re: AMC, and monthly contributions of £1500?

Remember that with pension funds, the AMC is the equivalent of the OCF on OEICs/UTs. You must not compared pension AMC to UT/OEIC AMC.

I have a personal pension with Friends Life, !nd I'm not impressed with the performance of my Friend Life Funds - which averages 4% per year, over the last 10 years... Which is why i'm particularly keen to move my money from Friends Life to Vanguard SIPP when it launches.

What is the risk level of your FL investments? Is the return that way because they are defensive? Many FL pensions have a very wide fund range of external funds. If you put the same funds in your SIPP, you would get the same returns.

Little_Miss_Moneysaver

dunstonh - Thank you for replying to my question - much appreciated :A

Yes, my Friends Life Personal Pension is:
a) a couple of external funds,
b) BUT mostly internal funds (some of which do have additional charges, as per their latest "Additional Fund Charges Document" published on 23 Nov 2016).

The charging structure on my personal pension is:
£ 0-20k = 0.7%
£ 20-50k =0.65%
£ 50-99k = 0.60%
£ 100k or more = 0.57%

So, at minimum, 0.57% AMC + 0.10% comprised of internal + external fund charges = 0.67%

The risk categories of all funds are 4-Medium Volatility, or 5-Medium to High Volatility. Which is why i was hoping for more than a 4% average return per year!

I am genuinely concerned as to whether 0.67% is excessive charging, as unlike Vanguard Funds, the Friends Life Funds do not rebalance themselves, nor decrease my risk as i get older by lowering equity:bond ratio. :mad:

Thus, i am hoping Vanguard's SIPP fees will be lower than Friends Life Fees + added bonus of rebalancing with Vanguard Target Date Retirement Funds.

I would greatly appreciate your opinion as someone more experienced in the financial world! Thank you again :A