Fidelity - are they any good ? LG transferring funds to them

Clare43

Hello, 

I have an  stocks and shares ISA with LG that I’ve had for a number of years now.  LG are planning to transfer the administration of their personal investing business to Fidelity.  This would include my ISA.  All the info they have sent me looks ok.  Does anyone have any experience of this company ?  Are they good or should I avoid and transfer my money elsewhere ?   Have about £65000 currently in the ISA.   Thanks 😊

Alexland

They are OK about the same quality of service as we have had from L&G. I have been a Fidelity pension customer continuously for a couple of decades but hold an ETF to cap their charges.
If you have £65k in funds(s) you might better with a fixed price ISA from iWeb etc as Fidelity's 0.35% would be £227 pa and you were probably paying too much with L&G too. Good prompt to review your options.

Albermarle

Fidelity are one of the larger investment companies in the world so no worries about money safety. I have my SIPP with them and I actually moved my L& G ISA to Fidelity , before this change was announced as part of a transfer to get some cash back .
There is much more choice of investments ( not just L& G ones ) and a better web interface and cheaper in my case.

Suggest you let the transfer happen and let it settle down, then review your options of necessary. 

Alexland

JamesRobinson48 said:

Fidelity would have been fine, but their 0.35% p.a. charge seems needlessly high.

AJ Bell tend to make up the difference between their 0.25% and Fidelity's 0.35% by charging £1.50 for fund trades which are inclusive on Fidelity.

Albermarle

Also make sure you always have cash available to pay the charges with A J Bell . If they have to sell an investment for this purpose then £10 charge every time ( zero with Fidelity) .

Jopo1

I have my SiPP with Fidelity. Generally their service is very good, their fund research facility is excellent.

However, I have no idea of their fees as an ISA platform and this is going to be the key thing you need to consider. For the type of investing you are doing, which platform offers you the lowest cost? If you trade shared and funds monthly you'll want to find a platform that has low charges for trades. If you only trade one a year or less, you'll want to find a platform that has a low annual or up front charge.  If you Google "compare ISA platform fees" the are quite a few websites who have done that research for you.

Last time I switched I found iweb to have the lowest charges for my style of investing (once per year)

Albermarle

However, I have no idea of their fees as an ISA platform

They charge the same as for a SIPP. One of the positive features of Fidelity is that they have a simpler charging structure than some other platforms , with no extra charges, apart from buying shares etc 

This in effect  means that they are more competitive for SIPP's than ISA's, and even better if you are withdrawing from the SIPP.

It could be that the L&G customers get special terms for a period , although from my experience the overall Fidelity charge will probably be less than they were paying L&G anyway.

Alexland

Albermarle said:

They charge the same as for a SIPP. One of the positive features of Fidelity is that they have a simpler charging structure than some other platforms , with no extra charges, apart from buying shares etc

Yes the sweet spots for getting excellent value with Fidelity are the large capped SIPPs holding exchange traded investment(s) and the free child accounts holding fund(s). For a small ISA/GIA invested in funds paying 0.35% is good if you want the whole market choice and it's not big enough to be worth paying AJ Bell the £1.50 fund trade charges but once the account gets big enough there are better options iWeb etc.

dunstonh

 Are they good or should I avoid and transfer my money elsewhere ? 

That is a subjective question.   I personally do not like their software.   However, if you have never experienced platform software before then it will be a big step up from what you have been used to.

Clare43

Albermarle said :  This in effect  means that they are more competitive for SIPP's than ISA's, and even better if you are withdrawing from the SIPP.

I had also been thinking of doing the transfer then taking some of the money out of my ISA and putting it in one of Fidelities SIPP.  Get some “ extra money “ in tax relief that way. I have other money I can access in an emergency so it won’t matter if some of the ISA funds are tied up till I retire in a few years