multi-asset managed funds (for SIPPs or ISAs)

medindexer

You said

2. For different Treasury Bond funds you get:-

https://www.trustnet.com/fund/search/treasury%20bond%20funds

I know nothing about government bonds. I used your link (above) and they all appear to US treasury. Are there such things as UK government bonds? ...Or global bonds. If so, can you point me where to find examples? I presume they are offered by most investment service providers like Best

medindexer

Yes, I am in the ISFL Tilney funds, three of them - Conservative, Income, Income + growth
I've spoken to them today and it seems clear that what I will be charged is the OCF (e.g. 1.54% for one of these funds) +.3% (platform/service charge. I think I've got it now! Boy it's complicated trying to work out the terminology. So, I may stay with Best for now, but move out of those multi-asset managed funds into ones like Vanguard LF where my charges will be OCF 0.22%. I'm hoping to find out where to find so-called government bonds too for a small proportion
Cheers all of you - I have been slow on the uptake!

Aidanmc

medindexer wrote: »

Yes, I am in the ISFL Tilney funds, three of them - Conservative, Income, Income + growth
I've spoken to them today and it seems clear that what I will be charged is the OCF (e.g. 1.54% for one of these funds) +.3% (platform/service charge. I think I've got it now! Boy it's complicated trying to work out the terminology. So, I may stay with Best for now, but move out of those multi-asset managed funds into ones like Vanguard LF where my charges will be OCF 0.22%. I'm hoping to find out where to find so-called government bonds too for a small proportion
Cheers all of you - I have been slow on the uptake!

You will have government bond exposure within the vanguard lifestrategy funds with the exception of the 100% fund type.
Vanguard also have a Uk government bond index fund.
Visit https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk and under the heading 'what we offer'!

medindexer

Sorry for not replying to the more recent posts. I've been occupied elsewhere

medindexer

For anyone's information, I've been told these IFSL tilney managed funds have no platform charge (SIPP funds are normally 0.3% at Best). Still not convinced of their value. Any opinions?
Does anyone know where best to find how well the fund is performing against similar funds, managed or unmanaged. Is it indeed feasible at all to get this info
Thx

hatter68

You can monitor through morning star search tools. I have money in IFSL Tilney best invest managed growth fund. I also have money in HSBC Global Strategy Balanced with iweb. I can check portfolio manager on morning star for current price or change performance etc. I am also thinking is it good idea to move everthing to iweb due to fees.

medindexer

Thank you for that info. I did look at morning star but was not quite sure what the info mean. Are the graphs they show alongside one's own fund meant to be equivalent or what exactly e.g. +/- b'mark and +/- Cat.

Yes, had thought of moving to iWeb but I am not v confident (complex reasons) about doing the task when it's meant to save maybe £200/year.

If you go to iWeb, guess you'll be looking for the sort of things I was interested in such as Vanguard LS and passive funds - right?

Albermarle

Yes, had thought of moving to iWeb but I am not v confident (complex reasons) about doing the task when it's meant to save maybe £200/year.

Your main saving will be from moving from the actively managed fund ( OCF 1.54%) to a simple multi asset fund ( 0.25%) like VLS 60 or Blackrock consensus 60 for example . There will be more savings by shopping around to reduce your current 0.3%platform cost, but obviously less significant. In any case you could do this at a later stage if you want.
Personally as you are still learning ( like me ) I would not buy individual equity and bond trackers and then try and get them balanced properly . Easier to pay that little bit extra and let the multi asset fund do it for you. Best not to run before you can walk in this area

hatter68

According to morning star you would be paying £1391.78 in fees for the best invest fund and £118.43 for HSBC Global Strategy balanced. Those figures based on investing £10000.00 over 5 years and expected 5% return. So it would make sense to just have one multi asset fund. I think best invest charge exit fees if moving from them though. Opening an iweb stocks and shares isa was probably the easiest thing i had ever done financially and i would probably put it all in the one fund HSBC Global Strategy balanced. I think it is similar to VLS 60/40 which I had also considered but went with HSBC as slightly lower fees.

medindexer

Yes, it's me again! After all your good advice, I've decided to move some if not all money out of my SIPP Bestinvest Ready made portfolio. My inference has been that it does not perform very well, compared with similar sorts of multi-asset managed funds. Also, I’m hearing that actively managed funds perform no better (if not worse) on average than passive funds. I'm paying £1.5% overall. I think I’d be better off paying say just .2 or .3% for passive funds. I've also notice that nearly half of Best’s ready-made funds are invested in the UK. That's too much of an imbalance isn’t it – is 20-30% for UK more appropriate?

I'm thinking of going for a few low-fee passive funds but am overwhelmed by trying to learn about funds (both the types and sheer number). Given that I am at retirement age (tho don't need to draw from my investments for 5 or 10 years), I want to invest in some relatively safe funds (i.e. maybe 30 or 40% equity maximum – risk 3/4 on scale of 1-10)) so I would want to avoid equity index trackers. So what trackers are there for government bonds (UK/US – does it matter) and corporate bonds? I have already invested about 5K in Vanguard Life Strategy (20 and 40), but will top them up. But am I thinking right that I shouldn’t put all my money into just 2 funds like Vanguard LS, as individual funds even if well spread may underperform compared to other similar sector funds? Would a basket of say 5-10 passive and bonds for an amount of 90K be OK

So, it’s a big ask, but if you can help me (keeping things simple terminology-wise) I’d be most grateful. I’d like to know what types of low-fee passive funds are regarded with a decent reputation and which specific funds can any of you recommend as fitting my brief. Of course I accept that what you say is opinion only! I’d much rather have informed opinion than none. More specifically:

1. Vanguard LS and similar. I can top these up. How about comparable funds like L&G Multi-Index 3 fund; Dimensional World Allocation; BlackRock Consensus 35 etc.)? And what about Vanguard Target Retirement funds (like 2025) where as time goes by money is moved to a more conservative ratio of stocks to bonds.

2. Bonds: I’ve seen articles advising getting corporate bonds, but also articles advising against them. So I feel very unsure about purchasing these. I’ve learned that government bonds (UK) and US gilts are considered to be at the safe end – where does one find and select such funds (Dr Syn mentioned Treasury bonds but there are a plethora).? What are Strategic Bond Funds (.e.g. Artemis Strategic Bond) and should I consider these? I’ve seen recommended Artemis income fund, Marlborough multicap Income. Jupiter income trust, Threadneedle dynamic real return, M&G Global Government Bond Fund, Vanguard Global Bond Index. HSBC Global Strategy Cautious (DrSyn recommended latter).

3. And I hear the terms robotic funds and ETFs – should I know about then in my quest to keep life simple?