Safest UK finance houses? (Beaufort Securities)

[ATV]

Would the kind members of Pistonheads be willing to assist me in making a list of the best/safest UK finance houses so that I can avoid a Beaufort Securities type scandal?

My aim to to buy Vanguard Life Strategy products each year to maximise my ISA and I also want to start a SIPP

However the disgusting treatment of the investors in Beaufort Securities has made me a bit wary. Basically "ring-fencing" clients money is a load of cobblers of the administrators have extra costs. The maximum protection n is £50,000. Above that, some investors could lose 40% of their hard-earned. And not all the investors chose to be with Beaufort, they ended up with them because their original firm got taken over. Here's a link if you want to read about the whole debacle. https://www.ft.com/content/3641a4e4-5466-11e8-b3ee...

Here's a possible start of a list whereby you have £500,000 over your lifetime and want to split it between 10 companies to gain maximum protection.

1. HSBC (too big to fail?)
2. Hargreaves Lansdown (they seem very reputable)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

[xeny]

I'd observe that Beaufort Securities was atypical of the wider industry. There's a thread discussing it here;https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=&t=1748572

However, if you're after robust, it's probably also worth including Vanguard themselves on that list.

[DonkeyApple]

Anyone who had access to Google would have known Beaufort was a turd. But they sold dreams to lazy people who wanted to live on yachts and be looked up to by people they felt were inferior to them.

Just use common sense. If they are flogging penny shares, AIM crap, mystical low risk/high return SIPP products or any of the usual tripe that draws in greedy and stupid people then you know it’s not for you if you’re looking for a credible home for your money.

Beyond that you spread your money around different licenses to retain your FSCS cover and blend your investments over a suitable range of assets.

[NickCQ]

I think you can go direct to Vanguard for S&S ISAs these days, which takes out one layer of fees if you know that you only want to buy their products,

[trowelhead]

Does anyone know if barclays (bank) and barclays (stockbrokers) have seperate licences, so would be covered separately 50k each?

[DonkeyApple]

trowelhead said:

Does anyone know if barclays (bank) and barclays (stockbrokers) have seperate licences, so would be covered separately 50k each?

The bottom of each website that you contract with must display their FCA number. I imagine they are different for both the banking and broking arms.

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/deposit-savings-p...

Although the Register listing for the bank shows the stockbroker as a trading name so you’d probably need to ask Barclays for clarity.

https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?i...

[trowelhead]

DonkeyApple said:

trowelhead said:

Does anyone know if barclays (bank) and barclays (stockbrokers) have seperate licences, so would be covered separately 50k each?

The bottom of each website that you contract with must display their FCA number. I imagine they are different for both the banking and broking arms.

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/deposit-savings-p...

Although the Register listing for the bank shows the stockbroker as a trading name so you’d probably need to ask Barclays for clarity.

https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?i...

Ah many thanks, they recently combined the logins into one place so it's not clear if this is part of the same bank or not. Seems seperate:

Barclays Smart Investor is a trading name of Barclays Investment Solutions Limited. Barclays Investment Solutions Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. (Financial Services Register number: 155595). Barclays Investment Solutions Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange & NEX.

Barclays Bank PLC. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 122702).

[xeny]

NickCQ said:

I think you can go direct to Vanguard for S&S ISAs these days, which takes out one layer of fees if you know that you only want to buy their products,

While Vanguard's ISA fees are pretty reasonable, they still charge a .15% fee for an account, as well as fund charges:

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-expla...

[DonkeyApple]

trowelhead said:

Ah many thanks, they recently combined the logins into one place so it's not clear if this is part of the same bank or not. Seems seperate:

Barclays Smart Investor is a trading name of Barclays Investment Solutions Limited. Barclays Investment Solutions Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. (Financial Services Register number: 155595). Barclays Investment Solutions Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange & NEX.

Barclays Bank PLC. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 122702).

That suggests that the broking side is separate and under the £50k protection and the bank under the usual £85k. But there is no harm in pinging them an email and asking them to clarify in writing what your rights are under each account you hold in respect to the FSCS.

Sometimes the water is muddied by how they hold the client cash on the broking side, whether that is under the broking remit or the banking but I think this was clarified a while back but not sure.

[JulianPH]

Beaufort was running an illegal pump and dump operation through its discretionary stockbroking arm. You would not get this at any large fund managers or platforms (which it what you appear to be referring to).

If you only want to invest in Vanguard funds then (as has been said) go directly to Vanguard. This is the most cost effective route.

If you want the ability to invest in other funds or stocks then:

1. Fidelity Fundsnetwork (funds only)

2. Hargreaves Lansdown

3. AJ Bell You Invest