Clueless - simple questions about SIPP

travelodger

5 years ago my friend set me up with a SIPP invested in a stocks and shares fund with Hargreaves Lansdown.

I set up a DD paying £207 a month into the fund to which the govt adds £51 and HL takes £11 a month in fees.

The friend is no longer with us and I am left clueless and without his guidance.

I'm still paying that £207, though I can afford more.

I now cannot remember the rationale behind it being £207 - was that the maximum payment in 2016?

Is there a better place I could put my SIPP that does not take £11 a month in fees?

I'm single, self employed, 63, have earned money left over every month. I have £3,000 in my current account, doing nothing. Could I put that into the SIPP?

Apologies for my stupid, basic questions, but I really do need advice.

Thanks

MX5huggy

£11 per month seems quite high but fees are normally based on a percentage of the total value of the pension but maybe if it’s exactly £11 pm always it’s some sort of fixed fee product. 

Probably better value options available from elsewhere or HL themselves.

It’s doesn’t really matter why you’re paying in £207 a month, maybe it was 10% of your income. 

What are the investments held within the SIPP? 

Yes you can put more money is the SIPP presuming you have never taken any money out of a pension (but even then you cal still contribute some money). At your age you can access your SIPP at any time so putting as much as possible into it is probably best. 

Have you checked your state pension forecast? https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

NSG666

HL charge a 0.45% platform fee (see it as a charge for using their system) on up to £250,000 invested and each fund has it's own charges on top of this. Is the £11 just the HL charges or does it include the fund charges?
(e.g. if you had £10,000 invested in fund X with a charge of 0.75% you would have a total charge of 0.45+0.75 = 1.2% x £10,000 = £120 per year or £10/month)

Do you have access to the HL online system? If you do you can easily see the total amount you have invested plus which funds you are invested in.
That info posted on here might be useful for the very clever people who will comment and make suggestions.

Albermarle

I have £3,000 in my current account, doing nothing. Could I put that into the SIPP?

Yes you could and £750 in tax relief would be added to it .

This is assuming your earned income from your self employment is sufficient . You can not add more to a SIPP in a tax year than you earn.

So this year you will add £258 a month ( £207+51) = £3096 pa 

If you add another £3750 ( £300 + £750 ) , then in total it will be £6846 . As long as you earned that much you will be OK .

NannaH

I have £14k in my HL sipp and pay £4.85 a month in fees. I have 3 different funds. 

travelodger

Thank you Huggy for weighing in!

To answer your queries:

1. It's £11 and various amounts of pennies, different each month.
2. My SIPP is entirely invested in HL MULTI-MANAGER BALANCED MANAGED TRUST CLASS A - ACCUMULATION.
3. I have never withdrawn any money from my SIPP. There's £32,000 in it now.

I also have £10k invested in a Fund and Share Account. Should/can I transfer all this over to my SIPP?

My annual income is about £19k.

Many thanks
TL

travelodger

NSG:

"Is the £11 just the HL charges or does it include the fund charges?"

Er, no idea.

"Do you have access to the HL online system?" Yes

travelodger

Albermarle

"Yes you could and £750 in tax relief would be added to it."

OMG that is wonderful news!

So this year you will add £258 a month ( £207+51) = £3096 pa 

If you add another £3750 ( £300 + £750 ) , then in total it will be £6846 . As long as you earned that much you will be OK .

Thank you for explaining that. I can also switch the £10k I have in a Fund & Share Account as the total will then be £16846 and I earned more than that this tax year.

travelodger

Is there anyone on here who could give me the "heads-up" on a good fund/a few good funds to invest in?

To me it's just a bewildering array and I don't know which to pick. I could just stick with what I have, but I don't want to be missing out. I noticed HL front page has a "best funds" article to I shall go and read that for now.

threlkeld53

travelodger said:

Is there anyone on here who could give me the "heads-up" on a good fund/a few good funds to invest in?

To me it's just a bewildering array and I don't know which to pick. I could just stick with what I have, but I don't want to be missing out. I noticed HL front page has a "best funds" article to I shall go and read that for now.

There are thousands of options. I'd suggest you read about the differences between Index Funds and Multi-asset Funds. Have a look at Pensioncraft on Youtube and spend time on here reading all the different topics. It all boils down to your own personal appetite for risk, factoring in age, commitments, income, dependants etc.
Don't forget that you can always speak to HL. They have an excellent helpline.

Albermarle

My SIPP is entirely invested in HL MULTI-MANAGER BALANCED MANAGED TRUST CLASS A - ACCUMULATION.

I am thinking this will be quite expensive - 1.5% pa ?

For info most investors on this forum are paying around 0.2% to maybe 0.7% at most for their investments .