cash LISA + fund investment for retirement?

Albermarle

May I ask you what do you use or would you suggest as a "secondary" platform for a S&S ISA?

Firstly, the platform is less important that the choice of investment. So best to choose the investment first and then a platform that offers it.

The effect of platform costs is more of an issue as the overall pot size gets bigger .

You can use AJ Bell for a LISA and a S&S ISA for convenience, or there is a link to a comparison table here . Best trading platforms and stock brokers (monevator.com)

Alexland

TheLittleSaver said:
May I ask you what do you use or would you suggest as a "secondary" platform for a S&S ISA?

For current tax year S&S ISA contributions we are using L&G as it was offering good signup cashback and percentage charges work better for smaller amounts. Without the cashback then Vanguard Investor, who we have used before, would have been cheaper.
For our historic S&S ISA contributions we use iWeb as the accounts are big enough that fixed charges are cheaper. In order of size we have much less in LISAs than Pensions and S&S ISAs.

TheLittleSaver

csgohan4 said:

Depends if you want to invest in funds solely or ITs/ETFs/Stock soley or a mix of both. 

Iweb would be a reasonable punt for a cheap platform for S+S ISA, they are increasing their prices soon, so best to apply before that happens. 

I might actually do all with AJ Bell to keep everything in one place (like Albermarle suggested), keep it simple, anyway I will look into Iweb as I haven't heard of it before, but now it's coming up more than once, mentioned by Alexland too. Thanks!

Regarding investment, I am thinking to use one of their "growth" focused packages, which are almost 100% shares, across Global shares, North American, Uk, Asia Pacific, etc...but as I said, I might wait a few more days to think over it more and see if anyone else on here has some more wisdom to share!

Mosler

Alexland said:

TheLittleSaver said:

Thanks Alexland for bringing that up, althgough I see that there are quite a few people not very happy with their service (according to truspilot)? So perhaps it would be better to use AjBell which might cost more, but at least it's been around for a long time and people are generally happy with it? Or perhaps you are using EQi and can vouch for them?

I wouldn't put any faith in trustpilot reviews as they can be manipulated and outright scams seem to have the best reviews.
The service at AJ Bell is certainly good but we don't hear anything bad about EQi on these forums either.
Our circa £25k each LISAs are still at AJ Bell as we are getting the capped ongoing fees for holding an ETF but still with a few £1.50 scheduled trade fees it is costing us around £20 pa each more than EQi. Problem is you can't move an existing LISA to EQi without selling down the investment (or still being under 40, one of us isn't) and I would rather we stayed invested so are sticking with AJ Bell.
We already have good pensions so our LISAs are mostly to help our young kids with house deposits etc.

How do you have 25k in a LISA if they have only been running for 4 years?  Have you had 25% growth?

Albermarle

Best normally to avoid the suggested packaged investment suggestions from any provider as they tend to have high charges .
Difficult to say what a good level of pricing is , as it depends, However max 1% platform + fund charges is a good guideline .
A typical charge for a multi asset fund on a platform would be 0.5% all in , but can be less.

Alexland

Mosler said:
How do you have 25k in a LISA if they have only been running for 4 years?  Have you had 25% growth?

Well we could have transferred in HTB ISAs in the first year when there was no limit but we didn't (already owned properties) it's just £16k contributions, £4k bonuses and around £5k growth after fees.

Mosler

Can you transfer from a cash LISA to an EQi S+S LISA?  If so, does this have to be done with one lump sum or can it be done with multiple transfers to spread it out over time?

Alexland

Mosler said:

Can you transfer from a cash LISA to an EQi S+S LISA?  If so, does this have to be done with one lump sum or can it be done with multiple transfers to spread it out over time?

Provided you are under 40 you can transfer either type of LISA to EQi (but if you transfer a S&S type they require you to uninvest the money to cash first).
Looking at the EQi LISA transfer form Section D you can specify how much cash to transfer but you might want to talk with them in advance as there it not the usual partial transfer tick box or anywhere to specify if you are moving current year subscriptions (which under ISA rules cannot be split).
Obviously only invest money that you don't need access to for at least 5 years preferably longer (age 60) as S&S markets are volatile and sometimes take a long time to recover.

Mosler

Alexland said:

Mosler said:

Can you transfer from a cash LISA to an EQi S+S LISA?  If so, does this have to be done with one lump sum or can it be done with multiple transfers to spread it out over time?

Provided you are under 40 you can transfer either type of LISA to EQi (but if you transfer a S&S type they require you to uninvest the money to cash first).
Looking at the EQi LISA transfer form Section D you can specify how much cash to transfer but you might want to talk with them in advance as there it not the usual partial transfer tick box or anywhere to specify if you are moving current year subscriptions (which under ISA rules cannot be split).
Obviously only invest money that you don't need access to for at least 5 years preferably longer (age 60) as S&S markets are volatile and sometimes take a long time to recover.

If someone is over 40, they can't transfer previous year's from a cash LISA to S&S LISA, or is each provider different?

Alexland

Mosler said:

If someone is over 40, they can't transfer previous year's from a cash LISA to S&S LISA, or is each provider different?

The rules allow LISA transfers after 40 but there are currently no S&S LISA providers accepting such transfer requests. The market is small.
I just looked up the investment returns on the HSBC FTSE All World fund since LISAs launched 3.75 years ago and it's over 40% but of course the money hasn't all been invested since the start but gradually added each tax year so won't have done as well.