My First S&S ISA - Are these sensible fund choices/platform?

MayhemMoney

Hi all,
I opened my first S&S ISA in March through the recommendation on MSE website I went through cavendish online to fidelity platform. 
-Am I right in thinking this is a low charges/fees compared to other options and also safe/protected place to make investments? 
I've put £10,000 cash in prior to the April tax year cut off, invested £5,000 and held £5,000 cash with the intention of using it shortly to buy further.
I also have set up a regular savings plan. I would like to check that the funds I'm investing in don't have any glaringly obvious problems that I'm overlooking as a novice or simply better fund choices to replicate the markets I'm attempting to track? 


As you can see the funds I'm investing in are:
Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% 
UBS S&P 500 Index Fund
HSBC FTSE 100 Index Fund
HSBC FTSE 250 Index Fund
(Also additional Vanguard Fund on the regular saver)  
Is there anything obviously wrong here that I'm missing being a novice? Once my house purchase is complete I plan on increasing the regular monthly saver and I also am going to spend the £5,000 left in cash in the ISA when we dip again. I plan to hold on to these for many years as long term investments.
Thank you 

Alistair31

Have you looked at the contents of the Vanguard Lifestrategy fund ?  

MayhemMoney

Alistair31 said:

Have you looked at the contents of the Vanguard Lifestrategy fund ?  

Yes from what I understand it's weighted towards the FTSE and also US? 
I think what you're getting at is the funds I chose are rather similar to what the lifestrategy is comprised of? Please just say what you mean  

Alistair31

Haha, ok. You are duplicating what you already hold within VLS100. 

Appropriate username, btw.

ColdIron

The Lifestrategy gives pretty good diversification but I can't see the point of the three index trackers as they are already covered by your VLS and are just duplicating what is already there. Have you deliberately chosen to overweight those 3 indexes? Remember they will dilute the VLS holdings in Europe, Japan, Emerging Markets, Asia Pacific etc. Was this your intention? Hard to comment on the ETF, vanguard do many ETFs but given it is over a quarter of your holdings does it duplicate parts of the VLS or cover different sectors?

For smaller sums and regular purchases you want a percentage fee provider and Cavendish fits that bill, but if you were happy to just hold only Vanguard funds (perhaps just the VLS100) then Vanguard Investor would be a little cheaper

Username999

LS100 already has S&P 500, FTSE 100 and FTSE 250:

4th Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF 13.10%
8th Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ETF 4.70%
10th Vanguard FTSE 250 UCITS ETF 0.80%

Nothing wrong with your selections you are just weighting the allocations differently.

https://www.trustnet.com/factsheetpdf?url=https:%2F%2Fwww2.trustnet.com%2FFactsheets%2FFundFactsheetPDF.aspx%3FfundCode%3DACFDV%26univ%3DO&Citicode=acdv&Universe=O&Fundcode=ACFDV&Sectorcode=O:GLBLGRTH

Alistair31

Username999 said:

Nothing wrong with your selections you are just weighting the allocations differently.

Something tells me that the overweighting is not intentional. 

Username999

But then again LS100 also 'duplicates' as well.

2nd Vanguard U.S. Equity Index Fund 19.20%
4th Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF 13.10%

ColdIron

Username999 said:

But then again LS100 also 'duplicates' as well.

To achieve a specific allocation

Username999

Point is you've got high percentage in the FAANG plus 100's of crap companies bundled in there too.

dunstonh

The allocations look like someone who thinks they are better than Vanguard in respect of their chosen asset allocations.    That is quite possible but the amounts allocated look a bit random rather than a traditional core and satellite approach.