SIPP, Hargreaves Lansdown and Funds

jamesd · 28 July 2008 at 9:44PM

LongTermLurker, no suprise if a discount SIPP beats some or many full cost non-SIPP deals. Would be more interesting if a discounted non-SIPP was beaten by a discounted SIPP. Hopefully at least one of your employment-related deals had low charges. My limited experience is one with very high charges and one with lowest possible charges for 100 or so investment options but more expensive for a broad range.

Hargreaves Lansdown look pretty competitive for pension pots below say 50k when there's a desire to use a lot of non-pension company funds. Sometimes for larger pots as well, depends on what they are being comapred to.

EagerLearner · 29 July 2008 at 1:21PM

Hi all I am a relative newbie - only started my pension in January, thanks to comments on this board about the HL SIPP.

Now 7 months on I have around £780 in there, not doing great right now but I am not concerned as I will keep paying in for another 35 years or so...

My question is, is the following selection roughly what you might expect for a 32 year old, who is paying £200 via DD each month:

£70 to Invesco Perpetual Pension Equity fund
£50 to Neptune Balanced
£40 to Jupiter India
£40 to Neptune Global Equity

I tried to be as varied as possible considering that the minimum net I can pay is £40 per fund.

Another question would be could I (and should I...) add shares to the SIPP...

This is because I have around £800 I could put into the SIPP just trying to work out whether to inflate the above 4 funds, or get some shares whilst things are 'down'...

Many thanks all x

EdInvestor · 29 July 2008 at 1:34PM

EagerLearner wrote: »

Another question would be could I (and should I...) add shares to the SIPP...

You could, but the H-L SIPP is not a good choice cost-wise for a share based pension.

Have you maxed out your stocks and shares ISA? (7.2k p.a. or 3.6k if using cash ISA allowance)? There are also now a few cheap share dealing accounts around which have very low charges.Halifax Sharebuilder is one. They are a good choice if you want to experiment with shares without paying high dealing costs, which are a problem with small amounts.

Accumulated money can be transferred into a SIPP later if wanted.

dunstonh · 29 July 2008 at 2:01PM

Hi all I am a relative newbie - only started my pension in January, thanks to comments on this board about the HL SIPP.

To be honest, with the funds you have you would have been better off with a stakeholder pension. Your fund choice is simplistic and could have been replicated in a stakeholder at lower cost (apart from India but a personal pension could have been used if you really wanted to be that narrow in Emrging Markets/Asia). You also wouldnt have the minimum per fund issue that you have.

its a shame you only took notice of the pro HL SIPP comments and not the more balanced comments.

EagerLearner · 29 July 2008 at 4:38PM

Thanks EdInvestor - I actually have a Halifax sharebuilder, which was free per purchase for a while but now isn't... I know HL is not the cheapest for shares (though I have a shares account with them with £5 in just to start it). I do also have this years allowance to use with HL of £3.6k also. I presume I would be better off buying shares in that wrapper?

Hi dunstonh, I did take all into account and felt that because I want flexibility to move things around, access to a wide range of funds, and also already have my stocks and shares ISA with HL, that this is easiest for me. The funds are 'simplistic' for now, because as a newbie I want to learn more and then have access to more when I become more knowledgeable, hence hanging round here to learn. Also as it's funded monthly via DD the minimum investment issue only crops up once say every blue moon once I have extra lump sums

I do see what you mean though and will read on for more reasons why a SIPP may not fit the bill for me, but for now at least I have something.

jamesd · 29 July 2008 at 4:44PM

EagerLearner, you could just increase the monthly payment amount for a while to use the extra money.

dunstonh · 29 July 2008 at 5:05PM

Hi dunstonh, I did take all into account and felt that because I want flexibility to move things around, access to a wide range of funds, and also already have my stocks and shares ISA with HL, that this is easiest for me. The funds are 'simplistic' for now, because as a newbie I want to learn more and then have access to more when I become more knowledgeable, hence hanging round here to learn. Also as it's funded monthly via DD the minimum investment issue only crops up once say every blue moon once I have extra lump sums I do see what you mean though and will read on for more reasons why a SIPP may not fit the bill for me, but for now at least I have something.

If you go on to use the features and options of the SIPP then its fine. However, if you feel that you get bored with it or feel that you arent up to it then remember that the SIPP is the more expensive option and you can move back to stakeholder or personal pension.

EdInvestor · 29 July 2008 at 6:06PM

EagerLearner wrote: »

Thanks EdInvestor - I actually have a Halifax sharebuilder, which was free per purchase for a while but now isn't...

It's still much cheaper, use this for shares.It is not so important to have shares in an ISA if you are a asic rate taxpayer, as there's no tax advantage.

I do also have this years allowance to use with HL of £3.6k also.

You could use this to diversify your fund investments.HL is the best for funds, but not for anything else.

Look here for good funds:

https://www.citywire.co.uk/Funds/Home.aspx

Rates them all by performance and category.Ignore anything not consistently in the top 10 over several time periods.

EagerLearner · 29 July 2008 at 8:18PM

dunstonh wrote: »

...you can move back to stakeholder or personal pension.

Perfect, I had no idea it was reversible, so maybe that is an option if I find I am not doing enough research or just want to stick to the same funds for a while :T

EagerLearner · 29 July 2008 at 8:21PM

jamesd wrote: »

EagerLearner, you could just increase the monthly payment amount for a while to use the extra money.

Hi jamesd, only thing is I wanted the investments to still be accessible

in case over the next 2-3 years we buy a place. We have maxed our personal cash isa's now and keep saving and saving as we can. But for me, I now have a bit extra which I thought might be good to place in shares/investment funds for 2 years + that I could cash in when needed?

SIPP, Hargreaves Lansdown and Funds

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