LISA stocks and Shares AJ Bell and which JISA?

Misd_sixties22

Hello,

Sorry to post again so soon but you guys are very helpful.

I've decided to invest in the AJ Bell LISA as there are ready-made fund portfolios which are managed for me. Can someone please explain what the £1.50 to buy or trade is please? Would I still need to do that if it's managed for me? Also, did I read it correctly that they charge £1.50 for every investment made into the account? 

Also, I am going to be investing my daughters' ISAs into a stock and share account. I looked at Fidelity but as I have to pick the funds myself, I cannot do that. Can any recommend a  company which will select and manage them for me without charging too much in fees?

Many thanks

eskbanker

Misd_sixties22 said:

I've decided to invest in the AJ Bell LISA as there are ready-made fund portfolios which are managed for me. Can someone please explain what the £1.50 to buy or trade is please? Would I still need to do that if it's managed for me? Also, did I read it correctly that they charge £1.50 for every investment made into the account?

You pay cash into the account (up to £4K per tax year) but will then spend (most if not all of) that money on investing in whichever fund(s) you have in mind, which is charged at £1.50 every time you do so, i.e. if you just invest once a year then you'd only pay one £1.50 dealing charge per year, but if you wanted to invest monthly it would be £18 per year.

https://www.youinvest.co.uk/aj-bell-ready-made-portfolios


Hopefully someone with better knowledge of the S&S JISA market will be along to answer your other question, although choosing a suitable all-rounder low-cost low-maintenance product such as a 'fire and forget' global multi-asset fund isn't as challenging as you perhaps think it is (both for the LISA and the JISAs), with a bit of research on here and elsewhere....

grumiofoundation

If you are investing in AJ Bell’s own funds (is this what you mean by ready made portfolios) I don’t think you need to pay trading fees 

Alexland

Misd_sixties22 said:

I've decided to invest in the AJ Bell LISA as there are ready-made fund portfolios

I would definitely avoid the 'ready made portfolios' as they will invest you in 6 to 7 different funds from companies including some you may never have heard of incurring £1.50 trade fees each time and then leave it to you to rebalance and make future decisions on them (lots more £1.50 payments). It's really not helpful to the beginner and should come with a big warning. As a beginner with a relatively small amount to invest you would do better picking a single fund solution which they also offer:

https://www.youinvest.co.uk/investment-ideas/ready-made-portfolios (avoid)

https://www.youinvest.co.uk/investment-ideas/ajbell-funds (maybe)

eskbanker said:

You pay cash into the account (up to £4K per tax year) but will then spend (most if not all of) that money on investing in whichever fund(s) you have in mind

Probably best not to invest all of the money as it's usually worth leaving enough cash balance to comfortably pay the 0.25% (plus margin for some investment growth) ongoing AJ Bell charges until it is next possible to contribute into the account.

eskbanker said:

Hopefully someone with better knowledge of the S&S JISA market will be along to answer your other question, although choosing a suitable all-rounder low-cost low-maintenance product such as a 'fire and forget' global multi-asset fund isn't as challenging as you perhaps think it is (both for the LISA and the JISAs), with a bit of research on here and elsewhere....

Ultimately the customer will need to make a choice of funds with either the AJ Bell LISA or Fidleity JISA.

Fidelity have a similar 'own-brand fund selection tool' on their website

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/funds/navigator/

Or the OP could consider a wider market of good value multi asset fund series listed on Monevator.

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

Or if looking for higher risk a global stock market tracker such as Fidelity Index World which is discounted to 0.10% if held on the Fidelity platform and is where our kids' money is invested but it might drop 50% in a bad market crash and take years to recover so have a good think about the balance of risk and potential reward you want to accept.

https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/

grumiofoundation said:

If you are investing in AJ Bell’s own funds (is this what you mean by ready made portfolios) I don’t think you need to pay trading fees 

As above ready made portfolios are from various fund managers. With their own funds (second link above) "there’s no dealing charge to buy a fund" so provided you are not selling any fund then you should pay not trading charges in accumulation. However the AJ Bell funds tend to be more expensive than the VLS, HSBC GS, etc series listed on Monevator so what you save in upfront trade costs you will pay over the longer term in higher ongoing charges.

Albermarle

Can any recommend a  company which will select and manage them for me without charging too much in fees?

Neither of the companies manage your investments for you . They offer various investments , with some branded as ready made solutions , but in the end you have to choose what to do. 

If you want someone to manage your investments you need to employ a financial advisor .

A half way house is to go to a robo advisor , like Nutmeg .

In both cases the costs will be higher than with AJ Bell or Fidelity 

Misd_sixties22

Thank you. That's really helpful but I'm still not sure. AJ Bell did mention their own funds but I wasn't sure there was much of a difference. They said they would be managing them and I just select a fund and that's it. It seems much more confusing than I thought. I don't want to make the wrong decision but I'm only 38 and my LISA will just be languishing as a cash account if I don't do something now. 

I'm unsure about investing at all now. I thought I could pick a fund and leave and forget it for both a LISA and JISA.

RacingDriver

Probably best not to invest all of the money as it's usually worth leaving enough cash balance to comfortably pay the 0.25% (plus margin for some investment growth) ongoing AJ Bell charges until it is next possible to contribute into the account.

Alternatively you can set the platform charges to be paid from a AJ Bell Dealing Account (outside LISA) which can be topped-up at any time.

Alexland

Misd_sixties22 said:

AJ Bell did mention their own funds but I wasn't sure there was much of a difference. They said they would be managing them and I just select a fund and that's it. It seems much more confusing than I thought. 

Yes they do have their own funds and the below link will help you find the most suitable one. If you use one of these single fund solutions then you will not pay the £1.50 trade fee when you invest (buying fund units). They are not the cheapest funds but the charges are OK and not excessive so are fine to start with.
https://www.youinvest.co.uk/investment-ideas/ajbell-funds
You would still need to leave enough cash in your account to pay the ongoing monthly charge of 0.021% per month (0.25% pa ) until you can next contribute unless you want to go to the additional complexity of asking them to pay the fees from a separate dealing account.
The Fidelity JISA will be simpler as there are no account or fund trading fees so you can just invest all the money in a fund and not worry about maintaining a cash balance. Again you could use their tool to select a Fidelity fund to start with.
https://www.fidelity.co.uk/funds/navigator/
Once you start it should become clearer how this all works. We all had to start once and your first investment choice doesn't need to be perfect just good enough as you can always refine it later.

Misd_sixties22

Thanks Alexland for taking the time to reply again. I will have another look at them both later and make a decision. Like you said - everyone's a beginner once! 

Albermarle

 AJ Bell did mention their own funds but I wasn't sure there was much of a difference. They said they would be managing them and I just select a fund and that's it.

They will manage the fund that you select .

They will not advise you which fund to select . They will have some guidance on their website, but in the end you have to choose.

Think of it like going to the supermarket . They make it easy for you - free car park - advertising - free trolley - assistants to help - slick and fast checkout - even home delivery . But you decide what items to buy .