Santander fee

vichm

Can I ask about fees for stocks and shares isa ? I want my savings to work harder - I have been to see Santander who recommend investing £60k in one of their stocks and shares isa (which is what I was looking for), attracts charges (fund fees) of over 1.2% per annum on the investment.  There is also a one-off charge of £1500 advice fee on top. This seems high for restricted captive advice? How do these fees compare ? The investment will have to work hard just to pay the fees! Thanks

eskbanker

Investing via high street banks like that is a great way of missing out on much better and cheaper opportunities elsewhere!

Most novice investors would do much better by spending some time on here and elsewhere educating themselves on the principles of investing, before getting their feet wet with a well-diversified global multi-asset fund (typically charging about 0.2%) and holding it on a platform that also charges about the same.

Bear in mind also that you can only pay £20K into a S&S ISA in any tax year, although if you already have money in cash ISAs you can transfer to S&S.

vichm

Thanks - I was just surprised by the £1500 one off advice fee ! From what you say, it sounds like that’s symptomatic of using a high street bank ?

dunstonh

vichm said:

Thanks - I was just surprised by the £1500 one off advice fee ! From what you say, it sounds like that’s symptomatic of using a high street bank ?

Advice costs money, whether you use an IFA  or an FA/tied sales agent.    So, if you are going to pay for advice, it seems logical to pay for an IFA and not an FA/sales agent (IFAs being whole of market and not tied to a provider or panel).
So, the choice is usually either to DIY or use an IFA.   Never to use an FA/sales agent.

Albermarle

For a S& S ISA you can go direct to an investment  fund provider, like Legal & General , Vanguard. HSBC ( or Santander maybe )  etc , where you only get the choice of the funds they offer . This is perfectly OK for an inexperienced investor happy with a limited range of funds . Charges should be between 0.4% and 1% .
Or you can get a S&S ISA with a platform that offer thousands of different funds . Charges can be lower but slightly more complicated to deal with . 
In any case cheaper than 1.2 % .
If you had £600K and were unsure what to do then an IFA would probably be a good idea, but for £60K better to do a bit more research yourself , and ask more questions on here if necessary.