Portfolio+ service from Hargreaves Lansdown

Yanling

Good morning Guys,
Does anyone know the Portfolio+ service from Hargreaves Lansdown, about how much percentage of returns or benefits? Do they have additional charges compared other service such as Master Protfolios?
Many many thanks

OldMusicGuy

No, but I just tried it it. It's a simple, guided way of choosing which HL multi-manager funds to invest in. The Master portfolio is a similar thing but chooses funds more widely (ie it's not just the HL multi-manager funds it chooses).

These are tools to help select investments, they do not have "returns". The returns come from the underlying funds. So you need to look at the selected funds and look at their individual returns to see if they are to your liking.

I couldn't see any additional fees associated with using these services, they just seem like HL recommendations for a "starting point" based on what the HL research team thinks.

I tried the Portfolio + tool with my scenario in mind, a low risk, income generation investment. It came up with a combination of HL multi-manager funds with a 51% equities, 42% bonds and 7% other split. These are IMO expensive for what they are. Personally, I prefer a simple, cheap tracker fund like VLS 60 (with a 60/40 equity/bond split) or VLS 40 (40/60 split) rather than paying the additional fees for the HL multi-manager funds.

dunstonh

Its a cash cow for the platform. Most platforms have similar cash cows.

OldMusicGuy

dunstonh wrote: »

Its a cash cow for the platform. Most platforms have similar cash cows.

Harsh but fair.......:rotfl:

zagfles

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

No, but I just tried it it. It's a simple, guided way of choosing which HL multi-manager funds to invest in. The Master portfolio is a similar thing but chooses funds more widely (ie it's not just the HL multi-manager funds it chooses).

These are tools to help select investments, they do not have "returns". The returns come from the underlying funds. So you need to look at the selected funds and look at their individual returns to see if they are to your liking.

I couldn't see any additional fees associated with using these services, they just seem like HL recommendations for a "starting point" based on what the HL research team thinks.

I tried the Portfolio + tool with my scenario in mind, a low risk, income generation investment. It came up with a combination of HL multi-manager funds with a 51% equities, 42% bonds and 7% other split. These are IMO expensive for what they are. Personally, I prefer a simple, cheap tracker fund like VLS 60 (with a 60/40 equity/bond split) or VLS 40 (40/60 split) rather than paying the additional fees for the HL multi-manager funds.

Yes there's no additional charge but the Portfolio+ seems to use HL multi-manager fund which have an extra layer of charges, so around 1.3% or so, the Master Portfolio generally uses actively managed funds so charges around 0.7% or so, and there's the Tracker Portfolio which uses (obviously) trackers with low charges 0.05-0.2% or so

Yanling

Hi, thanks so much for the reply. I am a Chinese acupuncturist in the UK , 55 age, the first time trying investment. so I am very new and worried. I do not know how to search which funds may have better returns. maybe I should go with Portfolios+?
In total, does Master portfolio seem a bit less cost than Portfolios +?

Yanling

Hi, thanks so much for the reply. I am a Chinese acupuncturist in the UK , 55 age, the first time trying SIPP investment. so I am very new and worried. I do not know how to find out which funds may have better returns. maybe I should go with Portfolios+?
With Master Portfolio, do I need to do lots work, such as pick up the better return funds, rebalance, ect?
Many thanks indeed

TcpnT

Master portfolio does not require lots of work or research. You simply enter your investment goals, attitude to risk and amount to invest and they suggest a suitable selection and allocation to a group of funds that they rate highly. If you're happy with their suggestion you can make the investments with a few clicks (assuming you have cash available in the account). I have used it for one of my accounts and it was extremely quick and easy. If you wanted to rebalance you would have to do that yourself but it would be a quick job once a year or so

OldMusicGuy

The problem with Master Portfolio is that it still involves the HL Multi-Manager funds which are relatively expensive. If you want simple investment with automatic rebalancing, you could use the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds which have lower costs and automatically rebalance.

I would suggest that you invest some time educating yourself before rushing into something. At least explore some alternatives before going with either of the HL options.

I think this is a good, easy to read guide to understanding the different investment options that are available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIY-Simple-Investing-Beginners-Effective-ebook/dp/B00YPF6RCQ/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1433267318&sr=1-8&keywords=diy+simple.

But you can actually get most of the info for free from the author's website if you are prepared to do some digging around: http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html.

I'm not saying the HL options are bad, but I would advise you to choose them for the right reasons rather than choosing them without looking at other things (and understanding exactly what they offer).

TcpnT

The problem with Master Portfolio is that it still involves the HL Multi-Manager funds which are relatively expensive.

I agree with the rest of your post but this is factually incorrect. Master Portfolios does not use HL multi manager funds. It typically suggests a mix of half a dozen funds from other managers and the fund charges are only the normal charges for those funds. ie significantly lower than the HL MM range.

OldMusicGuy

TcpnT wrote: »

I agree with the rest of your post but this is factually incorrect. Master Portfolios does not use HL multi manager funds. It typically suggests a mix of half a dozen funds from other managers and the fund charges are only the normal charges for those funds. ie significantly lower than the HL MM range.

Actually, your post is factually incorrect. The regular income option always seems to recommend the HL Multi-manager income and growth trust as one of the funds. If you enter more than 100,000, the conservative option also includes this HL Multi-manager fund.

So my post was not factually incorrect, yours was But the Master portfolio doesn't recommend the HL multi-manager funds much and has a more diverse selection of funds, so it is fair to say it gives a broad selection of funds, not just HL ones.

However, the charges for these funds would still be higher than something like the VLS funds so I would still suggest that the OP to do a bit of reading first before pressing the button.