Online maxi cash isa question.

maxivestor

I have not used any of the current tax years ISA allowance.

I was wondering if its possible to open a maxi cash isa online?

If so could someone recommend a managed fund ( high risk profile is fine) with a history of good performance for me to invest my full isa allowance in?

maxivestor

Answering my own question to a certain extent, as there is a list of managed funds in this section.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/isa-discounts

However the list is currently provided in 2004, can anyone offer me a link to updated charge summaries and recent performance please.

Ian_W

Those are discount brokers, not funds. You can open a maxi ISA with them but you'll still need to pick the funds you invest in yourself - they're cheaper cos they're execution only with no advice. Most of the info is up to date last time I looked and the most popular one for funds on here is H-L.co.uk.

Look on their site and you'll se your choice of funds is limited to a couple of thousand!

How much are you thinking of investing? Going with one fund if it's several thou is a bit eggs in one basket.

BTW you've mixed up your terminology - there isn't a Maxi cash ISA but the maxi/mini thing goes next month anyway.

maxivestor

Thanks a lot Ian. I'm looking to invest my full £7000 allowance. I've previoulsy done so via Barclays but was not getting a great return on my investment so looking for a different company.

I'm also happy to keep this money invested long term, and a higher risk investment is also not a problem ( am looking at expected long term growth and not realised long term growth)

dunstonh

I've previoulsy done so via Barclays but was not getting a great return on my investment so looking for a different company.

Is this because the Barclays investment was bad or because the sector you invested in has had a poor period?

BTW, I know the answers to that but want to see if you do as it is very important to understand before making investments.

maxivestor

From the research I did ( which isn't huge) the Barclays Maxi ISA I had has performed worse than comparable funds.

For the record I have initial investments of
£4000 in L&G Balanced portfolio.
£4000 in L&G Adventurous Growth CL A (Acc)

The Balanced profile had grew by £600 in roughly 2 years, while the Adventurous one had grown by £11 in a year since opening.

dunstonh

You would expect a bank/insurance company internal fund investment to generally perform in line with sector average or just below. Its a generalisation but that is expectation.

A lot of the problem is not so much the individual funds but where you are invested. Both are jack of all trade, master of none sectors where they try to be a bit of everything but averaged out to meet a certain risk. Basically lazy investing for low skilled advisers/investors, such as bank advisers and your typical bank customer.

So, certainly the options to improve potential are there. Of course nothing is guaranteed but given then choice, you wouldnt choose those two funds. Indeed, with an amount of £8000 you could do 8x £1000 and diversify. It can also be more engaging to do something like that and you stand to learn more that way.