S&S ISA investment doubt

andrea1983

Hi,
I've recently decided to open a S&S ISA account and start to understand better about the S&S investment world.
HSBC is the bank I have for my current and savings account so, as beginner investor, I though it would be easier to open the S&S ISA with them and invest in one of their already made investment portafolios.
Since then I've been reading more about investing and discovered different platforms that could be used for investing in a S&S ISA and that attention should be made on charging fees.
Also I read that investing in active managed funds is not really a great choise cause passive index funds are usually cheaper and provide better gains.
Here are my questions now:
- How bad of an idea was to open the S&S ISA with HSBC? If really bad, how could I make up for this mistake and what investing platform would you suggest?
- How bad of an idea was to invest in one of their active managed portfolios? If so, again, what would you suggest to make it up for that?
Would it be worth to transfer my investment to another investment platform? Would be worth to invest on something differe too or better to stuck with what I've got for now?
Do you guys have some book about investment (more focused on the practical side of it) to suggest? The one I've found are sometime too technical and sometimes based on the States market.

I really look forward to hearing from you and thanks for your help as usual.
Also, I'm just a beginner so apologize if my all post doesn't make any sense; though I would be still interested in suggestions and clarifications!
Thanks

dunstonh

HSBC is the bank I have for my current and savings account so, as beginner investor, I though it would be easier to open the S&S ISA with them and invest in one of their already made investment portafolios.

Historically, banks and building societies have been the worst place to buy financial products other than banking services.

Some of the banks have gone into robo-guidence options with varying degrees of quality.     For small value investors they will probably be fine. For larger investors, you could do a lot better.

Since then I've been reading more about investing and discovered different platforms that could be used for investing in a S&S ISA and that attention should be made on charging fees.

Charges are important but are secondary to investment quality.

Also I read that investing in active managed funds is not really a great choise cause passive index funds are usually cheaper and provide better gains.

Not necessarily. Like most things in like, it is not binary but varies depending on the scenario.    If you were building a portfolio of funds, then a good quantity of them are likely to be passive.  However, there are some very good managed options available and ruling them out would be silly.    Many people operate a core and satellite approach where they use passive for the core and managed for the satellite as the managed funds can give them investment options that do not exist on the passive side.

- How bad of an idea was to open the S&S ISA with HSBC? If really bad, how could I make up for this mistake and what investing platform would you suggest?

Depends on when you did it.  If it was one of the HSBC world selection portfolios then its expensive and not great.  If its a more modern robo-guidance option then it's not bad but you wouldn't find many knowledgeable investors using it.  It is aimed at the low knowledge consumer.

- How bad of an idea was to invest in one of their active managed portfolios? If so, again, what would you suggest to make it up for that?

It depends on what alternatives you would pick to measure it by.  you could have done a lot worse.   You could do a lot better.    It maybe that its just fine for you.

Would it be worth to transfer my investment to another investment platform? Would be worth to invest on something differe too or better to stuck with what I've got for now?

You haven't told us which platform or how you would invest.  The HSBC option prevents you from making any mistakes.  A whole of market platform with 30,000 investment options opens up the ability to make mess of things.    Or pick more expensive options than what you have currently.

The one I've found are sometime too technical and sometimes based on the States market.

Disregard US research and information.  US investors tend to be inward looking. Focusing on the S&P500 and bonds.   UK investors tend to be more global with investing.   US taxation is different and US managed funds are complete waste of time due to taxation that penalises them which does not exist in the UK.

Eco_Miser

Have a look at the Monevator site. Lots of suggestions for investing approaches. It will even tell you how much various investing platforms will charge you.

Prism

HSBC have one of the better multi asset ranges called Global Strategy which may suit you.
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/isas/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios/

Albermarle

The global strategy multi asset funds ( mentioned above ) within the HSBC ISA have a total cost of 0.43% , which is pretty competitive, and in fact slightly cheaper than buying them on some well known low cost investment platforms.
The managed funds are around 1 % including fund and ISA costs , so again not too high for a managed fund.
No costs for buying or selling .
So although Dunston quite rightly says that bank investment products are normally best avoided, this looks like quite a good offering .

Alexland

Yes it really depends which product you buy from HSBC but I would have no problem going for a fairly low cost Global Strategy fund on their fairly low cost Investment Centre platform as a DIY option without paying advice. Whichever risk level you chose their total cost should be under 0.50% which isn't unreasonable for a small account. Sure it would be a bit cheaper going with Vanguard LifeStrategy on Vanguard Investor at 0.37% however with VLS you end up with the higher proportion of UK equities which have historically underperformed the global market. You might be able to improve your investment without changing provider. HSBC are a good asset manager if you pick the right product.

andrea1983

dunstonh said:

HSBC is the bank I have for my current and savings account so, as beginner investor, I though it would be easier to open the S&S ISA with them and invest in one of their already made investment portafolios.

Historically, banks and building societies have been the worst place to buy financial products other than banking services.

Some of the banks have gone into robo-guidence options with varying degrees of quality.     For small value investors they will probably be fine. For larger investors, you could do a lot better.

Since then I've been reading more about investing and discovered different platforms that could be used for investing in a S&S ISA and that attention should be made on charging fees.

Charges are important but are secondary to investment quality.

Also I read that investing in active managed funds is not really a great choise cause passive index funds are usually cheaper and provide better gains.

Not necessarily. Like most things in like, it is not binary but varies depending on the scenario.    If you were building a portfolio of funds, then a good quantity of them are likely to be passive.  However, there are some very good managed options available and ruling them out would be silly.    Many people operate a core and satellite approach where they use passive for the core and managed for the satellite as the managed funds can give them investment options that do not exist on the passive side.

- How bad of an idea was to open the S&S ISA with HSBC? If really bad, how could I make up for this mistake and what investing platform would you suggest?

Depends on when you did it.  If it was one of the HSBC world selection portfolios then its expensive and not great.  If its a more modern robo-guidance option then it's not bad but you wouldn't find many knowledgeable investors using it.  It is aimed at the low knowledge consumer.

- How bad of an idea was to invest in one of their active managed portfolios? If so, again, what would you suggest to make it up for that?

It depends on what alternatives you would pick to measure it by.  you could have done a lot worse.   You could do a lot better.    It maybe that its just fine for you.

Would it be worth to transfer my investment to another investment platform? Would be worth to invest on something differe too or better to stuck with what I've got for now?

You haven't told us which platform or how you would invest.  The HSBC option prevents you from making any mistakes.  A whole of market platform with 30,000 investment options opens up the ability to make mess of things.    Or pick more expensive options than what you have currently.

The one I've found are sometime too technical and sometimes based on the States market.

Disregard US research and information.  US investors tend to be inward looking. Focusing on the S&P500 and bonds.   UK investors tend to be more global with investing.   US taxation is different and US managed funds are complete waste of time due to taxation that penalises them which does not exist in the UK.

Thanks a lot for your reply. I really appreciate it.
Just to add some more info about my investments and what was my plan.
I invested 10k on that S&S ISA opened few months ago using HSBC platform and choosing their global strategy dynamic portfolio C accumulation (B849DT8) (classified as risk level 4 out of 5).
Is that one of the expensive and not great portfolios you are talking about?
Which one are the robot-guidance ones you mention on your message?
I choose it for the convenience of being already a diversified portfolio and the idea was to regularly fund it (within the ISA annual allowance) threating it as a sort of secondary pension pot (if that makes sense).
It's probably the most beginner move possible but I wanted to give it a try to move the first steps in the investing world.
Since then I've been reading more about investing and trying to understand better about different topics and I started to think if what I did was a wise move or not and if my plan was a good one to start with.
I've learnt there are different platforms to use for investments and I could also have chosen a different way to invest in altogether.
I'm still in that confused phase when you get too much info about a subject that is completely new to you so I can't still understand if what I did was a good move or not.
Should I stuck to my plan or should I do some change.
The more suggestions I get the better I will understand things.
Also I would be interested to get suggestions on book and or websites were I could get more info  and studies on the practical side of investing in UK/Europe.

Thanks for helping.

Prism

I reckon you are fine. Thats one of the cheap decent funds.

andrea1983

Prism said:

I reckon you are fine. Thats one of the cheap decent funds.

Thanks for your messages!

Would that mean that my plan of regularly funding into this investment portfolio is good idea?

Should I also consider to diversify mi investments too?? Being that portfolio already diversified I would think there is no reason to do that but I'm curious to see what you guys think and suggest too.

Also, please keep suggestions about where to learn more on the investment world coming too; I'm getting really interested in knowing more and more.

Thanks everyone!

dunstonh

I invested 10k on that S&S ISA opened few months ago using HSBC platform and choosing their global strategy dynamic portfolio C accumulation (B849DT8) (classified as risk level 4 out of 5).

Good fund. Used it multiple times for smaller value investments.  Perfect for that sort of thing.

Is that one of the expensive and not great portfolios you are talking about?

No. You have avoided those.  Put your worry hat away.  All is fine.

Albermarle

This is a good explanation of passive investing .https://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/
To begin with it explains how to use very low cost index trackers in certain ratios to get the balance of risk you want .
Then at the end it says if you can not be bothered /do not fully understand just buy a low cost multi asset fund instead that does it all for you at a small extra cost. Which is what you have done, so no problem .