iweb portfolio - Lifestrategy vs ISA S&S

blomboy

Hi folks. I am new to all this and could do with a little advice. I am looking to transfer my current bank account ISAs to a stocks and share ISA with iWeb.
I have read up on the advantages of an investor of my age sticking with a balanced portfolio of 60% stocks 40% bonds, this makes sense to me.
Can I ask how I would set a portfolio up like this (60/40) with iweb rather than Vanguard? I imagine it is possibly easier than I am making it out to be? Although I would rather the reassurance of knowing before I make the decision to put my savings into an account iweb rather than Vanguard (based on it's lower annual charges). 
Thanks JB

Audaxer

blomboy said:

Hi folks. I am new to all this and could do with a little advice. I am looking to transfer my current bank account ISAs to a stocks and share ISA with iWeb.
I have read up on the advantages of an investor of my age sticking with a balanced portfolio of 60% stocks 40% bonds, this makes sense to me.
Can I ask how I would set a portfolio up like this (60/40) with iweb rather than Vanguard? I imagine it is possibly easier than I am making it out to be? Although I would rather the reassurance of knowing before I make the decision to put my savings into an account iweb rather than Vanguard (based on it's lower annual charges). 
Thanks JB

With both iWeb and Vanguard platforms you could hold the exact same investment fund, e.g. Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 if that is what you are considering. If you have a large amount to transfer in as a lump sum, iWeb will most likely be the cheaper platform for you.

blomboy

Audaxer said:

With both iWeb and Vanguard platforms you could hold the exact same investment fund, e.g. Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 if that is what you are considering.

Hi, thanks, please correct me if I am wrong - So if I transfer my ISA savings into an S&S ISA with iweb (thinking of it as a deposit box for my savings) I will then have the option to choose to buy into any number of investment funds available through iWeb, including the Vanguard Lifestrategy 60/40, or when you say I could hold the same investment fund do you mean I would have to do the separate purchasing of both 60& stocks and 40% funds myself? Sorry for the naive questions, I would just like to gauge how much I need to understand before opting for iWeb over Vanguard. thanks JB

bowlhead99

blomboy said:

Audaxer said:

With both iWeb and Vanguard platforms you could hold the exact same investment fund, e.g. Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 if that is what you are considering.

Hi, thanks, please correct me if I am wrong - So if I transfer my ISA savings into an S&S ISA with iweb (thinking of it as a deposit box for my savings) I will then have the option to choose to buy into any number of investment funds available through iWeb, including the Vanguard Lifestrategy 60/40, or when you say I could hold the same investment fund do you mean I would have to do the separate purchasing of both 60& stocks and 40% funds myself? Sorry for the naive questions, I would just like to gauge how much I need to understand before opting for iWeb over Vanguard. thanks JB

Once the money is deposited 'into the box' (either Vanguard's platform or IWeb's platform) you could either buy an all-in-one fund (such as Lifestrategy 60% equity) or try to construct your own portfolio out of individual specialist funds (some equity fund(s) here, some bond fund(s) there).

If you use the Vanguard platform you only get the choice to buy Vanguard products. They only have one real choice if you want a fixed all-in-one fund split as 60:40 (the LifeStrategy 60); though you could build and maintain a portfolio out of individual building blocks  (i.e. individual specialist funds) if you think you would do better than they would.

If you use the IWeb platform you can buy products from several different investment houses (e.g. Vanguard or others) so you have greater choice if you want an all-in-one fund like the LifeStrategy one (because you could buy a rival product from other fund managers such as HSBC or L&G etc), and you have greater choice if you want to build it yourself from individual building blocks (i.e. thousands of funds from tens of providers).

I would presume that having never invested before, you do not want to try and build something yourself out of a whole basketful of individual specialist funds (ie the equities funds and bond funds separately to make a portfolio for yourself and rebalance the ratios of those specialist funds back to your target allocations from time to time). You will just buy an all-in-one fund. So, you could do that on Vanguard's platform where there is only really one fund available that meets those needs, or you could do it on IWeb's platform where there is a lot more choice (including the Vanguard LifeStrategy fund and its rivals from other suppliers). Most people prefer more choice, but it can be bewildering to have lots of options.

If you are investing a large amount of money from your bank's ISA you will probably prefer to use IWeb's service because aside from the extra choice, once you've got your account up and running they only charge you a fixed fee or the buying and selling of funds  (which presumably you won't need to do very often) whereas Vanguard charge you on a fixed percentage basis every year (0.15% for maintaining your account).  Still, the 0.15% is not a lot.

Yellowvest23

0.15% is admittedly not a lot but an unnecessary and avoidable cost if you are going to buy the vanguard LS 60%
If its a large holding and you are the type to buy to keep then it will add up over the years

wiseonesomeofthetime

I have been pondering the same question as the OP and have asked similar in a different thread. I too was directed towards iWeb as my investment will be a one time lump sum, then leave for 10+ years.

What I could not work out was how to do that, and iWeb's online chat only works if you have an account already, with the phoneline constantly on hold.

From what I glean here, I simply open a Stocks & Shares ISA account for £25, which in turn opens a Share Dealing account, according to iWeb's site; deposit my £10k into that holding account (deposit box) and then pay a fiver to move it to a Vanguard LS60 ISA ready ETF.

Cannot do it until 6 April 2020, so if anyone else has already done it, and confirm that the above understanding is correct please, I can sit back now and wait until April.😁

ColdIron

When you open the ISA they will automatically open a plain share dealing account but you don't have to use it. Transfer your cash into the ISA via debit card. When you are ready, instruct them to purchase whatever it is you want and how much, they will deduct the the £5 from the amount. Lifestrategy is not an ETF

blomboy

Thanks for the comments. Setting up with iWeb sounds as easy as I expected and I imagine the only doubts that I have on the procedure and ease of setting up an ISA S&S that invests into a lifestraetgy 60 is down to iWeb's decision to go for a very unconvincing, late 90's Netscape website theme! Still, if their no frills website means that us would be investors end up paying less costs over the years then this is a big plus to me and I think I will go with iWeb. Thanks JB

blomboy

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

From what I glean here, I simply open a Stocks & Shares ISA account for £25, which in turn opens a Share Dealing account, according to iWeb's site; deposit my £10k into that holding account (deposit box) and then pay a fiver to move it to a Vanguard LS60 ISA ready ETF.
Cannot do it until 6 April 2020, so if anyone else has already done it, and confirm that the above understanding is correct please, I can sit back now and wait until April.😁

Hi, thanks for your advice, one quick question about ISAs in general as we are both planning on using iWeb for this service - Why can you not do it until April 2020? Have you already contributed to your 2019/20 ISA with an alternative broker?
I am considering to bring an ISA transfer into the iWeb ISA S&S as soon as I open an account, this ISA is from a pre 2017 pot. Ideally I would then like to contribute the maximum I can for this current 2019/20 period, and then contribute the maximum I can in April 2020. Is this possible? Or would my desired ISA transfer count towards this current period 2019/20 ISA deposit limit? 

bowlhead99

blomboy said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

From what I glean here, I simply open a Stocks & Shares ISA account for £25, which in turn opens a Share Dealing account, according to iWeb's site; deposit my £10k into that holding account (deposit box) and then pay a fiver to move it to a Vanguard LS60 ISA ready ETF.
Cannot do it until 6 April 2020, so if anyone else has already done it, and confirm that the above understanding is correct please, I can sit back now and wait until April.😁

 Or would my desired ISA transfer count towards this current period 2019/20 ISA deposit limit? 

No, a transfer of pre- 2019/20 money that's already in an ISA has no impact whatsoever on your subscription limits for 2019/20. Your ISA capacity for current year is the same whether you transfer in some previous-year ISA money or not.

wiseonesomeofthetime

blomboy said:

Why can you not do it until April 2020? Have you already contributed to your 2019/20 ISA with an alternative broker? 

I have already used my 2019/20 ISA allowance in a cash ISA as that sum cannot be locked away for 10+ years.

I have £10k ready to invest in a S&S ISA in 2020/21 for 10+ years