IFA Ongoing Fees

bostonerimus

lisyloo wrote: »

That may be true given your ifs.
However the number of people (on here) that don’t know the basics - like their state pension age and cannot read what paperwork says (regarding forecasts or COPE) for example, means we might not agree on what % of the population can acheive those criteria.

Most people can follow the simple rules of investing. Whether they are willing is another matter. Part of the problem is that people have been told so often that this is complicated that they don't even try. It's made to seem complicated by the financial industry precisely so that people don't try. People are also brainwashed by popular culture that maths is hard and it's ok to say "I can't do maths" while very few people proudly state "I can't read". This is why it's important to give every child a firm basic education in maths and practical finance.

bostonerimus

whatsup7 wrote: »

I didn’t think it was possible to get the fees that low, care to expand a bit?

I'm in the US and use the US Vanguard platform. I DIY so I have no advisor fee; on the Vanguard platform there's no platform fee or trading costs for their own funds, and I only own Vanguard funds; my only cost is the fund fees on the three index trackers I own which are 0.04%, 0.05% and 0.1% and the weighted average of those comes to 0.07%.

lisyloo

bostonerimus wrote: »

Most people can follow the simple rules of investing.

We’ll have to agree to disagree here.
I don’t even know what simple rules you are referring to and I’m pretty sure the fork lift drivers, window fitters and park keepers in my family don’t have a clue either (although they are skilled in their own respective fields).
Some of them wouldn’t even have pensions without auto enrolment (which is why it’s a positive thing).

Thrugelmir

bostonerimus wrote: »

Most people can follow the simple rules of investing.

Hindsight makes investing look so easy. If it were everybody would be wealthy.

bostonerimus

I posted a link to some simple financial rules, but they can be summarized as

Spend less than you make
Put as much as you can into ISAs and pensions and invest in low cost index funds.... or manybe a low cost multiasset fund. Do that for 40 years.

Of course you need to have income so you can save and that isn’t a given anymore as employers and politicians push more costs onto workers and the quality of benefits falls. Still the principals are simple enough

lisyloo

They are not bad rules but aren’t taught in schools so you average van driver, fork lift driver, soldier, supermarket worker i.e. Ordinary people don’t have access to them.

Auto enrolment is good, but not sure how that works for the self employed or gig economy.

I don’t have anything against DIY for the sophisticated, just think it’s for the few not the many (bus drivers, train drivers, warehouse operatives etc.)

bostonerimus

Hindsight makes investing look so easy. If it were everybody would be wealthy.

You can make investing difficult if you want, and people often do that because they think it will give them better returns. They’ll even pay money for that complexity. But you can also make it easy.

I’m not sure how relevant hindsight is to the basic principles of thrift and long term investing in the global economy. I’ve been doing that for 30 years and I plan to do it for, hopefully, at least another 30years.

[Deleted User]

bostonerimus wrote: »

I'm in the US and use the US Vanguard platform. I DIY so I have no advisor fee; on the Vanguard platform there's no platform fee or trading costs for their own funds, and I only own Vanguard funds; my only cost is the fund fees on the three index trackers I own which are 0.04%, 0.05% and 0.1% and the weighted average of those comes to 0.07%.

What about taxes, including withholding tax for foreign dividends? And commission for buying/selling?

bostonerimus

Lots of the money is in tax deferred accounts so there’s no tax until I make withdrawals and then I just include it on my tax return as income. For the general accounts Vanguard sends me 1099s each year with dividends, capital gains etc and I just include those on my annual return. If I return to the U.K. things would get more complicated as I’d be liable for tax in both the U.K. and US, but I wouldn’t end up paying more tax.

cloud_dog

lisyloo wrote: »

We’ll have to agree to disagree here.
I don’t even know what simple rules you are referring to and I’m pretty sure the fork lift drivers, window fitters and park keepers in my family don’t have a clue either (although they are skilled in their own respective fields).
Some of them wouldn’t even have pensions without auto enrolment (which is why it’s a positive thing).

We have been round this house with bostonerimus, many many times, and they are unwilling to simply acknowledge that a large percentage of people are either unable or unwilling to consider DIYing financial planning/management.