IFA or DIY - any thoughts appreciated

zagfles

Joey_Soap said:

I have to say to the OP, even if you do nothing else, move your pot of investments away from HL and to Interactive Investor. They have a fixed fee structure. So unlike HL the bigger the pot gets, the fee stays the same. With your amount of money invested, you will pay II less each YEAR than you pay HL is single MONTH. You need to do this ASAP since HL are costing you a fortune. Having done that, I ask you this - Have you done OK with managing your own fund? Do you see anything changing how you have done? Are you on track to meet your goals? If the answers are, Yes, No, Yes. Then transfer your investments away from HL to II and just keep doing what you doing. Yo me, it sounds like you are doing great but for some reason are having a bit of a confidence lapse. Very understandable at the moment. Stick with it, save yourself a small fortune in fees and carry on.

(By the way, to be very clear, holding funds, HL are charging you 0.45% on the first £250k and 0.25% above that. Take a look what they are taking off you each month. It's a large amount of money you need not spend).

I considered that a few years ago, but then I read the very long thread about all the problems people were having with II, see it's got up to 207 pages over 4 years now! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374/iii/p1

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

Also with HL if you invest in ETFs etc there is a cap of £200 IIRC, and no charge for cash or drawdown. Snowman's spreadsheet (google it) will compare costs depending on investment type etc.

Albermarle

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

I do not think that is a common occurrence !

Joey_Soap

There's nothing at all wrong with Interactive Investor, they are now the second largest retail platform behind HL. I pay less per YEAR to II than I paid HL per MONTH. For the same product.

Joey_Soap

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

I have to say to the OP, even if you do nothing else, move your pot of investments away from HL and to Interactive Investor. They have a fixed fee structure. So unlike HL the bigger the pot gets, the fee stays the same. With your amount of money invested, you will pay II less each YEAR than you pay HL is single MONTH. You need to do this ASAP since HL are costing you a fortune. Having done that, I ask you this - Have you done OK with managing your own fund? Do you see anything changing how you have done? Are you on track to meet your goals? If the answers are, Yes, No, Yes. Then transfer your investments away from HL to II and just keep doing what you doing. Yo me, it sounds like you are doing great but for some reason are having a bit of a confidence lapse. Very understandable at the moment. Stick with it, save yourself a small fortune in fees and carry on.

(By the way, to be very clear, holding funds, HL are charging you 0.45% on the first £250k and 0.25% above that. Take a look what they are taking off you each month. It's a large amount of money you need not spend).

I considered that a few years ago, but then I read the very long thread about all the problems people were having with II, see it's got up to 207 pages over 4 years now! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374/iii/p1

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

Also with HL if you invest in ETFs etc there is a cap of £200 IIRC, and no charge for cash or drawdown. Snowman's spreadsheet (google it) will compare costs depending on investment type etc.

The OP is not invested in ETFs and I recommend he sticks exactly what he's doing now but at a far less expensive platform. If the OP wanted an ETF portfolio, that would be correct.

Joey_Soap

Albermarle said:

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

I do not think that is a common occurrence !

A lot folks tried that including myself but failed. I think once it became common knowledge that HL were cutting deals individually, it ended very quickly.

zagfles

Albermarle said:

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

I do not think that is a common occurrence !

Well at least 33 MSE'ers managed it according to this poll https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4889890/hl-customer-charges-custom-offers/p1

Although it was 6 years ago.

zagfles

Joey_Soap said:

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

I have to say to the OP, even if you do nothing else, move your pot of investments away from HL and to Interactive Investor. They have a fixed fee structure. So unlike HL the bigger the pot gets, the fee stays the same. With your amount of money invested, you will pay II less each YEAR than you pay HL is single MONTH. You need to do this ASAP since HL are costing you a fortune. Having done that, I ask you this - Have you done OK with managing your own fund? Do you see anything changing how you have done? Are you on track to meet your goals? If the answers are, Yes, No, Yes. Then transfer your investments away from HL to II and just keep doing what you doing. Yo me, it sounds like you are doing great but for some reason are having a bit of a confidence lapse. Very understandable at the moment. Stick with it, save yourself a small fortune in fees and carry on.

(By the way, to be very clear, holding funds, HL are charging you 0.45% on the first £250k and 0.25% above that. Take a look what they are taking off you each month. It's a large amount of money you need not spend).

I considered that a few years ago, but then I read the very long thread about all the problems people were having with II, see it's got up to 207 pages over 4 years now! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374/iii/p1

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

Also with HL if you invest in ETFs etc there is a cap of £200 IIRC, and no charge for cash or drawdown. Snowman's spreadsheet (google it) will compare costs depending on investment type etc.

The OP is not invested in ETFs and I recommend he sticks exactly what he's doing now but at a far less expensive platform. If the OP wanted an ETF portfolio, that would be correct.

Other platforms are available too. That's why I suggested using Snowman's spreadsheet to compare charges. But as with anything else, cost isn't the only issue.

Also there's the charge discount HL have for some funds, other platforms may too but they're worth comparing as well.

Joey_Soap

zagfles said:

Albermarle said:

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

I do not think that is a common occurrence !

Well at least 33 MSE'ers managed it according to this poll https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4889890/hl-customer-charges-custom-offers/p1

Although it was 6 years ago.

I think that's why it stopped. Once it became common knowledge they were cutting deals it opened the flood gates. They had to stop it or give all their clients the discounts.

Joey_Soap

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

I have to say to the OP, even if you do nothing else, move your pot of investments away from HL and to Interactive Investor. They have a fixed fee structure. So unlike HL the bigger the pot gets, the fee stays the same. With your amount of money invested, you will pay II less each YEAR than you pay HL is single MONTH. You need to do this ASAP since HL are costing you a fortune. Having done that, I ask you this - Have you done OK with managing your own fund? Do you see anything changing how you have done? Are you on track to meet your goals? If the answers are, Yes, No, Yes. Then transfer your investments away from HL to II and just keep doing what you doing. Yo me, it sounds like you are doing great but for some reason are having a bit of a confidence lapse. Very understandable at the moment. Stick with it, save yourself a small fortune in fees and carry on.

(By the way, to be very clear, holding funds, HL are charging you 0.45% on the first £250k and 0.25% above that. Take a look what they are taking off you each month. It's a large amount of money you need not spend).

I considered that a few years ago, but then I read the very long thread about all the problems people were having with II, see it's got up to 207 pages over 4 years now! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374/iii/p1

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

Also with HL if you invest in ETFs etc there is a cap of £200 IIRC, and no charge for cash or drawdown. Snowman's spreadsheet (google it) will compare costs depending on investment type etc.

The OP is not invested in ETFs and I recommend he sticks exactly what he's doing now but at a far less expensive platform. If the OP wanted an ETF portfolio, that would be correct.

Other platforms are available too. That's why I suggested using Snowman's spreadsheet to compare charges. But as with anything else, cost isn't the only issue.

Also there's the charge discount HL have for some funds, other platforms may too but they're worth comparing as well.

Given the massive delta in charges between HL and II if you hold funds, it's a total no-brainer to switch from HL to II with a decent sized portfolio. As I said, the OP will pay II less in a YEAR than he now pays HL in a MONTH. I am not making it up. I did exactly that with a similar sized portfolio.

zagfles

Joey_Soap said:

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

zagfles said:

Joey_Soap said:

I have to say to the OP, even if you do nothing else, move your pot of investments away from HL and to Interactive Investor. They have a fixed fee structure. So unlike HL the bigger the pot gets, the fee stays the same. With your amount of money invested, you will pay II less each YEAR than you pay HL is single MONTH. You need to do this ASAP since HL are costing you a fortune. Having done that, I ask you this - Have you done OK with managing your own fund? Do you see anything changing how you have done? Are you on track to meet your goals? If the answers are, Yes, No, Yes. Then transfer your investments away from HL to II and just keep doing what you doing. Yo me, it sounds like you are doing great but for some reason are having a bit of a confidence lapse. Very understandable at the moment. Stick with it, save yourself a small fortune in fees and carry on.

(By the way, to be very clear, holding funds, HL are charging you 0.45% on the first £250k and 0.25% above that. Take a look what they are taking off you each month. It's a large amount of money you need not spend).

I considered that a few years ago, but then I read the very long thread about all the problems people were having with II, see it's got up to 207 pages over 4 years now! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4904374/iii/p1

So instead I negotiated a discount with HL.

Also with HL if you invest in ETFs etc there is a cap of £200 IIRC, and no charge for cash or drawdown. Snowman's spreadsheet (google it) will compare costs depending on investment type etc.

The OP is not invested in ETFs and I recommend he sticks exactly what he's doing now but at a far less expensive platform. If the OP wanted an ETF portfolio, that would be correct.

Other platforms are available too. That's why I suggested using Snowman's spreadsheet to compare charges. But as with anything else, cost isn't the only issue.

Also there's the charge discount HL have for some funds, other platforms may too but they're worth comparing as well.

Given the massive delta in charges between HL and II if you hold funds, it's a total no-brainer to switch from HL to II with a decent sized portfolio. As I said, the OP will pay II less in a YEAR than he now pays HL in a MONTH. I am not making it up. I did exactly that with a similar sized portfolio.

You've said that 3 times, using capitals, I think we get the message. Now, let me repeat, HL and II are not the only platforms, charges depend on lots of factors like investment types, trading frequency, fund discounts, other charges eg drawdown etc. It's worth looking at the whole market not just 2 platforms if you're thinking of moving. And cost is not the only factor, the ANNUAL price difference even between the cheapest and most expensive platform is less than the stock market typically moves PER DAY. There, I can use caps too!

Personally, I won't be moving from HL to II.