Mini stocks & shares ISAs

r.cordrey

I am retired, currently living off my savings below tax threshold, but will receive pensions next year and realise that I should put away as much as possible in ISAs in the meantime. I already have used up my allowance of £3000 pa for mini cash ISAs, but - as I understand it - can invest another £4000 pa in mini s&s ISAs. I know the return will be dependent on the stock market, and will probably opt for a simple tracker ISA. But with whom? I cannot find anything on the forum or main site which indicates the better financial institutions with which to invest (which ones charge how much?).

Any recommendations?

Aegis

I think SelfTrade is cheapest for ETFs (a bit like trackers from what I can tell) and shares, while Hargreaves Lansdown is better for unit trusts and OEICs.

These are only two options though, and you should explore your options fully before committing. For example, near retirement age you might want to consider an income fund rather than a tracker, as those will provide a stream of income for you to either reinvest or withdraw. Of course, if you take this route you have to make sure that sufficient capital stays in your fund to allow inflation-adjusted income to be wirthdrawn at a more or less constant level.

Hopefully someone more aware of retirement planning can say more about this later, but it's certainly not a simple "who's the best" question like with savings accounts, unfortunately!

debbie42

There's a child forum on ISAs. This thread is on there, and a good place to start:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=416337

munk

This article has a good description of purchasing ISA funds through investment brokers:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/isa-discounts

For fund investment, I would recommend Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) (http://h-l.co.uk/) if you only want an execution only service (ie you don't want advice) - they offer the best discounts on charges, rebating up to 0.5%pa annual management charges which is more than most if not all. If you do want advice, Bestinvest are good although they will charge for portfolios of less than £50k (having said that though if you ring up to ask about a particular fund and whether they recommend it for your portfolio/risk profile I'm sure they might accommodate). Of course there's no alternative though for going to an IFA who's local to you... though finding a good one is of course another question, ask around friends/family/etc or check http://unbiassed.co.uk/.

Generally stay clear of banks for financial investments, they're more likely to charge over the odds for inferior products - you're better sticking with a few (say 4x£1000 for a £4000 investment/mini ISA) well managed cautious managed funds through HL than going for something like an guaranteed equity bond that some banks offer.

r.cordrey

Many thanks, fellas. I have emailed Chartwell and Lansdowne - no doubt they will sort me out.

:j

munk

Just a heads-up - HL take forever to respond to emails (in my experience anyway and I read others had the same experience) - well... around 48hrs or so anyway which is forever when you think an email takes literally 2 seconds to be delivered all things being equal

HOWEVER don't discount them on this basis alone - if you ring them up they're actually spot on for phone service. I was pleasantly surprised by this - I think I've gotten so used to having to wait on hold for ages with most company's CS that I more or less expect phone service to be awful. Nice when you come across a company that gets it right.

Also so far my experience of them with trading has been excellent as well - their online interface is great and afaik there's no minimum charge for switching funds.