Is it time to change from a wealth Manager aka True Potential to IFA or go DIY?

Albermarle

Leaning towards Vanguard Life Strategy 80% or 60% 

There are very similar products that you should also consider.

The HSBC global strategy range has slightly cheaper fees and a recent better performance. Not by much as they are similar products and of course in future may not be the case.

Best multi-asset funds - Monevator

Beddie

TallGirl said:

Leaning towards Vanguard Life Strategy 80% or 60% but via IWEB so it has more choice in case I wish to switch. Still need to do some more research but comments welcome as always.

A couple of similar funds, which are actively managed are:

BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced  https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/gqiz/bny-mellon-multi-asset-balanced-inst-w-acc
Vanguard SustainableLife 60-70% Equity https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/n02d/vanguard-sustainablelife-60-70-equity-acc

They seem to have done well compared to Life strategy 60, so should be worth their higher charges. Whether that will continue in future, who knows?


Not advice, just an idea...

TallGirl

Thanks for all the comments really appreciate it and more to look into. 

They did send this too so it was on two pages.

JohnWinder

I just don’t think those figures help in choosing the fund most likely to be better for you.

Considering just the two VLS funds. If you were trying to decide between them those figures probably reflect the longer term behaviour of 80/20 vs 60/40, but why wouldn’t one rather see longer term even historical data of such asset allocations? You’d look at long term data, get a sense if either one’s returns/risk suits you better, then look into what was actually in the funds and finalise your choice.

If you were trying to decide between one of the VLS and the TP capital growth, you wouldn’t take much notice of 5 year data because the research shows there’s poor persistence in performance of active funds as a generalisation. What did well any last few years aren’t on the whole those that do well in the subsequent few years. With such poor persistence, and not knowing if your fund was a good/poor ‘persister’, I don’t know that you can put much weight on recent performance. If you 20 years of outperformance, you might be tempted, but then you’re at the mercy of the genius manager dying suddenly or losing his touch as the ‘bond king’ Bill Gross did, or Buffett and Munger may be doing have fallen behind the US index in recent years after stellar returns.  And all the while higher fees compound your unnecessary expenses.

Beddie

JohnWinder said:

I just don’t think those figures help in choosing the fund most likely to be better for you.

Considering just the two VLS funds. If you were trying to decide between them those figures probably reflect the longer term behaviour of 80/20 vs 60/40, but why wouldn’t one rather see longer term even historical data of such asset allocations? You’d look at long term data, get a sense if either one’s returns/risk suits you better, then look into what was actually in the funds and finalise your choice.

If you were trying to decide between one of the VLS and the TP capital growth, you wouldn’t take much notice of 5 year data because the research shows there’s poor persistence in performance of active funds as a generalisation. What did well any last few years aren’t on the whole those that do well in the subsequent few years. With such poor persistence, and not knowing if your fund was a good/poor ‘persister’, I don’t know that you can put much weight on recent performance. If you 20 years of outperformance, you might be tempted, but then you’re at the mercy of the genius manager dying suddenly or losing his touch as the ‘bond king’ Bill Gross did, or Buffett and Munger may be doing have fallen behind the US index in recent years after stellar returns.  And all the while higher fees compound your unnecessary expenses.

You make some good points - what would you choose?

JohnWinder

I doubt my choices would help anyone, and I have a leaning towards separate stock and bonds funds despite preaching simplicity for others. There’s good stuff on asset allocation and how to choose in Ferri’s book, Bernstein’s new edition Four Pillars of Investing, and Hale’s and Powell’s books for a UK flavour (the latter broader than just asset allocation).

TallGirl

Just a quick update from me. I have had an initial conversation with Reeves to see what they could offer and they are putting together a proposal. It looks like it would be £10K switch over then 1.1% ongoing. Do not have any more detail than that but so far they are a world away from TP but that could be because they are trying to sign me up. 

They told me to expect TP to be in touch as they will write to them but nothing happened then I got an email from my old adviser he would like to do a pension review. Now he is the one who set me up with Royal London and I know I pay an adviser fee on that so I was certain that was to TP. I have even questions TP about this but they never answered (this was on a call). I am seeing him on the 14th he was not aware I wanted to leave TP so that is not the reason for the meeting. Sounds like he might still be my adviser for RL which I find strange as he said he was retiring. 

Still keen on DIY and as I am seeing him and he knows me well I can at least ask questions. Thanks to those who are still reading I will continue to update as it might help others in the same situation. 

Linton

TallGirl said:

Just a quick update from me. I have had an initial conversation with Reeves to see what they could offer and they are putting together a proposal. It looks like it would be £10K switch over then 1.1% ongoing. Do not have any more detail than that but so far they are a world away from TP but that could be because they are trying to sign me up. 

They told me to expect TP to be in touch as they will write to them but nothing happened then I got an email from my old adviser he would like to do a pension review. Now he is the one who set me up with Royal London and I know I pay an adviser fee on that so I was certain that was to TP. I have even questions TP about this but they never answered (this was on a call). I am seeing him on the 14th he was not aware I wanted to leave TP so that is not the reason for the meeting. Sounds like he might still be my adviser for RL which I find strange as he said he was retiring. 

Still keen on DIY and as I am seeing him and he knows me well I can at least ask questions. Thanks to those who are still reading I will continue to update as it might help others in the same situation. 

Have you tried a small local IFA rather than a national company?    They may be much cheaper yet perfectly adequate for your needs. 

Albermarle

Have you tried a small local IFA rather than a national company?    They may be much cheaper yet perfectly adequate for your needs. 

AIUI, the OP is looking at moving away from TP and has spoken to Reeves, which from their website are a smaller organisation based around the Gatwick region. 

I have had an initial conversation with Reeves to see what they could offer and they are putting together a proposal. It looks like it would be £10K switch over then 1.1% ongoing

£10K seems a lot, even for pots in excess of £400K.

If 1.1% covers IFA + platform + investment costs, then that is pretty good. Obviously you need to check the proposal carefully though.

Linton

Albermarle said:

Have you tried a small local IFA rather than a national company?    They may be much cheaper yet perfectly adequate for your needs. 

AIUI, the OP is looking at moving away from TP and has spoken to Reeves, which from their website are a smaller organisation based around the Gatwick region. 

I have had an initial conversation with Reeves to see what they could offer and they are putting together a proposal. It looks like it would be £10K switch over then 1.1% ongoing

£10K seems a lot, even for pots in excess of £400K.

If 1.1% covers IFA + platform + investment costs, then that is pretty good. Obviously you need to check the proposal carefully though.

There is what seems to be a fairly large Reeves based in the NE - https://www.reevesifa.com/.  I assume they are large as they advertise Graduate Schemes and Apprenticeships.