Is II a no brainer

Alexland

UncleTomCobley said:

Indeed, hopefully, in time, more platforms will follow the ii and iWeb/Scottish Widows (where my one non ETF fund sits)  pricing models. 

Amongst other things, it may mean my ISA can join my peripatetic SIPP in its cashback travels.

Scottish Widows (formerly iWeb) have been offering no ongoing fee on OEICs for a very long time and so far no other platform has chosen to follow - many of them are making too much money from fixed or variable ongoing charges to hold these funds.

EdSwippet

UncleTomCobley said:

I never could figure why HL (and others) charged so much for just holding "normal/non ETF" funds (I calculated it was up to £4,000 for HL) whereas ETFs were capped at £200. I'm thinking it's just some lines on ledgers (sub-registers if you want) - it's not like they are liable for the assets themselves.

It's a legacy left over from pre-RDR  (retail distribution review) days. Before the RDR, OEICs and unit trusts used to pay platforms what boiled down to a backhander to carry them; literally a small percentage of the fund's OCF. The FSA (as was then) banned the practice, so that fund charges became unbundled (clean). As a result, OCFs for OEICs and unit trusts came down, in some cases quite substantially. So overall, a good thing for consumers.

However, the RDR created a dilemma for platforms, which now had to replace their lost revenue. The solutions adopted boiled down to two options. The perhaps more customer-focused platforms (Interactive Investor, Halifax, etc) created flat charging strategies for everyone, to fully cover the platform costs. The others (HL, AJ Bell) decided instead to replace the money they had been receiving from OEIC and unit trust providers with a direct charge on holdings of only those funds.

SarahB16

Is the choice of funds to include in a S&S ISA as good with II as the choice available with HL? 

sausage_time

SarahB16 said:

Is the choice of funds to include in a S&S ISA as good with II as the choice available with HL? 

See https://www.ii.co.uk/funds

You can try the Search on this page for the funds you are interested in.

jaybeetoo

Be careful with drawdown in HL.  If you crystallise only part of your SIPP they set up 2 separate accounts - one for crystallised and one for uncrystallised.  Depending on what investments you hold, you can end up paying more in charges.  For example, if you just hold ITs, shares, ETFs then instead of being charged up to £200 a year, you’re now charged up to £400 a year.

HL is a bit behind ii in online functionality of drawdown.  HL still requires form filling.  With ii you can do it all online.

Having used both HL and ii, I prefer ii and it’s cheaper for me.  When I first used HL, 20 years ago(?), their IT was well ahead of anything.  Now it’s lagging behind.

Triumph13

Typical.  It's only a couple of months since I transferred my ISA away from II to avoid the extra charge, which has now been scrapped.  LOL.

Unless they have changed their rules on where fees are taken from though, I'm still quids in.  It definitely used to be the case that you could only have the fees deducted from your SIPP (using pre-tax money) if that was your only account, otherwise they'd take it from your ISA or GIA if you didn't direct debit.

SVaz

No that’s wrong about HL,  my Wife does drawdown fully online every year.
The only paper form she’s ever done was the very first time a few years ago. 
She’s taken tax free cash online ( the web page does take a bit of finding so bookmark it)  and all she needed to do to request monthly drawdown was send a secure message. 

tetrarch

UncleTomCobley said:

NormalNorman said:

blue_eyes said:

it's possible to cap your HL sipp at £200 pa if you're happy to stick to investing in ETFs/ITs as well as gilts bonds shares. It's only funds that are uncapped, though you can hold funds as well you'll just pay the charge for them separately.
https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp/charges-and-interest-rates
Although I think if you go to drawdown then you have two sipp accounts that may be £200 on each SIPP account 

Fidelity on the other hand cap is £90 pa/7.50 pm but across all of your accounts combined [SIPPs/ISA/GIA] on similar instruments [e.g. ETFs]  so despite a large pot size there are ways to keep fees down, if you are happy with exchange traded instruments as suitable proxies/equivalents for your current investments/strategy
https://www.fidelity.co.uk/services/charges-fees/

Yeah, both our SIPPs were with HL sticking to ETFs to cap the fees. Recently switched to ii for cheaper fees especially for drawdown when the fees could double. The switch was inspecies and very fast. Even the £200 incentive was paid quickly. The HL app is nicer but really bothered atm as likely to be updated in the future.

I never could figure why HL (and others) charged so much for just holding "normal/non ETF" funds (I calculated it was up to £4,000 for HL) whereas ETFs were capped at £200. I'm thinking it's just some lines on ledgers (sub-registers if you want) - it's not like they are liable for the assets themselves.

Anyway, hopefully the ii change will help sharpen other platforms' fees as I look to move from HL and its current ever so slow SIPP withdrawals times.

On the plus side, it did help Lando win the F1 title

Regards

Tet

Gambler

Gambler said:

I hope the SIPP cashback offer returns soon.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/offers-and-cashback/sipp-cashback#how-it-works

Pretty poor compared to previous offers. From memory it was £200 for £15K.

ic

Gambler said:

Gambler said:

I hope the SIPP cashback offer returns soon.

https://www.ii.co.uk/ii-accounts/sipp/offers-and-cashback/sipp-cashback#how-it-works

Pretty poor compared to previous offers. From memory it was £200 for £15K.

In the summer it was £200 for up to £100K, £250 for £200K and £500 for £500K.  TopCashback also ran an additional £250 for opening a SIPP at the end of August which could be stacked.

At the time I hadn't considered ii, and chose to open an ISA to familiarise myself rather rush into it.  Now I'd like to transfer my pension but the current offer means I'd get £295 from ii & TopCashback, whereas in the summer it was £750. 

Given the current offer ends end of Jan as the fee rises from 1st Feb, I'm wondering if they might push a new deal then to offset the rise?