IFA versus HL

Prism

Thing is everyone has different opinions, risk attitudes and goals. So my fund choices might not suit you at all

e.g

4 funds
Fundsmith or Lindsell Train GE
Smithson or Montanaro Better World
Stewart Investors global EM sustainability
Vags ETF

The thing is, without understanding fully why I would pick those funds it doesn't help you much

fronty

My first thought was "wow!". Your portfolio looks seriously complicated.

Personally I would get rid of all the individual stocks, and consolidate down to a core group of funds that accurately reflect your risk profile and intended geographic spread.

To go through your portfolio and work out the asset & geographical allocations will take quite a bit of work, fortunately HL has a pretty nifty (IMHO) x-ray analysis tool which will do all this for you. You should try it if you haven't already.

I'm in the process of restructuring my portfolio from 18 funds down to 1 or 2. I'm going DIY, currently switching from an IFA actively managed portfolio to a couple of passively managed globally diversified funds. The shock for me was seeing 4.5K in fees being deducted every year.

flopsy1973 wrote: »

My only concern with low cost tracker is that when things do crash I think a actively managed fund would be better protected?

I think you can debate this until the cows come home, but if you read the monevator site there's a lot to be said for low-cost passive investing. I think the trick is to make sure it is globally diversified - if you want to reflect the global economy then current thinking seems to be that you should only have around 5% invested in the UK.... so if there is a crash that impacts UK, you will only have limited exposure (e.g. a 20% fall will only impact 5% of your portfolio). So it's not true to say that you will be better protected with an active fund (mine has actually underperformed the market despite being "actively" managed - another reason I am junking my IFA).

If there's a global crash then it won't matter where you're invested!

Ciprico

Someone on "here" once posted: imagine if your portfolio was liquidated to cash - which of your funds/equities would you re-buy...

I found that good advice and could be a good starting point for you.

eskbanker

123mat123 wrote: »

Someone on "here" once posted: imagine if your portfolio was liquidated to cash - which of your funds/equities would you re-buy...

I found that good advice and could be a good starting point for you.

I was thinking much the same thing, in a vaguely similar way to the old joke about stopping for directions in a rural part of [insert stereotypically backwards geographical area], to be told thoughtfully "well, I wouldn't start from here".

In other words, there's no particular (visible) reason to have any attachment to existing holdings, especially if the rationale for buying them has been lost in the mists of time....

flopsy1973

So where do I start to trim these down ?

Thrugelmir

flopsy1973 wrote: »

So where do I start to trim these down ?

Work your way through the portfolio does the original rationale for buying any one particular investment still hold? If not sell it. Take your time before reinvesting the proceeds.

SonOf

flopsy1973 wrote: »

So where do I start to trim these down ?

It goes back to the thread title in some respects. You either get an IFA to do it or you use an expensive in-house option from your platform or you read up about investing and learn about it and DIY.

flopsy1973

Any places where I can get some diy help or reading to understand more about which funds to sell

flopsy1973

Any more views on which of these funds I should be dumping

Thrugelmir

If making money were that easy everyone would be a librarian. (Warren Buffet )

Difficult to comment when portfolios are personalised. I’d focus on making the portfolio conservative. Before venturing forward. Taking one step at a time.