L&G Global Tech Fund

RolandFlagg

A while ago I transferred a lump sum from Pensionbee to HL and choose the L&G Global Tech Fund. At HL it states the fund is Class I (Acc)
Fast forward a year or so and I'm now drip feeding into the same fund. But that fund says Class C (Acc).
I've also noticed that there is a Class R (Acc).
Is this just a renaming for some reason and it's still the same fund with the same underlying portfolio?

Linton

Different classes are exactly the same fund but with different charging rates.  Like most other products funds are cheaper if you bulk buy.  So if HL sell a lot of L&G Global Tech they can negotiate with L&G for a cheaper charge.  This must have happened since you first bought the fund. It is of advantage to both sides as it helps them win customers.

There are no standards for the letters used, but frequently I stands for "Institutional" which implies large customers and R means "Retail" which would be the most expensive as it will be sold in small amounts to individual investors.

RolandFlagg

Thanks.

The Class R has a 0.70% fee discounted to 0.46% by HL, whilst the Class C (which I'm dripping feeding into) has standard fee of just 0.20%.
I've no idea what the Class I, which I have my lump sum charges, as this doesn't seem to be available to new customers anymore.
Would it be worth finding out the fee and maybe transferring the lump sum to the Class C if that is cheaper?

Linton

RolandFlagg said:

Thanks.

The Class R has a 0.70% fee discounted to 0.46% by HL, whilst the Class C (which I'm dripping feeding into) has standard fee of just 0.20%.
I've no idea what the Class I, which I have my lump sum charges, as this doesn't seem to be available to new customers anymore.
Would it be worth finding out the fee and maybe transferring the lump sum to the Class C if that is cheaper?

My experience with several platforms (but not HL)  has been that funds are moved to the new class automatically.  If this hasnt happened you should check with HL - I would have thought that it would just be an admin procedure and you should not incur any fees.  It should not be necessary to sell and rebuy.

0.2% vs 0.7%-0.46% is very small (4p in £100) so not something to get too worried about, but it would make administration easier if all your holdings in a fund were in the same class.

Eyeful

I think you will find that the fund share class letters stand for the following

I = Institutional (those that buy in the largest quantities, get the lowest yearly charges)

R= Retail (where you to pay a yearly " trial commission" to the advisor who sold you the fund)

C= Clean (these are where "no trail commission" is paid to anyone)

Linton

Eyeful said:

I think you will find that the fund share class letters stand for the following

I = Institutional (those that buy in the largest quantities, get the lowest yearly charges)

R= Retail (where you to pay a yearly " trial commission" to the advisor who sold you the fund)

C= Clean (these are where "no trail commission" is paid to anyone)

Could be but other fund managers use Z,B, W, D, X - that is from my holdings.    I dont know what they stand for!

Malthusian

I think you will find that the fund share class letters stand for the following

I and R do indeed stand near-universally for institutional and retail. Most R funds however no longer pay commission to the adviser; any legacy commission for funds held via a platform was switched off in 2017 and most advisers switched to fees long before then.

C could stand for clean but it could also mean "shareclass number 3". You see funds where A is the dirty retail shareclass, B is the institutional / clean retail shareclass, and C is a special deal shareclass with even lower charges than B.

(Shareclasses for special pricing deals are also known as "superclean". Although this makes superficial sense, on the grounds that a clean shareclass is cheaper than a dirty shareclass therefore an even cheaper one must be superclean, "superclean" pricing deals are in reality commission by another name.

Platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown use their size to negotitate lower fund fees, which means they can get away with charging higher platform fees. In return for the discount, Hargreaves Lansdown and co promote those funds more heavily. Money passed from fund manager to platform in return for distributing and promoting their fund to a wider audience = commission.)

X, Y and Z are also frequently seen for institutional or clean-retail classes.

In L&G's case I believe I is the standard institutional / clean-retail class and C is a "superclean" class.