Vanguard - personalised service

Albermarle

Regulated advice is highly labour intensive, even a no-frills service done over the phone, and I struggle to see how even a big company can deliver it for less than £500 a year.

Even so, they are not the only ones .

Bancroft Wealth - Flat Fee Wealth Management - Low Cost Financial Advice

Unlike some other low fee firms, we offer a complete portfolio management service taking into account all of your policies and your tax position.

Our advisers are all highly experienced and qualified. Just like with any wealth management company, you will have a dedicated adviser and their full details should you need to contact them.

We have a simple, 2 tier fee system and no upfront fee.  Our core portfolio management service is just £500 per person per year. For more complex cases, we charge £1,000 per year.

Thrugelmir

Albermarle said:

Regulated advice is highly labour intensive, even a no-frills service done over the phone, and I struggle to see how even a big company can deliver it for less than £500 a year.

Even so, they are not the only ones .

Bancroft Wealth - Flat Fee Wealth Management - Low Cost Financial Advice

Unlike some other low fee firms, we offer a complete portfolio management service taking into account all of your policies and your tax position.

Our advisers are all highly experienced and qualified. Just like with any wealth management company, you will have a dedicated adviser and their full details should you need to contact them.

We have a simple, 2 tier fee system and no upfront fee.  Our core portfolio management service is just £500 per person per year. For more complex cases, we charge £1,000 per year.

Scale of economy. A range of default portfolio's to suit individual's risk profiles.  

Perhap's Vanguard's historic offerings have reached their sell by date. Hence the change of tack.  Also means that aren't directly seen to be raising their fee charges. 

BritishInvestor

Albermarle said:

vulcanrtb said:

jim8888 said:

vulcanrtb said:

Thanks for the feedback all. I guess you could pidgeon-hole me as a nervous investor, the pot is >700K but I don't need to touch it (drawdown) for probably 2 years, I retired in July.

I have a webchat booked with Vanguard to learn more in general, not just their personalised service.

You're in a very similar situation to myself in a lot of ways. I wasn't a nervous investor at all until the day I stopped earning, stopped contributing to pensions and actually had to start drawing on the money I'd saved. Which is all sitting in a Vanguard 80/20 SIPP, at a similar level to yourself. I've just started dipping into the fund by taking some of my TFLS and it feels like a momentous step. I have other savings and investments (and pensions) and I constantly tell myself to stop worrying and try to enjoy and appreciate the position I'm in. After all, I've saved and invested over decades for exactly this moment to arrive. But I'd admit, I'm finding this very hard to do!

So you're in 80% equity, i.e. VLS80 ? I'm deciding between VLS20 or VLS40, such is my risk appetite. Yes, it's all very unnerving, but I expect in time it will just feel normal.

As you will know the non equity % of these funds is in bonds of various types.
There is a consensus that the outlook for bonds is not great, and most bond funds have gone down this year , some by as much as 8%.
So the normal assumption that VLS 20 is 'safer ' than VLS40, may well not hold true in the future .
Personally I am reasonably cautious/conservative  but in the last year I have increased my equity % a little ( despite some signs of frothiness in the stock markets , especially in the US) and reduced my bond % by more . Filling the gap with alternatives like infrastructure funds, more cash  etc.
Of course it may turn out to be a bad move but it does seem in line with general investment trends.

Out of interest, which bond funds were you seeing 8% falls in?

Re infrastructure, surely that's more equity-like in terms of drawdown risk than bonds?

Albermarle

SL iShares Overseas Government Bond Index Pension Fund (financialexpress.net)

Re infrastructure, surely that's more equity-like in terms of drawdown risk than bonds?

As I understand it , the ones that have UK govt PPI type contracts , tend to be quite stable and pay a good dividend.

BritishInvestor

Malthusian said:

wjr4 said:

I’m surprised that so many people on this forum slate IFAs but are more than willing to pay a tied financial adviser for purely investment planning, rather than looking at their overall life plan (what a financial planner does).

I'm not sure anyone on this forum pays a tied adviser. Whenever DunstonH or ANOther says "Don't use a tied FA, always use an IFA" opinions to the contrary are non-existent.

Tied advisers are really popular (look at SJP and others), but not round here. The intersection between people who use tied advisers and people who use forums called "MoneySavingExpert" is almost nil.

Plus Vanguard Personal Financial Planning does look at your overall life plan, according to their bumph. Whether they would do as thorough a job as an IFA, given that any time spent looking at parts of your life plan that can't be solved with a Vanguard product is wasted time for the Vanguard adviser, is a different matter.

It is virtually impossible to give advice on any other basis in the UK regulatory system. If advice turns out to be bad because the adviser was "only looking at your investments" it's a fact-finding failure by the adviser and an easy complaint win.

There's a big difference between completing a factfind and undertaking a full financial planning exercise (which tends to be interactive as you build the plan together). Will be interesting to see where Vanguard sit

https://moneyforums.citywire.co.uk/yaf_postst11938_Vanguard-Personal-Financial-Planning---My-Experience.aspx

Prism

BritishInvestor said:

Albermarle said:

vulcanrtb said:

jim8888 said:

vulcanrtb said:

Thanks for the feedback all. I guess you could pidgeon-hole me as a nervous investor, the pot is >700K but I don't need to touch it (drawdown) for probably 2 years, I retired in July.

I have a webchat booked with Vanguard to learn more in general, not just their personalised service.

You're in a very similar situation to myself in a lot of ways. I wasn't a nervous investor at all until the day I stopped earning, stopped contributing to pensions and actually had to start drawing on the money I'd saved. Which is all sitting in a Vanguard 80/20 SIPP, at a similar level to yourself. I've just started dipping into the fund by taking some of my TFLS and it feels like a momentous step. I have other savings and investments (and pensions) and I constantly tell myself to stop worrying and try to enjoy and appreciate the position I'm in. After all, I've saved and invested over decades for exactly this moment to arrive. But I'd admit, I'm finding this very hard to do!

So you're in 80% equity, i.e. VLS80 ? I'm deciding between VLS20 or VLS40, such is my risk appetite. Yes, it's all very unnerving, but I expect in time it will just feel normal.

As you will know the non equity % of these funds is in bonds of various types.
There is a consensus that the outlook for bonds is not great, and most bond funds have gone down this year , some by as much as 8%.
So the normal assumption that VLS 20 is 'safer ' than VLS40, may well not hold true in the future .
Personally I am reasonably cautious/conservative  but in the last year I have increased my equity % a little ( despite some signs of frothiness in the stock markets , especially in the US) and reduced my bond % by more . Filling the gap with alternatives like infrastructure funds, more cash  etc.
Of course it may turn out to be a bad move but it does seem in line with general investment trends.

Out of interest, which bond funds were you seeing 8% falls in?

Re infrastructure, surely that's more equity-like in terms of drawdown risk than bonds?

The UK government bond index fell almost 10% this year. It has recovered somewhat in the last few weeks but is now one its way down again.

BritishInvestor

Prism said:

BritishInvestor said:

Albermarle said:

vulcanrtb said:

jim8888 said:

vulcanrtb said:

Thanks for the feedback all. I guess you could pidgeon-hole me as a nervous investor, the pot is >700K but I don't need to touch it (drawdown) for probably 2 years, I retired in July.

I have a webchat booked with Vanguard to learn more in general, not just their personalised service.

You're in a very similar situation to myself in a lot of ways. I wasn't a nervous investor at all until the day I stopped earning, stopped contributing to pensions and actually had to start drawing on the money I'd saved. Which is all sitting in a Vanguard 80/20 SIPP, at a similar level to yourself. I've just started dipping into the fund by taking some of my TFLS and it feels like a momentous step. I have other savings and investments (and pensions) and I constantly tell myself to stop worrying and try to enjoy and appreciate the position I'm in. After all, I've saved and invested over decades for exactly this moment to arrive. But I'd admit, I'm finding this very hard to do!

So you're in 80% equity, i.e. VLS80 ? I'm deciding between VLS20 or VLS40, such is my risk appetite. Yes, it's all very unnerving, but I expect in time it will just feel normal.

As you will know the non equity % of these funds is in bonds of various types.
There is a consensus that the outlook for bonds is not great, and most bond funds have gone down this year , some by as much as 8%.
So the normal assumption that VLS 20 is 'safer ' than VLS40, may well not hold true in the future .
Personally I am reasonably cautious/conservative  but in the last year I have increased my equity % a little ( despite some signs of frothiness in the stock markets , especially in the US) and reduced my bond % by more . Filling the gap with alternatives like infrastructure funds, more cash  etc.
Of course it may turn out to be a bad move but it does seem in line with general investment trends.

Out of interest, which bond funds were you seeing 8% falls in?

Re infrastructure, surely that's more equity-like in terms of drawdown risk than bonds?

The UK government bond index fell almost 10% this year. It has recovered somewhat in the last few weeks but is now one its way down again.

Isn't that more an issue of relatively high durations?

Albermarle

BritishInvestor said:

Prism said:

BritishInvestor said:

Albermarle said:

vulcanrtb said:

jim8888 said:

vulcanrtb said:

Thanks for the feedback all. I guess you could pidgeon-hole me as a nervous investor, the pot is >700K but I don't need to touch it (drawdown) for probably 2 years, I retired in July.

I have a webchat booked with Vanguard to learn more in general, not just their personalised service.

You're in a very similar situation to myself in a lot of ways. I wasn't a nervous investor at all until the day I stopped earning, stopped contributing to pensions and actually had to start drawing on the money I'd saved. Which is all sitting in a Vanguard 80/20 SIPP, at a similar level to yourself. I've just started dipping into the fund by taking some of my TFLS and it feels like a momentous step. I have other savings and investments (and pensions) and I constantly tell myself to stop worrying and try to enjoy and appreciate the position I'm in. After all, I've saved and invested over decades for exactly this moment to arrive. But I'd admit, I'm finding this very hard to do!

So you're in 80% equity, i.e. VLS80 ? I'm deciding between VLS20 or VLS40, such is my risk appetite. Yes, it's all very unnerving, but I expect in time it will just feel normal.

As you will know the non equity % of these funds is in bonds of various types.
There is a consensus that the outlook for bonds is not great, and most bond funds have gone down this year , some by as much as 8%.
So the normal assumption that VLS 20 is 'safer ' than VLS40, may well not hold true in the future .
Personally I am reasonably cautious/conservative  but in the last year I have increased my equity % a little ( despite some signs of frothiness in the stock markets , especially in the US) and reduced my bond % by more . Filling the gap with alternatives like infrastructure funds, more cash  etc.
Of course it may turn out to be a bad move but it does seem in line with general investment trends.

Out of interest, which bond funds were you seeing 8% falls in?

Re infrastructure, surely that's more equity-like in terms of drawdown risk than bonds?

The UK government bond index fell almost 10% this year. It has recovered somewhat in the last few weeks but is now one its way down again.

Isn't that more an issue of relatively high durations?

I do not think anybody is trying to say that all bond funds have done this badly, but some have .