Best Invest SIPP - Could I do better on another platform?

Boa21

Some years ago we tranferred the wifes legacy private pension into a SIPP with best invest, it's worth about £30k. Been generally very happy with the product and investments - 2 Best Invest Portfolios (one low risk the other more growth), then 3 other best rated portfolios to spread it about a bit.

Last year they started to charge £30/quarter as a fee. So is there a better option? I am happy with the portfolio and to be honest the amount of money isn't that crucial to us, just don't want to keep dripping money away unnecessarily.

Thanks in advance 

bowlhead99

There are always decent options if price is the main concern, and you could google 'platform comparison' or check threads here.

£120 a year on £30k is 0.4% which is towards the high end of the scale. Hargreaves Lansdown is on a percentage basis at 0.45%, but all the other pure percentage-based ones are lower. For example, AJ Bell Youinvest are 0.25% a year for funds (so only £75/yr on a £30k portfolio);  or if you were using shares or investment trusts or ETFs instead of 'funds', they charge the same 0.25% but cap it at £100/yr so you don't pay more if your account balance goes sky high.

The 'Best Invest Portfolios' themselves can be quite expensive because in addition to your ongoing platform fee, the funds they use have high running costs - they are designed for investors who don't want to have a bewildering choice of options and make their own decisions, and would rather just pay someone to sort it.  If you went somewhere else, you could either use that other place's 'ready made portfolio' suggestions in the same way, or find a third party 'mixed asset' fund or two and buy them off the shelf.

EdSwippet

bowlhead99 said:

... £120 a quarter year on £30k is 0.4% which is towards the high end of the scale.

This £120/year is only the SIPP admin fee. There is a 0.3% platform fee on top:

https://www.bestinvest.co.uk/pensions/sipps/low-cost-sipp-charges

For the OP, this makes BestInvest pricey relative to many of its competitors. Of course, these charges will be hard to avoid if you want to hold BestInvest's own tailor-made portfolios.

Albermarle

If you add the platform fee + SIPP fee + 'tailor made ' fund portfolio fee , you will be paying >2% in charges .
Nowadays anything over 1% is seen as expensive for non specialist investments and 0.5% is easily achievable.
If you had £300K this would make a big difference. For £30K , it is still a few hundred quid a year saving .

Boa21

Thanks for the feedback folks, much appreciated. Possibly not the time to liquidate the tailor made funds, so one for the future possibly.
Thanks again