Hargreaves Lansdown

garmeg

green_man said:

petelondon said:

AnotherJoe said:

MartialArtMan said:

So I'm new to stocks and shares but have some excess money I'd like to invest. I've chosen to go with Hargreaves Lansdown as they're a big reputable company that I feel I can trust. 
I'd like to know how it works though; I'm thinking that I open a stocks and shares ISA, deposit money into it, then choose with whom I invest my money with ie which shares I buy with the money I deposited? 

Do listen to the naysayers, they are "sort of right" (especially with HL's readymade funds, steer clear) but There's no reason you can't take a bigger chance and buy shares and it may be a good learning experience for you. People are too risk averse here.

 Depends how much money you are putting in and for what purpose. Is this your life savings you were going to buy a house with in a couple of months time, your 16 year olds university fund, a relatively small sum you can afford as a punt, or a long term calculated better way to accumulate wealth over say 20 years?

Also, funds are just one form of collective investment there are also ITs and ETFs which may be worth considering. 

Genuine question about the 'steer clear ' comment on HL's readymade made funds.
Is it due to costs ( say on a 20K investment) , or on performance?

Similarly their ‘wealth list’ Should be viewed as a marketing list rather than a best funds list. (Not to say there aren’t some decent funds on there)

Rathbone Global Opportunities has a very large rebate on that list.

quirkydeptless

When I first started using HL, the first time I had invested outside of my company pension apart from a couple of share holdings, I was like a kid in a candy shop and had too many wealth list punted funds that took my fancy which I could chop and change for free. I even had the Woodford Income fund, but sold it well before the bad times.

After much time on this forum and other detailed investment research (OK, I googled for stuff), a wiser head has prevailed.

HL is expensive for holding funds. I moved most of mine over to ETFs last year in my ISA so my fee is just £45 + Trades (which I do as little of as possible).

Just have one fund with HL now which I monthly invest into for free. It has a 0.25% Loyalty bonus which I think of as the platform fee being a more reasonable 0.2%

I use their X-Ray tool to add my cash+holdings outside of HL so I can see the breakdown of everything I have saved and invested so I see that my total cash/bonds/equity/other allocations are to plan.

Sebo027

quirkydeptless said:

When I first started using HL, the first time I had invested outside of my company pension apart from a couple of share holdings, I was like a kid in a candy shop and had too many wealth list punted funds that took my fancy which I could chop and change for free. I even had the Woodford Income fund, but sold it well before the bad times.

After much time on this forum and other detailed investment research (OK, I googled for stuff), a wiser head has prevailed.

HL is expensive for holding funds. I moved most of mine over to ETFs last year in my ISA so my fee is just £45 + Trades (which I do as little of as possible).

Just have one fund with HL now which I monthly invest into for free. It has a 0.25% Loyalty bonus which I think of as the platform fee being a more reasonable 0.2%

I use their X-Ray tool to add my cash+holdings outside of HL so I can see the breakdown of everything I have saved and invested so I see that my total cash/bonds/equity/other allocations are to plan.

I got stung on the Woodford fund. Thankfully a small (2.5%) amount of my overall invested money. 3rd payment was made yesterday, actually. If I am honest when I signed up to that fund it was predominately the HL marketing that got me - "new fund, don't miss out on launch etc etc" which is obviously a foolish way to approach investing. That being said, you live and you learn (hopefully). 

ajp9000

I have used HL for years plus other platforms, the positives for me are great service, great website/platform stability etc, strong company financially (balance sheet, lots of cash, no debt). There disadvantages are expensive for holding funds (I don't. Only fund I have is Fundsmith which I hold on their own platform), but otherwise cost is capped.  I use the recommendation only as part of my own research (prefer Morningstar to research investment trusts or etf's).  Some of the other platforms may compare well for normal trading etc, but when it comes to things like withdrawing tax free cash form SIPP's can be poor, partially Interactive Investor with whom I had a poor experience compared HL who were flawless.

Albermarle

I use their X-Ray tool to add my cash+holdings outside of HL so I can see the breakdown of everything I have saved and invested so I see that my total cash/bonds/equity/other allocations are to plan.

Is there a limit to how many non HL holdings you can add ? If I remember from previous threads there was some critiicism of this tool not working very well for some investments like IT's ?

quirkydeptless

Albermarle said:

I use their X-Ray tool to add my cash+holdings outside of HL so I can see the breakdown of everything I have saved and invested so I see that my total cash/bonds/equity/other allocations are to plan.

Is there a limit to how many non HL holdings you can add ? If I remember from previous threads there was some critiicism of this tool not working very well for some investments like IT's ?

You can only add 10 more

Also "Please note we cannot currently X-ray Investment Trusts, Absolute Return funds or Exchange Traded Funds"

This isn't entirely true though. I used to have BNY Mellon Real Return which is in the Targeted Absolute Return Sector, and I could X-Ray it. Also I can X-Ray all my EFT holdings, but they are popularly punted global index trackers (VWRP, IWDG, IGLH), so maybe HL added a % of commonly held ETFs to the tool.

It might be possible to proxy in the Fund equivalent of some ITs if they have them, but not ideal.

So for complex portfolios, yes, likely you will not be able to X-Ray everything, but I have a simple portfolio and my company pension is a bunch of index funds, so I can X-Ray all of it. I add in Legal & General Cash to proxy my cash holdings, and I can see my % cash in there too.