Invest And Forget Funds, Which Companies Or Platforms Do MSE Investors Use Or Recommend?

TojoRalph

When it comes to investing in funds on an invest and forget basis, which companies or platforms do MSE users use or recommend, based on fees, ease of use, Etc? I am just following on from a conversation with a younger family member who wishes to use inheritance monies to purchase certain funds as a long term investment that will ultimately form part of their retirement funds. When it comes to holding those funds, whilst I fully understand the FSCS protection in relation to banks, savings accounts, Etc. what is the situation with funds held with a company or platform?
Their situation is UK citizen, non UK tax payer, digital nomad, financially stable, no personal pension, access to rainy day funds, no plans to settle down in any given country, visits friends & family in UK, but does not anticipate living in the UK in the years to come. Thank you.

El_Torro

Many people on this forum invest in global trackers or multi asset funds. These are essentially invest and forget, since if one company or even one geographical region performs badly the rest of the fund should pick up the slack. Seems to be the sort of thing you're looking for.

The fact that they're not a UK resident might mean they need to look at platforms or funds that are available in the place where they are resident.

InvesterJones

As above, finding platforms that they can use would likely be the main thing to determine. If they were UK resident then there are a number we can suggest. Once you've set the platform, then we could possibly help with fund choice available on the platform.

jimjames

Non UK resident will very much restrict the options available. Might be better to find what's available and ask for feedback on the options as many suggestions won't be viable.

dunstonh

Asking what people on a UK site do is unlikely to give suitable answers.   As they are non-resident in the UK, it all comes down to the options where they are resident.    

Bostonerimus1

Invest and forget isn't an option for the digital nomad. They will be resident for tax somewhere and it might come down to family connections if they are moving regularly. So they should be filing taxes and not just ignoring them. Where they file their taxes will influence how and where they can invest.

TojoRalph

@dunstonh@jimjames@El_Torro@InvesterJones @Bostonerimus1 To explain their situation better. Having lived and worked overseas for a few years, more recently they started travelling and they plan to do so for the forceable future. Their tax situation they are looking at and as their income is limited, it may even make sense to become a UK resident again for tax purposes. From the comments received so far though, it appears that being a UK resident for tax purposes is a prerequisite for investing with the companies and platforms you people use? From what I have seen though looking at a couple of random UK based platforms, the requirement seems to be to state your country of tax residence? I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former. At the end of the day, they will do things correctly, but they would prefer the long term investment was with an established UK business/platform. Thanks.

eskbanker

TojoRalph said:

I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former.

Where did you see that?  It would be very much the exception rather than the rule, so worth taking advantage of, as the vast majority will base eligibility on tax residency rather than citizenship....

Bostonerimus1

TojoRalph said:

@dunstonh@jimjames@El_Torro@InvesterJones @Bostonerimus1 To explain their situation better. Having lived and worked overseas for a few years, more recently they started travelling and they plan to do so for the forceable future. Their tax situation they are looking at and as their income is limited, it may even make sense to become a UK resident again for tax purposes. From the comments received so far though, it appears that being a UK resident for tax purposes is a prerequisite for investing with the companies and platforms you people use? From what I have seen though looking at a couple of random UK based platforms, the requirement seems to be to state your country of tax residence? I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former. At the end of the day, they will do things correctly, but they would prefer the long term investment was with an established UK business/platform. Thanks.

To "do things correctly" they might well need some professional advice. The first question to ask is "what is their tax residency"? You have told us that they are not UK tax resident, so where are they resident? If they are trying to be resident nowhere then they will have significant barriers to owning things like mutual funds and opening brokerage accounts. My advice would be to open brokerage account in a country while tax resident and invest in low cost index funds. Then if they become non-tax resident they will probably not be able to invest more money and they will have to pay tax on dividend and capital gains distributions. Be carful of becoming tax resident by accident elsewhere as that might trigger nasty cross border tax issues.

nottsphil

I thought a digital nomad was somebody who changes their VPN regularly....

TojoRalph

eskbanker said:

TojoRalph said:

I have also seen a requirement to be a UK Citizen OR UK tax resident, of which they are the former.

Where did you see that?  It would be very much the exception rather than the rule, so worth taking advantage of, as the vast majority will base eligibility on tax residency rather than citizenship....

I believe it was Interactive Brokers. However since then they have spoken to another couple of the bigger names, spelled out their situation and they both advised that as long as they are a UK Citizen and provide a UK address, then it's up to them to manage their own tax. The last part does of course make sense, but I assume that tax status would need to be declared when opening an account, maybe not. I assume also that brokers only report to HMRC when funds are accessed and withdrawn and thus when CGT or otherwise becomes payable? It may well be that they voluntarily declare themselves a UK tax payer, assuming they can. So assuming this was the case, who would you suggest they look at to have low cost brokerage accounts with? Thanks.