S&S ISA 24/25 plans

Kaizen917

Sorry about the wall of text in advance.

I suppose there some quite a few people having plans (vague or otherwise) on how to invest for the next financial year so I thought I create this to outline mine and brainstorm some ideas with the community here.

When circumstances allow, I try to max out my ISA allowances (SS + LISA). My approach is to usually cost average into world diversified funds and Im with two providers right now - FTSE all world with Vanguard and a 5 ETF portfolio with InvestEngine.The latter practically mimics a world fund and it requires some tinkering once in a while but I dont mind given its a 0.11% TER on 0 platform fees. Both are currently around 40k each and my time horizon is 15-30 years (Im in my 30s now).

I recently heard about the Invesco fund which seems competitive at a 0.15% cost while I also like the HSBC FTSE all world which I only hold in my LISA. Now that we should be able to fund multiple S&S ISAs in a year, Im considering to open an account with another platform. A likely candidate is Trading212 where I could average about 10k into the Invesco fund and the rest is split between my current Vanguard/IE funds.Going into future years, I will probably top up the three of them until, fingers crossed, I get to around the 80-85k mark in each.

I keep this sort of secret from my family so that it one day comes up as a nice surprise of an emergency fund while easier to avoid calls for spending it all before, say, WW3 hits. Their usual approach to money is that is should be spent asap so I would come across as pretty naive to them in a discussion about that.

Some questions to ponder on:

-Are you in a similar boat when it comes to cost averaging or do you just aim to max out the allowance as soon as you have the funds?

-Is there any drawback to being with zero fee platforms like InvestEngine or T212? I heard people reckon they might hike the fees eventually but even then, I doubt they will do that by much.

-Is there a possible problem with the Invesco ETF given how new it is.I heard there might be an issue for funds when they are yet to gain popularity but Im not sure if that would translate into worse performance or cost.

-Am I overcomplicating it by spreading across too many baskets? I can see some people holding six figure sums within one provider and have no worries over it.

masonic

Adding money annually for 15-30 years is cost averaging. There is nothing special about monthly drip feeding, and this can be more costly. I also don't think there is any need to split between many accounts, although I'd tend to avoid putting 6-figure+ sums with loss-making providers. The Invesco fund is growing nicely, so I don't think there is any risk of it being closed or merged.

Alistair31

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

gravel_2

Alistair31 said:

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

Presumably FWRG.

dunstonh

-Am I overcomplicating it by spreading across too many baskets? I can see some people holding six figure sums within one provider and have no worries over it.

Yes.    Many hold millions on a single platform. 
However, perhaps the difference is they are more mainstream well, capitalised platforms that are profitable and not niche/smaller players or loss makers.   If you move away from the mainstream or move to platforms with higher quantities of illiquid investments, then it makes more sense to diversify provider.

Alistair31

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

Presumably FWRG.

Cheaper than VWRP. Any downside to switching? 

gravel_2

Alistair31 said:

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

Presumably FWRG.

Cheaper than VWRP. Any downside to switching? 

I'm not an expert but if JustETF can be believed -
it's a materially smaller fund <1/75 the size of VWRP
it's new, only launching in June last year (this can be a neutral point and may indicate why the fund is so small).
it has 800 holdings vs VWRP at 3.6k. This seems to indicate a lower diversity of holdings/greater concentration of risk.

InvesterJones

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

Presumably FWRG.

Cheaper than VWRP. Any downside to switching? 

I'm not an expert but if JustETF can be believed -
it's a materially smaller fund <1/75 the size of VWRP
it's new, only launching in June last year (this can be a neutral point and may indicate why the fund is so small).
it has 800 holdings vs VWRP at 3.6k. This seems to indicate a lower diversity of holdings/greater concentration of risk.

I make it 2039 vs 3655, so fewer yes, but likely only at the tail and with extremely low proportions.

gravel_2

InvesterJones said:

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

gravel_2 said:

Alistair31 said:

What is the Invesco fund you speak of? 

Presumably FWRG.

Cheaper than VWRP. Any downside to switching? 

I'm not an expert but if JustETF can be believed -
it's a materially smaller fund <1/75 the size of VWRP
it's new, only launching in June last year (this can be a neutral point and may indicate why the fund is so small).
it has 800 holdings vs VWRP at 3.6k. This seems to indicate a lower diversity of holdings/greater concentration of risk.

I make it 2039 vs 3655, so fewer yes, but likely only at the tail and with extremely low proportions.

Quite right. JustETF site says 798 but the most recent data direct from Investco is >2000.

Kaizen917

masonic said:

Adding money annually for 15-30 years is cost averaging. There is nothing special about monthly drip feeding, and this can be more costly. I also don't think there is any need to split between many accounts, although I'd tend to avoid putting 6-figure+ sums with loss-making providers. The Invesco fund is growing nicely, so I don't think there is any risk of it being closed or merged.

Didnt really consider it but you got a point. I suppose I just havent been invested for that many years to see this as averaging but it practically is. I think there will be a scope to consolidate all ISAs into one more established platform where fees are capped but right now I can see myself having this arbitrary line where everything above Vanguard (as a total of platform + fund fee) is unnecessarily pricey.