Hargreaves Lansdown master portfolio

Justso65

Hi

I've decided to look more seriously into transferring my two defined contribution pensions into a SIPP and investing from there.  Does anyone have any experience, or opinions, on Hargreaves Lansdown Master portfolios?

I’m considering investing some pension into a regular income portfolio for the next 3-5 years requirements and another chunk into either one or both of the conservative and medium risk portfolios.  Maybe hold a bit of cash too.  I would then more some funds each year into the regular income portfolio leaving other funds with better potential growth prospects.  This would hopefully give me a buffer through any market volatility.

So has anyone used these HL portfolios and could offer some advice on them?

Thanks as usual for any input.

squirrelpie

I have a SIPP with HL but I don't use their Master portfolios. I don't expect there's anything special about them and they seem to be comprised entirely of funds. That means you will be paying HL's full 0.45% fees. I can't see any reason to do that, so I use HL for stocks, particularly ITs, and ETFs, so my fees are capped.

Audaxer

I've just had a look at the income portfolio on the HL site. It is just a list of funds selected from their Wealth Shortlist and it does say it should just be used as a starting point, so you really need to look at the individual funds and weightings to see what is suitable for you. Unlike some other platforms, it doesn't even show overall historic performance of the Master Portfolios as far as I can see, or overall portfolio yield, or an average percentage of the fund fees. I would do my own research and maybe compare with other platforms, as HL is an expensive platform if you are investing large amounts into funds. 

Albermarle

Justso65 said:

Hi

I've decided to look more seriously into transferring my two defined contribution pensions into a SIPP and investing from there.  Does anyone have any experience, or opinions, on Hargreaves Lansdown Master portfolios?

I’m considering investing some pension into a regular income portfolio for the next 3-5 years requirements and another chunk into either one or both of the conservative and medium risk portfolios.  Maybe hold a bit of cash too.  I would then more some funds each year into the regular income portfolio leaving other funds with better potential growth prospects.  This would hopefully give me a buffer through any market volatility.

So has anyone used these HL portfolios and could offer some advice on them?

Thanks as usual for any input.

Just to get the definitions correct, a SIPP is a DC pension. So to take a step back what is the motivation behind wanting to transfer to HL ?
Charges ( HL are not cheap)?
Wider range of funds - very likely this is the case , although by picking a ready made portfolio , you largely lose the advantage of having a wider choice.
Your current pensions maybe old/inflexible ?

Just interested in the reasoning .

Justso65

My reasoning is to combine my current 2 x DC pensions into one location.  One DC pension only gives me about 20 to 30 investment options so I was hoping to move onto a platform where the investments are easier to manage and I have more options.  Currently if I want to change funds I need to update an investment choice and wait until the process is complete.  I’m actually not sure how long that takes.

Although I initially asked about ready made portfolios I would intend to park my funds there to start with then gradually move to different options once I get time to research more.

Notepad_Phil

Justso65 said:

My reasoning is to combine my current 2 x DC pensions into one location.  One DC pension only gives me about 20 to 30 investment options so I was hoping to move onto a platform where the investments are easier to manage and I have more options.  Currently if I want to change funds I need to update an investment choice and wait until the process is complete.  I’m actually not sure how long that takes.

It can make sense to combine multiple pots into one, but don't just assume that more investment options is automatically better as it's possible that after you've done your research that the 20 to 30 investment option pension contains everything you want at a cheaper overall price - especially if you go to HL which has a 0.45% platform charge plus the fund management charges.

Even a clunky platform is likely to take at most a week to switch investments, so given that you shouldn't be continually changing your investments then the length of time it took would be one of the the last things that I would choose a platform on.

Justso65 said:

Although I initially asked about ready made portfolios I would intend to park my funds there to start with then gradually move to different options once I get time to research more.

Personally I wouldn't transfer anything until I was absolutely sure on what I wanted to invest in and where it would prove cheapest to invest. Then once transferred I'd get the money invested again as soon as possible.

Albermarle

Justso65 said:

My reasoning is to combine my current 2 x DC pensions into one location.  One DC pension only gives me about 20 to 30 investment options so I was hoping to move onto a platform where the investments are easier to manage and I have more options.  Currently if I want to change funds I need to update an investment choice and wait until the process is complete.  I’m actually not sure how long that takes.

Although I initially asked about ready made portfolios I would intend to park my funds there to start with then gradually move to different options once I get time to research more.

If your current pensions are with a traditional big insurer like Scottish Widows, Standard Life etc then a switch of funds can take two or three days as far as I know. Like said above a week would be maximum .
Even with a SIPP it is not much quicker , if at all . Although with HL it is quicker , one of the advantages of being on the most expensive mainstream SIPP platform .

One reason to move to a SIPP, is you can invest in a much wider range of funds and more than just funds . You can buy individual shares, ETF's and IT's for example. However this huge choice can be daunting and in general more risky that you will make mistakes , than with the 30 funds you can see now .

What about the other DC pension , has that got more choice ? is it cheaper/more expensive ?. You could consider combining them . Sometimes you get a better discount with a higher fund level.

Moving to a SIPP might be the best bet, but to not just assume so before fully checking costs, and what other options there might be .