Stockbrokers for Investment Clubs Sep’25

phlebas192

poseidon1 said:

When I look at the annual  investment club certificates of members taxable income and gains ( link below ), the only club identifier ( from HMRC's perspective), is the club name -

https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/gds/cg/Attachments/185cert.pdf

This lack of HMRC fiscal recognition of UK investment clubs was always going to be a challenge  for a US broker so I was certainly curious how IBKR was going to overcome this from a US compliance point of view. Just very frustrating for the clubs concerned that they took so long to indicate this would be the ultimate barrier they were not prepared to ignore.

Up to 2013 there was a requirement for ICs to send an annual return of income and gains at the club level to HMRC but I can't recall if there was ever any need to actually register with HMRC. I'm pretty sure that they never actually took note of the returns, hence the dropping of the club level reporting requirement!

Form 185 is really just a convenient way for the club to inform the members of their individual liabilities. I don't believe there is even a requirement for the club to issue the form, eg from https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg20600 "Form 185 can be used by Treasurers to show a member's proportionate share of the club's gains and income." (my highlighting)

HMRC's pragmatic approach to ICs was probably suitable back when they were at peak popularity and when they invariably held quite low assets. But not really suitable for today's environment with much stronger AML and anti-insider trading regulations and where a successful club from the late 1990s probably now has a few £100k assets. So I can understand why brokers aren't keen on giving them accounts. But both ii and IBKR must have hurt their reputations with IC members as a result of the former's cancellation and the latter's stringing on clubs by claiming to accept them but never bothering to first understand how UK ICs are constituted.

Yorkie1

Just want to flag that the MSE rules say that personal information shouldn't be included in posts - which would include the specific name of advisers being dealt with at organisations.

LIC2000

Driverxyz said:

I am filling in the application form for GHC.  They require only an LEI which I have applied for from Legalidentifier.  They have come back asking for - 

- Certificate of Incorporation

- Certificate of Incumbency

- Articles of Association

- Trust Deed (if applicable ) 

Can I ask who you obtained your LEI from and what supporting documents you provided.  They seem to want some official documents but all we have is the club's Constitution & Rules.  Did you have anything more?

Does anyone else have any insight into LEI's for investment clubs?

See my post from yesterday (16th Oct). Got an LEI in under 5 hours.

Sky_Dragon

LIC2000 said:

...

Not to be daunted I applied for an LEI through LEIRegister using the basic £50 request. ...

Hi @LIC2000 - do you have a website for "LEIRegister"? I assume it's the https://www.legalentityidentifier.co.uk/ one?

findthetruth

Thanks to John Calvert for his posts about IBKR. A real shame.
I havent had the final rejection yet but I know its coming!

Sky_Dragon

Thanks also to @johncalvert for his updates.

Has anyone managed to complete onboarding with CFM (i.e. able to see their portfolio on their portal) and, if so, has anyone also managed to trade yet?

Gunnista

Well, some positive news for a change.  Our Clubs transfer to Capital Financial Markets (CFM) was completed today and I have already actioned a trade by email.  Their online portal was updated immediately with the trade information and each of our members have access to view it.  We typically set Stop Losses on our Shares which used to trigger automatically with Int Investor, but now it will require us to monitor the portfolio more closely and request a SELL when required.  But in summary the transfer has been 'Relatively' painless.

Driverxyz

There seemed to be some confusion from CFM about their charges. What is your agreement with them?

LIC2000

Sky_Dragon said:

LIC2000 said:

...

Not to be daunted I applied for an LEI through LEIRegister using the basic £50 request. ...

Hi @LIC2000 - do you have a website for "LEIRegister"? I assume it's the https://www.legalentityidentifier.co.uk/ one?

Yes, that is the one

Gunnista

Driverxyz said:

There seemed to be some confusion from CFM about their charges. What is your agreement with them?

CFM Fees are £9.00 per trade and 0.2% Annual Portfolio charge levied Qtly