Suggestions choosing a stocks and shares isa and platform?

maz_hartley

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

He already has a reasonable company pension started when he was 18. He trusts me to sort this and think would be better with an isa. He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform. My thoughts were something along the lines of maybe ii or iWeb and a diverse global/world fund and passive if active is dearer.

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

He already has a reasonable company pension started when he was 18. He trusts me to sort this and think would be better with an isa. He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform. My thoughts were something along the lines of maybe ii or iWeb and a diverse global/world fund and passive if active is dearer.

Thanks for you help. Just wondering why you mentioned putting money into a pension. He does have a company pension and his scheme doesn’t allow him to add any extra.

Thrugelmir

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

 He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. 

That's what every investor aspires to. Minimal risk and a good return. Medium risk is fairly conservative. If he wishes to sleep at night and not overly concern himself with market volatility then a sound place to be. 

kuratowski

maz_hartley said:

Thanks for you help. Just wondering why you mentioned putting money into a pension. He does have a company pension and his scheme doesn’t allow him to add any extra.

Putting the money into a pension account will automatically give a better return than an ISA account (Well, assuming he doesn't exceed annual allowance or lifetime allowance) due to the tax advantages.  If he can't pay any more into the employer pension then a SIPP can be opened with almost any of the same providers who are offering a S&S ISA.

So, as Alexland said above, decide first what investment (perhaps something a bit more equities content if "good returns" are the goal, perhaps 60% or even 80%) and then select the best provider who offers that investment within their SIPP.

Regarding the investment, the following table has a comparison of the multi-asset index funds from various different houses, as a product they are broadly comparable to what he has now, and each one comes in a series of different risk levels.

https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/

grumiofoundation

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

He already has a reasonable company pension started when he was 18. He trusts me to sort this and think would be better with an isa. He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform. My thoughts were something along the lines of maybe ii or iWeb and a diverse global/world fund and passive if active is dearer.

Thanks for you help. Just wondering why you mentioned putting money into a pension. He does have a company pension and his scheme doesn’t allow him to add any extra.

Reason suggested a pension is his age  and with presumed investment timescale there should be no real issue in having to wait to access it. As explained above by kuratowski if he can't/doesn't want to pay more into company pension (see below) can open a SIPP himself and invest in the same investment as ISA but will get tax relief. If he is a higher rate tax payer this is (likely) a no brainer.

Are you sure his pension doesn't actually allow more to be paid in?
Commonly confused with the company won't pay any more in themselves.
Is the pension defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC)?

Albermarle

He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund normally has good returns but he realises that all funds can go down as well as up . So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform.

When talking about investments it is best to insert some caveats , like in bold above 

jimjames

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

Be very careful using google to search for investment companies and I'd recommend if any names come u you've not heard of then ask here to confirm they're not scammers.

jimjames

maz_hartley said:

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

He already has a reasonable company pension started when he was 18. He trusts me to sort this and think would be better with an isa. He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform. My thoughts were something along the lines of maybe ii or iWeb and a diverse global/world fund and passive if active is dearer.

maz_hartley said:

grumiofoundation said:

maz_hartley said:

Albermarle said:

 into a ready made stocks and shares isa. 

Not quite sure what you mean by 'ready made'. With all S&S Isa's you have to choose the investment , It will not do it for you.

Although some ISA platforms make it easy for you and guide you to which investment to choose ( so called robo advisor platforms ) in the end you have to choose the investment.

Thanks. I meant a managed fund rather than ready made. And I’m just looking for for advice to get some ideas. And thanks for mentioning Lloyds. £40 is cheap for a yearly fee and I’m surprised that it’s not come up when searching investment company fees. I will take a look. 

As above decide it is generally suggested to decide what investment(s) to buy before deciding the platform (possibly the time to decide which investment(s) was before ditching the advisor!).

Obviously 'managed fund' could mean a lot of different things, presume you mean a managed multi-asset fund as that closely mirrors what currently invested in (whether or not underlying investments within the fund would be all/mostly/some passive trackers)? 

If alternatively if you mean managed as in 'active' management the costs could be significantly higher than for passive investments (which would seem to make it a strange choice as it appears cost was the main reason for ditching advisor?). 


As an aside you say he is 53 years old - why not invest via a pension?

He already has a reasonable company pension started when he was 18. He trusts me to sort this and think would be better with an isa. He wouldn’t have any preference as long as the fund has good returns. So just a cheap decent fund with good returns and a low cost platform. My thoughts were something along the lines of maybe ii or iWeb and a diverse global/world fund and passive if active is dearer.

Thanks for you help. Just wondering why you mentioned putting money into a pension. He does have a company pension and his scheme doesn’t allow him to add any extra.

You don't have to use your current provider, you can invest directly into a SIPP which will give tax benefits depending on your income. An ISA is tax free on way out, pension has tax benefit on way in