am i the only one ?

rabmac_2

::)i invested 100K with lloyds private banking, and 5 years later i have 70K in shares issas and peps.the "advice " given by lpb is that the scale of charges are such that i would be best to leave and manage my portfolio by myself.For this performance i have paid over 10k in fees and commision.I feel i am not alone and would be glad to hear how others have fared.

Reaper

The first thing to do is get it in perspective as there has been a stock market crash over the period you invested.

Here is a list of how the major unit trusts have done over the last 5 years. The average drop is 13.26%.

It sounds as though your fund has dropped 20% + £10000 in fees, making it effectively 30%.

Certainly if I was paying all that money in fees to get actively managed investments I would expect it to get better than average returns.

As you are clearly not I would say the only good piece of advise they have given you for your money is to dump them as advisors!

dunstonh

Lloyds Private Banking do seem to have high charges for what they offer. Most IFAs would offer the same service without any additional fees.

Rather than sell up, you could transfer the servicing rights to another IFA, who would then be paid the renewal commission and not charge you on top.

rabmac_2

thanks for the feedback, i am currently considering looking after the portfolio myself. is there an opinion as to the most relable/cost effect way to basically sell shares held in my name. I do not discount adding shares as well as selling them. glad i found this site.

Reaper

If you want advice on where to invest then you should go via an IFA or other advisor.

However if you feel confident about making investment decisions yourself then take a look at Hargreaves Lansdown. They allow you to buy unit trusts with most of the charges waived and do trades in individual shares for £9.95. Haven't used them myself but have heard good reports.

Another alternative for individual share trades is
ComDirect. And if you head over to the Referers chat area you can get £75 for registering with them.

dunstonh

Im not giving advice here but a suggestion for investigation....

If the portfolio is made up of funds, those could be transferred by an IFA into one of the fund supermarkets at zero cost. Then decisions made by you or the IFA can be made about switching them into other funds (either at zero cost or marginal cost depending on the fund supermarket used).

mary

::)i invested 100K with lloyds private banking, and 5 years later i have 70K in shares issas and peps.the "advice " given by lpb is that the scale of charges are such that i would be best to leave and manage my portfolio by myself.For this performance i have paid over 10k in fees and commision.I feel i am not alone and would be glad to hear how others have fared.

I'm absolutely no expert on such matters. One observation I would make is, how frequently do you check your statements about your investments?

About three years ago I made two investments with an IFA advisor, one in some bonds for myself and at the same time I invested my Mum's worldly wealth when she was about to go into a home. Upon her subsequent death, hers proved to have been a good investment. However my investment had gone down hill about £1.5K. Old IFA retired, new one helped me choose a different range of funds and I was able to move them across and begin to make up lost ground.

Don't assume they are looking after your best interests.
They will when you ring them and remind them to take your file out of the cabinet, but many of these statements I suspect come straight out of the computer and into an envelope without anyone reading them!

I don't know whether it's the same everywhere, but probably you are allowed to change funds at least once a year.

I decided not to invest anymore in bonds after this one. So long as I have my marbles, I'll be in the driving seat, keep on chasing the hghest interest accounts and be in control.

Hope it helps

Reaper

An excellent suggestion from DD, which I should have mentioned.

Now I don't want to step on DDs toes, and I always recommend going to an IFA when people need advice, but since you say you feel like managing everything yourself I should mention it is not compulsory to go via an IFA to transfer. Reregistering your funds with a funds supermarket is something you can do direct if you prefer. Just pick one, e.g. Fidelity (that's an example not a recommendation), and they will tell you how to go about doing it.

dunstonh

Nope, you missed my toes.. ;D

Fidelity are a good DIY provider if you want DIY.

If you want IFA then with £200k (ish), you could expect zero initial commission with just the trail commission being paid to the IFA. For that you could expect a monthly to quarterly report with no additional fees charged. I say could because thats what i would do but you could get another IFA who would be greedy and not offer those terms or something in between the maximum.

Darryl

I've had various investments in the stockmarkets over the past 5+ years, but despite the general downturn in markets, I've not lost money, but gained. How?

1. I avoid IFAs - unless you pay them for their advice directly, they have no incentive to offer you the best advice. The incentive will be the amount of commission they receive.

2. I do my research - I started with Motley Fool (http://www.fool.co.uk) to learn about investing basics and strategies. I then read newspapers (e.g. http://www.ft.com).

3. More research - after deciding what types of investments to go for, I research fund and company performance, manager profiles/performance, etc via sites such as http://www.fidelity.co.uk/ and http://www.bestinvest.co.uk/ and http://www.hargreaveslansdown.co.uk/

4. I then buy investments via the cheapest discount brokers/providers I can find.

5. I don't invest lump sums, but monthly amounts, so this smooths the effect of large rises and falls in the market.

So far so good for me. I'm not saying I'm an expert investor by any means. But I am saying that it's possible to make investment decisions yourself, and in doing so make better decisions than the so-called experts. Any investments in stocks and shares has to be based upon your own attitude to risk. As such investments are by their nature risky, don't you simply increase the risk by handing investment decisions to a third party? Minimise the risk of them getting it wrong and do it yourself.

Just my view.

Darryl.

Robert_Sterling_3

1. I avoid IFAs - unless you pay them for their advice directly, they have no incentive to offer you the best advice. The incentive will be the amount of commission they receive.
Darryl.

That is a tad harsh Darryl.
I think to maximise their commission they would wish to retain a customers business over a lifetime and hope that their customer would recommend them to his/her friends.