Do you use more than one platform?

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017104#Comment_82017104

If something did go seriously wrong, the culprit might not be the investment platform itself. Vanguard, AJ Bell and II all use FNZ. Fidelity, HL and the various Lloyds brands do not appear to use FNZ. We should not have to worry about the safety of any of these platforms. I use Vanguard (free account) and Scottish Widows Share Dealing. I also have an HL account, which will soon be consolidated with my SWSD account.

RogerPensionGuy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017314#Comment_82017314

I'm interested how Vanguard is a free account, any information welcome in my quest to reduce charges and costs?

UncleK

Vanguard for our ISAs using Vanguard products (ETFs) and 'er indoors pension

Scottish Widows, formally iWeb, for ETFs we bought using H&L, but moved from them when I realised their holding fees were too much

A J Bell for my SIPP, which is just for utilising tax reliefs - it's not a "real" pension I'm relying on for my old age

Just finished with Interactive Investor - were using them to hold some company awarded shares as Computershare (the company designated provider) were pricey - but now all sold

sweeter_strudel

I use multiple platforms for everything - current accounts, savings accounts, ISAs, SIPPs and GIAs.

Simply because I was caught by Icesave where my savings were inaccessible exactly when I had to pay off a very large credit card bill at the end of a 0% deal; and the broker SVS was shut down by the FCS for dubious behaviour in other divisions, not the stock dealing platform part - that debacle, with no access to investments, dragged on for more than a year.

Diversification is, if/when things go horribly wrong, very useful.

I also think there may be advantages to having more than one SIPP pot as you can drawdown from one as and when you need cash, and leave other(s) untouched, and move the untouched pot(s) gathering introductory bonuses more easily.

dunstonh

If something did go seriously wrong, the culprit might not be the investment platform itself. Vanguard, AJ Bell and II all use FNZ. Fidelity, HL and the various Lloyds brands do not appear to use FNZ. 

Scottish Widows platform (The advisory one) uses FNZ. That was previously the Embark platform, which was previously the Zurich platform.

Just in case some people are confused about how the software works, those platforms using FNZ have FNZ controlling the backend. FNZ is the stockbroker and does all the processing behind the scenes. The front end is controlled by the branded platform. So if FNZ suffered an issue, then it would affect every FNZ backend.

Some platforms are on very old versions of FNZ. Some are on more modern versions. Some platforms have bolted on their own functionality that sits on top of it, and of course there are configuration settings galore.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017345#Comment_82017345

Get a time machine and go back in time to when Vanguard first came to the UK. Invest £100K+ in one or more of the very limited number of funds that they sold over the phone. (No ISAs or SIPPs.) Wait until they introduce their online service. You will be offered a free online account. Alternatively, you may be able to get a free account by working for Vanguard.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017527#Comment_82017527

The DIY service is just a rebrand of iWeb. It still uses the same Halifax Share Dealing Limited (HSDL) platform as Halifax Share Dealing and Lloyds Share Dealing (but with lower charges).

Scottish Widows Share Dealing now uses Embark in place of AJ Bell for SIPP administration, but the HSDL platform is still used to host the SIPPs. The Embark managed SIPPs are cheaper, but there nonetheless seems to be a lot of negative comment about the change.

jimjames

Yes I use 2 platforms. One for my SIPP (ii) but in order to pay fees from the SIPP I can't add any other accounts. ISAs are with a different platform (iWeb) but with no holding fees so cost isn't impacted. Also helps with diversification given both have significant sums in them.

RogerPensionGuy

I've just had another idea or question in my head.

Is it possible to use one platform for a SIPP, ISA and say a GIA and get all fees taken from just one of the accounts and I was this thinking paying all the fees outa the SIPP would be convenient for me paying all platform fees outa a pot that gets highly tax on any outflows.

I'm sure a good poster will answer this question for me and others.

Cheers Roger.

sweeter_strudel

Yes is the quick answer.

It is quite common to open a GIA solely to pay the fees for any other accounts you have with that broker. This is arguably the best approach when in life's accumulation phase.

I like your thinking, regarding using the SIPP account when in SKI mode (Spending Kids' Inheritance) for fes. You would need to make absolutely sure you had adequate cash sitting waiting in the account to cover the fees as and when they are taken monthly / quarterly / bi-annually. There are some painfully expensive Ts&C's in some brokers' small print saying they will sell down enough of your largest holding in the account to pay their fee, and they will be adding the telephone / paper certificate trading cost in order to do this selling.

So being charged in the region of £30 to pay an account fee of £10-£15 every month may make the tax charged on your SIPP withdrawals look more palatable.