Investment Houses

Thrugelmir

nxdmsandkaskdjaqd said:

Albermarle said:

I would like to see a list of all of the fund houses/intermediary's and who's SW they use.  Anyone?

This is an investment forum not an IT one !

When looking at a platform we would normally look at the charges , the investments available , whether they were a mainstream operator , if we liked the website and their reputation . The software they use would be a mystery and not of interest for the majority of investors .

Dunstonh is a professional so is more aware of these things.

Dunstonh raised the point about the largest having the worst SW, so it seems a valid question to see who else is in that category.

Software being clunky and dated doesn't make it unstable. Often the reverse as all the bugs have been ironed out. 

Albermarle

Deleted_User said:

I thought Interacitve Investor were now supposed to be the second biggest platform for DIY investors, after HL. However, Fidelity and AJ Bell are platforms for both DIY investors and intermediaries, so may well be bigger including both sides of their platform business.

There is also the question of whether you find it reassuring when a platform is owned by a much bigger entity, or whether you'd rather rely on somebody who sticks to being a platform. E.g. Halifax Share Dealing being owned by Lloyds Banking Group. Or Vanguard Investor, which I think isn't a huge platform in the UK, but Vanguard are one of the 2 biggest fund management groups globally.

With Fidelity buying Legal & General's retails investment book , they will probably be vying for second place for DIY retail UK investors .
Otherwise as you say it is very difficult to compare these companies, as some also have other activities , like running workplace pensions, giving financial advice etc .
Also of course the traditional insurers play a big part in the pensions/investing market eg Aviva, Standard Life , Royal London etc and you can be a DIY investor with most of these as well . Plus banks offer their own investment platforms as well .