Alternatives to the Vanguard platform and Life Startegy 100 fund

dllive

Hi

I currently have all my investments (SIPP and ISAs) in Vanguard funds on the Vanguard platform.

Im looking to diversify away from Vanguard with all new investments in the 23/24 tax year. I feel a little uneasy having all my eggs in one basket.

What funds would be similar to Vanguards Life Strategy 100, VWRL (World Equity) and VFEM (Emerging Markets Equity)? And what would be a good platform to use?

Thanks

eskbanker

https://monevator.com/best-global-tracker-funds/ will point you in the direction of alternative investments and https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ compares platforms, but largely on cost, which may or may not be what you mean by a 'good' platform.

When you look under the bonnet though, all global trackers will overlap heavily with VLS100 and the others, so you'd only really be buying another basket for the same eggs....

Albermarle

Are you aware that all those funds you mention are available on other platforms ?
Or is it Vanguards investments you want to get away from rather than just the Vanguard platform.

There are plenty of 'good' platforms, picking the best one for you depends on what you want from it and the size and type of your investments.

ChilliBob

If you basically want to duplicate what you have to avoid being reliant on Vanguard and their platform then you can find a Vwrl equivalent from HSBC and Fidelity pretty much. And these will be on all platforms - what you choose is dictated largely by the size of your pot really.

Just search for passive/index/tracker funds on your new platform and you will see the vanguard ones, and similar beside it.

dunstonh

What funds would be similar to Vanguards Life Strategy 100, VWRL (World Equity)

VLS100 is a global managed fund.  So, pretty much every other global managed fund in the global equity sector.    VLS100 is not a tracker but a global tracker may be more appropriate.

And what would be a good platform to use?

I prefer whole of market platforms as that gives you whole of market access without being tied to the in-house product.

dllive

Thanks guys, very useful, Ill check out the links posted tomorrow.

I will clarify: Im just uneasy holding all my investments in Vanguard funds. I know they are massive and are very unlikely to fail, but I still feel I should invest in other funds. Perhaps this is an unfounded concern. Perhaps emotion over logic. I dont know.

I have another 15 years (hopefully!) of investing before I retire.

By a "good platform", I mean in terms of cost. I dont need to be offered every fund available under the sun, but becuase Ill be investing monthly, the dealing charges need to be low, rather than a fixed fee.

Im curious what passive fund/s you invest in (which arent Vanguard LS100) and why. Do you have more than the FSCS £85k in a fund by one provider?

Thanks

eskbanker

dllive said:

By a "good platform", I mean in terms of cost. I dont need to be offered every fund available under the sun, but becuase Ill be investing monthly, the dealing charges need to be low, rather than a fixed fee.

That sort of information can make a difference - frequency of trades does affect the relative economics, in that some platforms are more attractive than others if you're buying relatively often.  Some comparison sites allow this to be modelled, such as https://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

dllive said:

Im curious what passive fund/s you invest in (which arent Vanguard LS100) and why.

Why would you see VLS100 as some sort of default option?  If you want equities with no exposure to other asset classes such as bonds then there are plenty of genuinely passive options (unlike VLS100), even within Vanguard's range - see the link posted earlier....

dllive said:

Do you have more than the FSCS £85k in a fund by one provider?

The £85K FSCS coverage is nothing like as significant for investments as it is for savings, where you're depositing money directly into an institution's safe keeping - with funds, you're buying through a platform and a fund manager, and the underlying investments are generally protected anyway in the event of either failing....

dllive

dllive said:

Im curious what passive fund/s you invest in (which arent Vanguard LS100) and why.

Why would you see VLS100 as some sort of default option?  If you want equities with no exposure to other asset classes such as bonds then there are plenty of genuinely passive options (unlike VLS100), even within Vanguard's range - see the link posted earlier....

dllive said:

Do you have more than the FSCS £85k in a fund by one provider?

The £85K FSCS coverage is nothing like as significant for investments as it is for savings, where you're depositing money directly into an institution's safe keeping - with funds, you're buying through a platform and a fund manager, and the underlying investments are generally protected anyway in the event of either failing....

Thanks @es@eskbanker , Ill read the link tomorrow (when Im more awake!). Id assumed (perhaps wrongly) VLS100 was passive.

As you may tell, I read Monevator's blog and he's always expounding passive investing funds - most notably Vanguard. This is far preferable to what I was doing before (losing money in direct company shares such as BAT, WPP and Vodafone!! ARGH!!!)

Can you expand more on your comment "...and the underlying investments are generally protected anyway in the event of either failing...." . This is my main reason for feeling the need to invest elsewhere other than Vanguard. I thought diversification - both in terms of platform and fund - is optimal and safe. Again, possibly this is an irrational fear.

masonic

dllive said:
Can you expand more on your comment "...and the underlying investments are generally protected anyway in the event of either failing...." . This is my main reason for feeling the need to invest elsewhere other than Vanguard. I thought diversification - both in terms of platform and fund - is optimal and safe. Again, possibly this is an irrational fear.

Unlike banks, investment providers cannot use your money to finance their business. They have to keep your money and assets in ring-fenced nominee accounts, so if they fail, the assets are safe, but another provider must be found take over management of the investments, or administrators would need to assist with their transfer to a new provider. The primary purpose of FSCS compensation is to cover the fees charged by the administrators to put your assets under new management, and as such, as long as you stick to mainstream providers, there is little chance of administrators needing to charge more than £85k per client for this work.

GeoffTF

dllive said:

Hi

I currently have all my investments (SIPP and ISAs) in Vanguard funds on the Vanguard platform.

Im looking to diversify away from Vanguard with all new investments in the 23/24 tax year. I feel a little uneasy having all my eggs in one basket.

What funds would be similar to Vanguards Life Strategy 100, VWRL (World Equity) and VFEM (Emerging Markets Equity)? And what would be a good platform to use?

Thanks

Vanguard Ireland and Vanguard UK are both extremely unlikely to get into financial trouble, and would almost certainly be bailed out by the huge parent company if they did. The underlying investments should be safe anyway. I have got a seven figure sum invested with Vanguard.

VEVE plus the appropriate weight of VFEM (about 10%) is cheaper than VWRL and has slightly greater EM diversification. VLS 100 does little more than duplicate VEVE and VFEM at a higher cost. Most other platforms will charge swinging fees for holding OEICs like VLS 100. iWeb is an exception, and is owned by Lloyds Banking Group. I recently looked at alternatives to VEVE and did not find anything that looked as good. VFEM is a good choice if you want EM.

noclaf

FWIW I am in a similar situation to you OP, ISA and SIPP mainly invested into Vanguard ETF's and LISA is in a HSBC ETF, that was was done intentionally to diversify however that still leaves me with the vast majority of my investments in VEVE. My plan is to move my ISA away from Vanguard once it hits £80k to a whole of market platform and switch to a non-Vanguard fund....likely either with Fidelity or HSBC. My current work pension uses L&G funds so I will let that build up rather than transfer/merge with my SIPP.  

As highlighted by GeoffTF, VEVE/VFEM is a reasonably good value/decent diversification option for Dev World+EM and that's where most of my SIPP is invested, no plans to change that combo unless something else compelling is offered.