HSBC World Selection Balanced Portfolio

Anonymous__C

Hello,

I'm a young adult in my early 20s, about two years ago i've invested in the HSBC World Selection Balanced Portfolio (Stock & Shares ISA), as it's a ready made portfolio i've just left it aside and not really done much with it other than drip feed money every month. Not sure where this account is it at as you cant manage this online...

I'm not sure if this account is worth keeping or not? Recently i've been looking into other platforms and thinking of investing myself, but at as this would be my first time investing on my own so I'm slightly nervous, I'm in two minds whether to switch platforms or not or is my current stock and shares ISA not a bad choice?

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance.

JohnRo

What is it you're highly nervous about?

All the mainstream retail investment platforms are regulated, all the investments they offer are regulated and the stock exchanges they trade in are too, to varying degrees.

If it's a fear of making a catastrophic choice then the obvious answer is keep it simple and cover your bases with a globally focused multi asset fund or ETF. Cast a wide net.

At least until the amount involved warrants further investigation, although even then a global multi asset option is far from a bad choice, from an investment vehicle perspective.

What you ought to consider alongside that is how much and how often you plan to invest, what you want the investment to do for you and when you want it to do that. Then choose a suitable broker.

One of the most important aspects to think seriously and honestly about is your attitude to paper losses and how you expect you might react to seeing your equity investment valuation, patiently built up over perhaps two, three, four years, start to drop to possibly -30% or more in a relatively short period of time.

If that would cause you to doubt your decision, start chewing fingers, having sleepless nights or worst of all panic and sell to prevent further losses, then it's important to look into what it is you're purchasing and how your chosen investment might be expected to react to a severe stock market downturn before buying it.

There's nothing to be scared of going DIY, just be sensible and realistic about what you're buying into.

Alexland

What is your investing objective and timeframe? How much have you invested and what is your contribution rate? What's the maximum percentage loss you would tollerate? Would you be better putting more into your workplace pension or a Lifetime ISA?

Generally, there is nothing really wrong with what you are doing but there are cheaper ways of accessing multi index funds than via an HSBC ISA wrapper which has total charges of over 1%. I am surprised you cannot manage it online.

HSBC are very competitive in the DIY space with their Global Strategy series for which I have six figure sum invested in a fixed fee platform. Global Strategy Balanced has over 60% shares compared to World Selection Balanced at under 50% shares so GS is more adventurous.

You could probably find HSBC GS Balanced on the Cavendish DIY platform (which uses Fidelity FundsNetwork) for 0.44% in charges (0.25% Cavendish/Fidelity platform + 0.19% HSBC fund) with no trade fees.

https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk

http://www.assetmanagement.hsbc.co.uk/-/media/files/attachments/uk/new-pdfs-14-12/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios-brochure.pdf

Alternatives include the LifeStrategy fund series on the Vanguard Investor platform which would have a total cost of 0.37% (0.15% + 0.22%) again with no trade fees. On the bond side LifeStrategy has a bias for government bonds so is less adventurous than HSBC GS which has a bias for corporate bonds. So Vanguard might be a good middle ground between the two HSBC fund series.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/life-strategy-products

Alex

A_T

HSBC Global Strategy Balanced Portfolio is the same kind of product but cheaper costs.

bertpalmer

I used to have this but sold it a Ling time ago. It’s expensive and doesn’t perform outstandingly well for the money.

Linton

bertpalmer wrote: »

I used to have this but sold it a Ling time ago. It’s expensive and doesn’t perform outstandingly well for the money.

It isn't meant to perform outstandingly well. If you want "outstandingly well" you would need to invest in something riskier with the greater chance of outstandingly badly at tmes. Over the long term higher risk and well diverified can be exepected to win out must you must be prepared for the bad times.

dunstonh

It was a typical bank fund for sale in the bank branches. Expensive and low to middling quality. It generally fitted the market they were selling too (low knowledge consumers in the mainstream wanting low/medium risks in the mainstream who were prepared to pay more because they were buying via a bank)

You are unlikely to find it used by DIY investors or IFAs but it fitted the role it was required to fill.

gt94sss2

Anonymous__C wrote: »

I'm a young adult in my early 20s, about two years ago i've invested in the HSBC World Selection Balanced Portfolio (Stock & Shares ISA), as it's a ready made portfolio i've just left it aside and not really done much with it other than drip feed money every month. Not sure where this account is it at as you cant manage this online...

According to the FAQ here you should be getting quarterly statements from HSBC

dunstonh

gt94sss2 wrote: »

According to the FAQ here you should be getting quarterly statements from HSBC

Pre MiFID II the requirement was annually. Post MiFID II it is quarterly. So, that may be a recent change given the rule change was just under 3 weeks ago.

Anonymous__C

Thank you all for your responses

My investment timeframe is at least 5 years, i currently don't have a lot invested approx. £4000 because the majority of my money goes in a cash ISA & regular saver that goes towards my mortgage deposit. I don't have a help to buy ISA as i have left it too late and don't feel like i'll benefit from it because i'm planning on buying my first property mid this year.

I'm currently putting away £100 each month towards my investments and want to start trading shares as well as investing in funds.

Audaxer

Anonymous__C wrote: »

Hello,

I'm a young adult in my early 20s, about two years ago i've invested in the HSBC World Selection Balanced Portfolio (Stock & Shares ISA), as it's a ready made portfolio i've just left it aside and not really done much with it other than drip feed money every month. Not sure where this account is it at as you cant manage this online...

I'm not sure if this account is worth keeping or not? Recently i've been looking into other platforms and thinking of investing myself, but at as this would be my first time investing on my own so I'm slightly nervous, I'm in two minds whether to switch platforms or not or is my current stock and shares ISA not a bad choice?

If you did move your investments to one of the big platforms like AJ Bell you would save a lot in costs especially as your investment pot grows, even by just investing in the HSBC Global Strategy Balanced fund which I think is similar to the HSBC World Selection Balanced Portfolio, although the former has a higher percentage of equities, so probably a bit more volatile, but higher potential gains long term.