Opening a S&S ISA and picking funds

[Phooey]

Might be worth a read -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/funds/cheap-t...

[Kingdom35]

Thanks...just coming back to this.

Is there a website which I can check the 7 funds I have in my company pension to see if they "cross over"/ are investing in the same areas so I can use this info to actually see how diverse my portfolio really is?

[xeny]

http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/xray/editholding...

[bitchstewie]

Kingdom35 said:

Thanks...just coming back to this.

Is there a website which I can check the 7 funds I have in my company pension to see if they "cross over"/ are investing in the same areas so I can use this info to actually see how diverse my portfolio really is?

Xeny kindly pointed me to this one http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/xray/editholding...

Some can be pretty impossible to pick apart though especially the "funds of funds".

[Kingdom35]

Thank you..i have so many links/recommendations I needed clarity :-)

[mcbook]

This thread prompted me to do something, rather than think about doing something, with my savings.

I used to be quite an active diy investor (small-time £) and kept telling myself to pick some shares and get going again. However, busy work and family life mean I just haven't had the time.

I decided that today was the day and rather than spend time researching shares I've just gone with a fund. I've opened an ISA with vanguard, putting all my eggs in the one basket: FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL).

Vanuguard fees are 0.15% (account fee) plus 0.29% (fund fee). A straight forward FTSE100 tracker has a much cheaper fee at 0.06% but I wanted something a bit more exotic. We'll see how it works out. Feels good to have finally pulled the trigger.

For excitement, I've also got a small amount in crypto currency but that's more of a gamble than an investment ;-)

Thanks for the inspiration, OP.

[Twilkes]

Hadn't realised that HL was considered expensive for holding funds - likely to have £3-6k for the next few years in investment funds with fees between 0.5% to 1% (kind of mid-term play money in funds I think will perform well short to medium term, I have other money in low-fee trackers and locked into pensions) so is HL a bad platform to be in? There's no charge to switch between funds, that's one of the reasons I liked it, but would I be better off on a different platform?

[bitchstewie]

Twilkes said:

Hadn't realised that HL was considered expensive for holding funds - likely to have £3-6k for the next few years in investment funds with fees between 0.5% to 1% (kind of mid-term play money in funds I think will perform well short to medium term, I have other money in low-fee trackers and locked into pensions) so is HL a bad platform to be in? There's no charge to switch between funds, that's one of the reasons I liked it, but would I be better off on a different platform?

Depends what charges are HL "platform" charges and what are the fund charges.

Fund charges will usually be the same but the platform charge will vary massively and I think HL do their own portfolios where the charges looked very high.

[Twilkes]

bhstewie said:

Depends what charges are HL "platform" charges and what are the fund charges.

Fund charges will usually be the same but the platform charge will vary massively and I think HL do their own portfolios where the charges looked very high.

I thought someone said there was a 0.45% standing charge from HL? Or is that just if you pick their "management service" or whatever it might be. I set up an ISA, bought some funds and the only charges seemed to be the fund charges, so the 0.5-1.0% charged by the fund.

Will have a dig and see if the fund charges are the same on other platforms, and I'd be surprised if I missed another 0.45% HL charge somewhere, I did open it a while ago and not actually buy the funds until now though....

[bitchstewie]

Twilkes said:

I thought someone said there was a 0.45% standing charge from HL? Or is that just if you pick their "management service" or whatever it might be. I set up an ISA, bought some funds and the only charges seemed to be the fund charges, so the 0.5-1.0% charged by the fund.

Will have a dig and see if the fund charges are the same on other platforms, and I'd be surprised if I missed another 0.45% HL charge somewhere, I did open it a while ago and not actually buy the funds until now though....

That's where it really does depend exactly what products and services you have.

I'd expect for a DIY approach that you'd pay the "platform" a fee, the fund a fee, and possibly buy/sell charges depending on the provider and the type of fund.

[xeny]

Twilkes said:

I thought someone said there was a 0.45% standing charge from HL? Or is that just if you pick their "management service" or whatever it might be. I set up an ISA, bought some funds and the only charges seemed to be the fund charges, so the 0.5-1.0% charged by the fund.

Will have a dig and see if the fund charges are the same on other platforms, and I'd be surprised if I missed another 0.45% HL charge somewhere, I did open it a while ago and not actually buy the funds until now though....

This 0.45% fee: http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/fund-and-s...

Have a look at http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-br... depending on your requirements.

[Kingdom35]

mcbook said:

This thread prompted me to do something, rather than think about doing something, with my savings.

I used to be quite an active diy investor (small-time £) and kept telling myself to pick some shares and get going again. However, busy work and family life mean I just haven't had the time.

I decided that today was the day and rather than spend time researching shares I've just gone with a fund. I've opened an ISA with vanguard, putting all my eggs in the one basket: FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF (VHYL).

Vanuguard fees are 0.15% (account fee) plus 0.29% (fund fee). A straight forward FTSE100 tracker has a much cheaper fee at 0.06% but I wanted something a bit more exotic. We'll see how it works out. Feels good to have finally pulled the trigger.

For excitement, I've also got a small amount in crypto currency but that's more of a gamble than an investment ;-)

Thanks for the inspiration, OP.

Looks interesting :-) Not sure I'm that brave, heavily reliant on the US Markets....but from what ive seen from that Angle Mr Trump Is looking after his own with a few legislation changes so every hope.

I have a question all...can you go for a managed fund then add in a few funds in addition that you've chosen yourself? Sort of a mix/match?

[bitchstewie]

Kingdom35 said:

I have a question all...can you go for a managed fund then add in a few funds in addition that you've chosen yourself? Sort of a mix/match?

Yes with another "it depends" caveat in that you need to have a platform that allows it.

Random example but let's say you want the Fundsmith fund.

You can go to https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/ and invest directly with or without an ISA wrapper.

If you invest with them directly you can't buy other funds through them.

Now if you've invested directly and you are using an ISA wrapper you can't go and open another ISA in the same year.

If you've invested directly and you are not using an ISA wrapper you can go somewhere else and invest in whatever you like.

Hope that makes sense, basically mix/match is easy just use a platform that offers the choice.

[Kingdom35]

bhstewie said:

Yes with another "it depends" caveat in that you need to have a platform that allows it.

Random example but let's say you want the Fundsmith fund.

You can go to https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/ and invest directly with or without an ISA wrapper.

If you invest with them directly you can't buy other funds through them.

Now if you've invested directly and you are using an ISA wrapper you can't go and open another ISA in the same year.

If you've invested directly and you are not using an ISA wrapper you can go somewhere else and invest in whatever you like.

Hope that makes sense, basically mix/match is easy just use a platform that offers the choice.

I see so the question here then is, I want to open an S&S ISA, do any other companies offer the Fundsmith Fund ie do Vanguard, Cavendish etc and if they did, could I pick say the Vanguard Lifestrategy then add on Fundsmith in addition to this fund? Or would it be deemed 2 ISA's as it has to be separate or even a non-ISA and an independent/taxed investement if I had the Vanguard as the ISA and Fundsmith separate (as I had to)....:-/

[bitchstewie]

Kingdom35 said:

I see so the question here then is, I want to open an S&S ISA, do any other companies offer the Fundsmith Fund ie do Vanguard, Cavendish etc and if they did, could I pick say the Vanguard Lifestrategy then add on Fundsmith in addition to this fund? Or would it be deemed 2 ISA's as it has to be separate or even a non-ISA and an independent/taxed investement if I had the Vanguard as the ISA and Fundsmith separate (as I had to)....:-/

I'm about to do the same albeit different funds.

So process is open the ISA for 2016/17 tax year through Cavendish (for example).

You can put in any mix of funds you like up to the £20k.

Cavendish will charge 0.25% on the portfolio for a platform/management fee.

Each fund will charge its own OCF/TER.

In April when it's the 2017/18 tax year you can keep using Cavendish or you can go open another ISA somewhere else but you can only put money into one of them during the 2017/18 tax year.

Think of the ISA as the shopping bag and it doesn't matter which funds you fill the bag with up to the ISA limit and each year the shopping bag can be from any supermarket but you can only put new money for that year in that years bag.

[xeny]

Hang on, this is the 17/18 tax year. After April it's the 18/19 tax year.,

also note for Kingdom35 you can only contribute to one S&S ISA in a year.

[bitchstewie]

xeny said:

Hang on, this is the 17/18 tax year. After April it's the 18/19 tax year.

st Rest still stands though I think

[Kingdom35]

bhstewie said:

I'm about to do the same albeit different funds.

So process is open the ISA for 2016/17 tax year through Cavendish (for example).

You can put in any mix of funds you like up to the £20k.

Cavendish will charge 0.25% on the portfolio for a platform/management fee.

Each fund will charge its own OCF/TER.

In April when it's the 2017/18 tax year you can keep using Cavendish or you can go open another ISA somewhere else but you can only put money into one of them during the 2017/18 tax year.

Think of the ISA as the shopping bag and it doesn't matter which funds you fill the bag with up to the ISA limit and each year the shopping bag can be from any supermarket but you can only put new money for that year in that years bag.

I see ok so ive got a lump sum of £2000, I could open the Fundsmith Fund before April, then pile in a few monthly contributions there. Then come April I can go and get a Managed Vanguard LifeStrategy Managed Fund and pile some in there and the monthly? I see M&S (Fundsmith) Shopping bag before April, Tesco (Vanguard) Shopping Bag thereafter?

[xeny]

Any particular reason not to pick a broker that offers both?

It's possible to run 2 ISAs, but gets annoying if you want to change asset allocation, and inevitably at some point you'd wish you could contribute fresh funds to both in the same year.

[bitchstewie]

Kingdom35 said:

I see ok so ive got a lump sum of £2000, I could open the Fundsmith Fund before April, then pile in a few monthly contributions there. Then come April I can go and get a Managed Vanguard LifeStrategy Managed Fund and pile some in there and the monthly? I see M&S (Fundsmith) Shopping bag before April, Tesco (Vanguard) Shopping Bag thereafter?

I think you're confusing the fund with the platform.

• Fundsmith is a fund.
• LifeStrategy is a fund.
• Cavendish is a broker/platform provider.

You can buy Fundsmith and LifeStrategy directly or through a platform provider.

If you buy directly you can only buy Fundsmith or Vanguard because you've gone direct and they only sell their own funds.

If you go with Cavendish (there are loads, that's my example) you can buy whatever funds you like subject to the ISA limits.

What you can't do is contribute to multiple ISA's in the same tax year.

So you could do exactly what you said, or you could open an ISA with someone like Cavendish and add £1000 of Fundsmith, £1000 or LifeStrategy, and if you want to add monthly next month or tomorrow or whenever you can do so in whatever order/ratio/mix you want (subject to the £20k/tax year limit).

Edited by bhstewie on Tuesday 30th January 11:15