Hargreaves Lansdown

Maryh82

I have, who was v critical of HL. try another are you saying?

newatc

I use HL on a DIY basis and always found their service good including an excellent website. I have also instigated an account for my wife who knows zero about investing so utilises their portfolio+ service; I recognise the high costs but think it is worthwhile in her case.

I would say, MaryH82, that with 250k invested in their portfolio+ service (if I am reading that correctly) then it would be worthwhile to suggest to them that overall costs are high and they need to reduce their service costs to avoid you considering a move.

Good luck.

dunstonh

It helps if you quote the person you are responding to.

Reed_Richards

Maryh82, you keep mentioning "up-coming retirement"; do you mean that you plan to retire in the next few years? And is your investment held with Hargreaves Lansdown part of a SIPP or an ISA or just a normal investment? You may not wish to divulge this information but without it, it is difficult to judge if your Lifetime Allowance (for pension benefit) has any relevance to your HL investment.

I have used HL for some of my investments for over 10 years without any problems but I have never looked to them for financial advice.

OldMusicGuy

Apologies Maryh82, I missed the part about you investing in a managed portfolio from HL and assumed you were just using the platform, and thus asking about HL the company/platform. My comment doesn't relate to the managed portfolios from HL, so it was inappropriate and apologies again.

My own perspective is that personally I would not use the managed portfolios from HL, I would either make my own fund choices to keep costs down (which is what I do) or pay an independent financial adviser to make the choices for me (much more expensive though).

Like I said, I have used HL for one-off paid for financial advice and I was happy with that. I know they aren't independent but all my money was invested in an HL SIPP and they have a very wide range of funds to choose from. FWIW the HL adviser did not recommend any of the HL managed portfolios (I did not ask why as I did not know about them at the time).

dunstonh

Apologies Maryh82, I missed the part about you investing in a managed portfolio from HL and assumed you were just using the platform, and thus asking about HL the company/platform. My comment doesn't relate to the managed portfolios from HL, so it was inappropriate and apologies again.

I must admit that my reply was on the basis of using the platform as well (potentially one of their cash cow portfolio funds). If it is using their portfolio funds then I can understand the IFA saying they can probably do better.

FWIW the HL adviser did not recommend any of the HL managed portfolios (I did not ask why as I did not know about them at the time).

Back when HL were IFAs, they probably didnt use it as they had to appear whiter than white to prove independence. Plus, IFAs just wouldnt use HL's platform as it is too expensive. As well as their portfolio funds. Now that HL are no longer IFAs, they havent got that problem.

grey_gym_sock

i would be concerned about paying HL for financial advice, because there is a conflict of interest, in that their advice may be to use an investment that will earn them further income (in platform fees, and fund management fees). better to pay an independent advisor, who will only gain from an explicit fee for advice, and whom you can be confident has no product bias.

so the IFA may have a point there. though i don't quite follow the point about lifetime allowance, i.e. what advice HL should have given about it.

(st james place are another company who have issues with product bias. they also have a very opaque charging system - in that respect, HL are better.)

(full disclosure: i own some shares in HL.)

Terry_Towelling

Has something gone missing from this thread? Several posts seem not to be listed anymore.

jimjames

Maryh82 wrote: »

Advise please. I have about £250k invested in a manged portfolio with HL. Recently I reviewed my upcoming pension options with an IFA, who was hugely critical of HL. I thought this was unprofessional but on the basis of the advise realised that HL had provided me with a poor service in return for high management fees. In particular they had not provided basic pension advise concerning the life time allowance.

I don't think you can complain about a lack of advice unless you are paying for it. HL is a DIY platform so you wouldn't normally be expecting to be advised about things like LTA unless you have specifically paid for your personal situation to be reviewed. I also don't think it's necessarily unprofessional to say that better options are available but it depends on the way in which it was done.

Maryh82

Paying for personalised advise. Thamks