Hargreaves Lansdowne ISA

earlgrey_3

Thanks to a suggestion in another thread I've been looking at fund supermarkets to open a new S&S mini ISA. So far I've quite liked the look of Hargreaves Lansdowne though I'm not sure if they count as a fund supermarket or not.

Was thinking of putting the maximum of £4000 each for my wife and myself into their 'Vantage ISA' to hold in cash for a few weeks or possibly using their 'Vantage High Interest ISA' for one of us which offers what amounts to a 3 month cash bond within the ISA at 4.8% net (although the few pounds extra interest probably isn't worth the increased lack of flexibilty). They say there's no cost for the ISA bit on funds where they receive an annual fee from the fund-managers - which I assume covers most apart form the low cost tracker funds and direct share-holdings?

I wondered if there were any other points I should be aware of? For example, how easy/what cost for moving to another ISA manager? Another I looked at, Chelsea Financial Services, seem to use a wholesaler called Cofunds who say all holdings have to be sold before a transfer can be made elsewhere, which looks a pain. Is that standard? Chelsea have a fund switching fee of 0.25%, does anyone know what H-L charge?

Are there any other recommended providers I should look at? Half-decent service and flexibility are as important to me as low cost.

MrMicawber_2

H-L gets a lot of thumbs up. It is cheap for funds. The service is good although it isn't personal like you would get with a stockbroker.

Just a check up on the 3 month deal - what happens if you don't want to put your money into equities within 3 months?

They have a 'normal' cash facility which provides some interest with no end date - can you transfer your cash into this after 3 months or do you lose the interest if you don't invest?

munk

See here for pros/cons diy vs supermarket vs direct investing:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=7928011#post7928011

Kay_Peel

If you know what funds you want then Hargreaves Lansdowne offer good discounts.

However, two things:

1. I don't know how much they charge to switch funds within an ISA. I've searched for that information on their website and can't find it. I'm not very impressed by their website anyway.

2. You get a lot of 'hard sell' from H-L once they've got you. I'm not sure I trust their recommendations though. A fund that has a good year will make it into the Wealth 150.

I far prefer BestInvest (even though they have been taken over recently and may change the way they operate). They can be critical, opinionated and forthright. I like the way BestInvest manages their research, presents the information, allows you to manipulate it. Their website is much better than H-L's.

I use both HL and BI.

BI use two supermarkets, Cofunds and Fundsnetwork, and it costs 0.25% to switch funds. The discounts aren't always as good as H-L and there are no cash-back offers. (There's a few pounds in the difference). But, the newsletters, expert opinion and articles are far better than H-L's pseudo-newsletter (that tries to selll more than it tells me anything). I've been very happy with the decisions that I've made, based on BI's research bank.

H-L write to me A LOT. They send me oceans of stuff on SIPPs and offer inducemements to switch into their Vantage Service. I'd have to sell all my holdings and start again, so I'm not interested. In any case, I prefer BestInvest and would recommend them to people who want to take control of their own decisions and use the wealth of research imformation.

Aegis

Kay_Peel wrote: »

If you know what funds you want then Hargreaves Lansdowne offer good discounts.

However, two things:

1. I don't know how much they charge to switch funds within an ISA. I've searched for that information on their website and can't find it. I'm not very impressed by their website anyway.

Exactly the same as when you buy using cash. They sell the first fund one day, and buy the second the next day without imposing any additional charges.

2. You get a lot of 'hard sell' from H-L once they've got you. I'm not sure I trust their recommendations though. A fund that has a good year will make it into the Wealth 150.

I get that too. I'm assured that you can opt out, and I'm going to give them a call and ask them not to use my information for marketing purposes any more, which I believe is a right under the Data Protection Act or something...

MrMicawber_2

Yes - I get lots of stuff from them too, the info is useful but the stream of SIPP & ISA forms is somewhat wasted.

I don't think that the basis for selection on the W150 is good performance for a year though. Quite a lot of funds on their W150 have not done very well and some haved done poorly yet they stick with them.

I like comparing the funds on the W150, the Advisor Fund Index, CFS, Torquil Clark and using the lot to help my selections. I must say I'm not convinced by the BestInvest preferred funds, but I'm willing to be converted.

earlgrey_3

Many thanks all for that and for the links.

Wasn't aware that the safety net compensation for H-L would be as little as £48K. That's a bit scarier than the £35K limit for banks because I don't really know a thing about them. Had considered looking at the rules for moving our PEPs to them but we'd be over that threshold.

MrMicawber wrote: »

Just a check up on the 3 month deal - what happens if you don't want to put your money into equities within 3 months?

They have a 'normal' cash facility which provides some interest with no end date - can you transfer your cash into this after 3 months or do you lose the interest if you don't invest?

After 3 months it automatically reverts to that standard rate (which falls from 3.2% to 2.2% net for £4000 from 1 May). I think you can close the higher rate bond to invest before the 3 months but lose all the interest.

Now I'll have a nose round the BestInvest site. (BTW, apologies, I meant to start the thread in the ISA forum.)

munk

I'm with Kay on being with both Bestinvest (bi) and Hargreaves Lansdown (hl). I agree with much of what Kay says about bi providing better research, although I have the feeling that this research is becoming somewhat left behind since they were taken over last summer or so(?). There doesn't seem to ever be a lot of updates to the 20 or so funds research I have with them.

That said, the bi research is very good and they focus more on the fund manager's career record rather than just on their current fund's performance. Their portfolio planning software is top notch (when it works without crashing which unfortunately isn't very often) and yes like Kay says they don't pressure you too much. This can be a good and bad thing, one one hand HL's 10,000,000 SIPP leaflets per year through your door (yes I know what you mean Kay!) is annoying - but at the same time not hearing from bi at all unless it's to provide a statement can feel a bit... standoffish. Somewhere in between would be good perhaps.

bi also offer free portfolio rebalancing once per year I think for over 50k of investments.

However with bi you pay for the 'frills' mentioned above - you don't receive trail commission rebates with bi as you do with hl (hl offer around 0.15% pa on average in trail rebates). You also don't get a 'loyalty bonus' from bi as you do from hl (can't remember what the loyalty rate is now... 0.1% pa? guessing really...).

Finally there are a few funds I could only find on HL, those which Fidelity FundsNetwork/Cofunds don't offer (actually I must be honest I didn't check if bestinvest offered these funds (ruffer) through cofunds... my bad).

The main reason for me changing from bi to hl though recently for my mum's portfolio was the extra discounts/rebates that hl offer and the general good service which I'd received from hl (bi's service is also equally good though, must say). Close call really between the two for my money.

moneylover

MrMicawber wrote: »

I like comparing the funds on the W150, the Advisor Fund Index, CFS, Torquil Clark and using the lot to help my selections. I must say I'm not convinced by the BestInvest preferred funds, but I'm willing to be converted.

What does CFS stand for please? And can you look at all the BestInvest research if you are not invested with them?

earlgrey_3

moneylover wrote: »

What does CFS stand for please? And can you look at all the BestInvest research if you are not invested with them?

"Chelsea Financial Services" in Fulham I'd think who will send you their bi-annual newsletter/recommendations if it's of any use to you. Also available as PDF on their website. (I somehow got on their mailing-list 15 or so years ago but have never dealt with them.)

If anyone knows any more about the safety nets for supermarkets and intermediaries would be interested.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

earlgrey wrote: »

Wasn't aware that the safety net compensation for H-L would be as little as £48K.

where did you find this?

I have recently moved some peps/isas to the Vantage Fund and was not made aware of this, also have some isas which I bought through them.

Thought funds would still be with management company.

Thanks.