Vanguard £4 monthly fee from end of January 2025- should I move to AJ Bell DODL?

krissy08

Dear all,
I moved my ISA from Harg. Lansdown to Vanguard in December and I have £6500 all previously invested in the Vanguard target retirement 2045 but alas I have found a minimum fee (as above) will be coming in shortly. Am I better off going to AJBell DODL? I am planning to build it up to £10,000 by April 2025.
I am concerned the funds there will be limited. I was planning to invest in the legal and general US Index class c acc. fund. Thoughts please

masonic

Dodl will certainly have a US index fund, but why limit your investments to the US stock market? Your previous fund was a multi-asset fund, including both bonds and equities, and was globally diversified. There are other multi-asset funds available at Dodl.

Albermarle

Long thread on the subject.
Vanguard: New Minimum Monthly Account charge — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Alexland

krissy08 said:

Dear all,
I moved my ISA from Harg. Lansdown to Vanguard in December and I have £6500 all previously invested in the Vanguard target retirement 2045 but alas I have found a minimum fee (as above) will be coming in shortly. Am I better off going to AJBell DODL? I am planning to build it up to £10,000 by April 2025.
I am concerned the funds there will be limited. I was planning to invest in the legal and general US Index class c acc. fund. Thoughts please

VTR2045 is currently around 75% global equities and 25% bonds. I cannot see the L&G US Index fund listed as an option on the Dodl website (maybe you were looking at the main AJ Bell site?) but they have a similar SPDR S&P 500 ETF. These are clearly a more focused investment in 100% US equities which have done so well recently and clearly higher risk.

Try not to conflate the choice of platform and investments.

First decide what mix of assets you want to invest in (that's the most important thing) and then find a suitable combo of fund/etf and platform for your account valuation and trade pattern.

krissy08

Thank you all- I kind of grew up understanding the Vanguard retirement funds and not much else to be honest. A friend pointed out the L&G US index closes C recently and I noticed it out performed my go to V2045 over the last few years. I might just stick with Vanguard as it has been correctly pointed out neither of those 2 are on the DODL platform

Alexland

One option you might consider is switching to VLS80 which is available on both platforms (so you could probably transfer the account without time out of the market) and similar asset allocation (at the moment) to VTR2045.

The VTR fund is currently slightly safer and the risk would reduce over time so I guess it depends if that automatic derisking glidepath is what you are looking for? Some people say the VTR fund becomes is too cautious as time goes on particularly if in retirement you go into drawdown rather than buy an annuity.

Also if this is for retirement have you considered if a LISA or SIPP (or workplace pension contributions) might be more efficient?