Scottish Widow Balanced Growth Portfolio Shareclass A Accumulation

munk

wheresmydoshat wrote: »

"Once the ISA is transferred you can choose a new selection of funds that are less sluggish"

so when you say less sluggish, what is my best tactic for choosing funds considering i want less risk but a half decent return ? and say i have 13k, putting into half a dozen funds would be my best option ?

If you're determined to reinvest the money in funds it'd be wise to find a good IFA that can help you with a portfolio of maybe 6-10 different funds. Alternatively if you want to go DIY then perhaps take some time - a few months - learning how to assess your own attitude to risk, portfolio diversification, risks of the different asset classes and so on.

If you wanted to 'stop the rot' during that time you could perhaps transfer your investments over to HL straight away as cash (be sure to fill in the right parts of the transfer form to keep the ISA wrapper if you have it!) and just leave them alone until you're certain about what to do (HL allow you to keep your money in cash until you're ready to go ahead and invest the money into funds). You'll earn interest on the cash whilst it's not invested and importantly the money won't be exposed to the market volatility that's around at the moment - you won't lose any money from making a hasty decision. You won't get as much as you would in a high interest savings account, but the rates are just enough to stop your money losing value in real terms/against inflation.

Just an idea. Be careful not to make a bad situation worse though, take your time if you're going it alone/DIY and don't invest any money in anything you don't understand fully. You could do a lot worse than dropping the lot in a high interest savings account until you decide what to do!

EdInvestor

munk wrote: »

You could do a lot worse than dropping the lot in a high interest savings account until you decide what to do!

You can't move money in a S&S ISA into a high street savings account without losing the tax wrapper.


Gosh what a bum fund, no 127 in its peer group

http://www.trustnet.com/ut/funds/perf.aspx?sec=fof

A good example of why choosing just fund (even if it purports to be a "Fund of Funds", or Multi manager" fund) is a mistake.

BTW do you have any idea what your money is actually invested in? Equities(shares}? UK or foreign? Property or bonds, perhaps? It helps to get a feel for the risk levels of the various types of investments.

munk

Sorry yes EdInvestor is right of course, don't try and move the ISA part into a high interest savings account! I meant any outside ISA investments!

Another interesting point about that SW fund is it doesn't have any IMA sector categorization which makes it hard to judge how well it's doing against it's peers. I found that with a few other SW funds as well, seems very shoddy on SW's part - I guess they don't expect investors in those type of funds (their 'solution' and 'portfolio' type funds) to ever go looking to see how well they're doing against other similar funds. Depressing

dunstonh

b)Hunt for a decent IFA in your area who is good at investment (not a lot of them) and pay more money.

Very condescending and incorrect. IFAs have the lowest complaints of any distribution channel. A minority are not up to the job at the highest level but then this transaction doesn't require highest level.

Certainly couldn't be much worse than picking the HL fund.

The problem with the SW fund is LACK of risk-taking. Hence holders are not making any profit in good times. It is up 13.7% in 3 years. The HL fund is up 23.6% in that period, and 78.9% over 5 years.

most of that period has not been good times for the heavy weighting it has in fixed interest. I am not saying it is a good fund but it has outperformed HL in recent times mainly as it hasn't lost as much. The difference between the funds is too great to really compare. Ideally a spread in between would be a better idea.

I'm not sure the OP is complaining about volatility as much as just complete lack of return.

I perceived it as concern about loss. HL's fund would have lost more in the same period and is capable of 30% loss as a rough guide. Possibly more. Its way too heavy in equities for a cautious investor.

The HL FoF is not the best in its sector, but it has to be a better place for the money than SW.

Thats a bit like comparing two poor quality and funds and trying to persuade us to be in either of them when in reality neither are up to the job. One is too heavy in equities and too expensive whilst the other is too light in equities and lacks decent management.

meester

dunstonh wrote: »

Very condescending and incorrect. IFAs have the lowest complaints of any distribution channel. A minority are not up to the job at the highest level but then this transaction doesn't require highest level.

Certainly couldn't be much worse than picking the HL fund.

Agreed.

most of that period has not been good times for the heavy weighting it has in fixed interest. I am not saying it is a good fund but it has outperformed HL in recent times mainly as it hasn't lost as much. The difference between the funds is too great to really compare. Ideally a spread in between would be a better idea.

THe difference is tiny though.... My savings account has outperformed most of my investments. That does not make it a good investment.

dunstonh

THe difference is tiny though.... My savings account has outperformed most of my investments. That does not make it a good investment.

We agree that neither fund is right so there is little point in saying which is best.

It comes back down to the fact that 100% investing into a single fund, even if fund of funds, is not the best option for someone. It is lazy and will result in higher charges and almost certainly lower returns over the long run then using a spread of funds which does average out to your risk profile.

I will just say that it is important to not underestimate risk and volatility vs potential. Over the long run, you would expect the HL fund to outperform the SW fund with periods when it performs worse. However, inexperienced investors generally dont understand the ups and downs and whilst they are happy when things go up they are more likely to pull out when things go down. If the OP is willing to accept 30% loss potential in a given year then the range of investment options available is massive and offers far better potential than HL. If the OP is not willing to accept that level of risk then there are better lower risk options than SW's fund.

I think the OP needs to clarify their risk profile. perhaps just be answering how much of a loss would they accept (in percentage terms) in a 12 month period before they got cold feet and pulled out.

wheresmydoshat

thanks for the discussion, it has certainly helped as much as it is depressing !

here's what i think i am going to do.

we plan to buy a house at the end of the year. i was going to use other cash i have in mini isa, and a 2 year 8% saver which is about to come to an end.

what i think may be the best plan is leaving this where it is (as bad as it may be) for now, and using this when the time comes. this means i keep my mini cash isa, and can put half my 8% saver into another one, and the "bad" investment is goggled up by the mortgage never to be thought about again.

in a round about sort of way the odd few hundred quid loss is not really going to make a difference against a 200k mortgage, so hopefully i won't have it hanging over me.

so when my 8% saver ends i just need to find a decent mini isa rather than the rubbish lloyds postal one i have which i can't even check if its still there !

not taking any of your advice i know, but what are peoples thoughts ?

munk

what are peoples thoughts ?

Get out of the SW fund asap!

Generally have a look at the Cautious Managed sector here sorted by 1yr performance (though warnings abound of past perf not being any indication of future perf!):

http://www.trustnet.com/ut/funds/perf.aspx?txtSearch=&universe=ut&nsUniverse=UT&sort=29&ss=0&txts=&txtss=&columns=&page=0&booIMA=1&reg1=all&sec=all&ima=cautious&unit=all&type=all

Note your current SW fund isn't actually 'cautious', it's 'balanced', but given your responses above it sounds as though you're more of a cautious investor than a balanced investor, hence the suggestion of looking for cautious funds instead of balanced.

The top 3 funds in that list above all look ok, although the first (SARASIN GLOBALSAR IIID A) is perhaps more volatile than you'd want at 8% compared to your current 6% (though having said that at least you get decent returns for your 8% of risk!). The CF ARCH CRU INV PORTFOLIO B fund's low volatility looks very attractive for a cautious investor who wants an alternative to a savings account! The CF RUFFER TOT RETURN O fund is also worth a look, low volatility but with steady upward trend recently thanks to it's defensive portfolio breakdown which has been sleighted in 'up' times over the last few years but is paying off now. All of these funds are provided by HL I believe, just fill out a transfer form, split your money across a few of those funds and you're golden.

None of this is advice of course, just what I'd do (had to do recently as well having been in similarly poorly performing SW funds)- actually happen to be looking at similar funds myself righ now for a cautious portfolio I'm looking after

wheresmydoshat

right this is what i've decided to do.

i am going to cash in my maxi isa, putting it all into my online saver.

then when i am able to do another mini isa, i am going to move my one from this year and add another sum from the money above. this will leave 10k, which i will need for a deposit on a house so can stay in my online saver where its at least safe.

so all i need to do is find a decent mini isa to move to.

wheresmydoshat

ps. i know i am losing out on my allowance but tbh i won't be going the maxi route again for a long time. the mini at a fixed rate is safe, and the 10k gets a bit of interest in the next 6 months in my saver.