Financial advisor?

LHW99

The benefit of a SIPP / personal pension is that the government adds tax relief (is equivalent to ~6% increase in capital in the year the money goes in, as 25% of it will be tax free when it comes out) and that increased capital grows tax free while its in the SIPP.
ISA's also grow the capital tax-free, and you don't pay tax when you take it out, but you don't get the initial boost from the government, and they have a lower total annual investment limit than pensions.

Squids_in

Great, sounds like a good combination - to have an ISA and a SIPP for accessing later in life.

bostonerimus

VLS80 is a good ISA option for someone your age. But you say you have a company pension and don’t understand investing. So you are essentially putting your money into a black box that you don’t understand. Take the time to understand how your pension money is invested before you do anything else. It continues to amaze me how many people put thousands of pounds into pensions without understanding where their money is going.

Squids_in

Thanks for that, I’m currently trying to track down all my old pension pots and plan to explore if it’s possible to lump them together, possibly in to a new SIPP.
VLS is also really appealing.
I have a cash ISA with my bank which isn’t doing much so I may use funds from that.
Do you have any advice on how to open a VLS investment account - just go direct or thru a 3rd party?

Alexland

Squids_in wrote: »

Do you have any advice on how to open a VLS investment account - just go direct or thru a 3rd party?

Suggest you read post #19 again on the difference between a fund series and tax wrapper account.

You can buy VLS fund units from most DIY investor platform accounts (such as a 0.25% fee Cavendish S&S ISA or pension) or directly via Vanguard Investor (who offer a 0.15% fee S&S ISA but not a pension yet). No need to take any advice if you are just adding new money into the account but be aware of ISA and pension tax year contribution limits. Some types of pension transfer will require advice.

https://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/pensions-retirement
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/stocks-shares-isa
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/life-strategy-products

Alex

Squids_in

Thanks Alex.
I have 2 ISA’s just thru my bank, so it sounds like I should speak to them about options such as VLS.
What’s the difference between using a bank and an investor platform for this?

Alexland

The main difference is that banks tend to offer lower quality investment products at higher charges.

Squids_in

Just checked out HSBC global strategy as an option and it says the annual charge is 0.48 or 0.49%... has this increased as I’ve read elsewhere that it’s only 0.19%?

I’m tempted by this option as it means I can at least sit down and meet with someone to discuss the various options on offer.

ColdIron

The OCF of these funds is about 0.16% to 0.21%. Are you looking at them through HSBC's website? If so the HSBC platform fee (0.25%) and transaction costs (0.02%) are included in the costs. If you hold them outside HSBC there will be equivalent charges

Have a look at the Balanced fund and click on the 'Balanced Portfolio costs & charges disclosure document' link
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/isas/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios/#balanced

badger09

Squids_in wrote: »

Just checked out HSBC global strategy as an option and it says the annual charge is 0.48 or 0.49%... has this increased as I’ve read elsewhere that it’s only 0.19%?

I’m tempted by this option as it means I can at least sit down and meet with someone to discuss the various options on offer.

I think you're suggesting discussing investment options with someone at HSBC bank? If so, please don't. Anyone you talk to will only be able to tell you about (ie sell you) HSBC products. Investments held through high street banks are generally poor value for money.