Low cost S&S ISA Platform needed.

[anonymous-user]

I have not used my ISA allowance this year so looking to invest £20k before April and then another £20k after.

This will be my first stsocks and shares ISA.

I’m 55 and want to leave this to grow over the next 5-10 years so wondered if anyone had good suggestions for a low cost platform that had access to some decent investment funds.

Probably looking at some global funds but happy to listen to suggestions before I start my online research.

Thanks
Gary

[Mr Pointy]

Do you want to manage the stock/fund selection yourself? Do you think you can beat the fund managers with your selection? Few manage it (although neither do many fund managers). There's a sticky you might want to read if you don't want to control the funds in detail.

Hargreaves Lansdown have a good website & platform with charges around 0.45% plus the fund charges. Fundsmith have their fans. Vanguard are cheap for passive tracking (Lifestrategy, but maybe not in an ISA direct).

There's a lot of good advice on this forum but it takes a bit of work to absorb.

Edited by Mr Pointy on Thursday 7th February 11:54

[Stu-nph26]

I use Fidelity and invest in a Vanguard Lifestyle 80 fund, seems relatively cheap in terms of costs but I'm far from an expert

[Mr Pointy]

Stu-nph26 said:

I use Fidelity and invest in a Vanguard Lifestyle 80 fund, seems relatively cheap in terms of costs but I'm far from an expert

Why don't you go to Vanguard direct? The overall charges might be lower.

[anonymous-user]

garyhun said:

This will be my first stocks and shares ISA.

I’m 55 and want to leave this to grow over the next 5-10 years

I take it you've already maxed out all possible pension......???

[Tresco]

I opened ours with iweb online, part of Halifax.

They were the cheapest a couple of years ago but I don't know if that still applies.

[anonymous-user]

rockin said:

garyhun said:

This will be my first stocks and shares ISA.

I’m 55 and want to leave this to grow over the next 5-10 years

I take it you've already maxed out all possible pension......???

Yes. I’ve retired for the foreseeable future so only a limited amount I could put into my pensions anyway. I won’t be drawing down for some time yet so the pensions can continue to grow.

So this is in addition to the pensions.

[anonymous-user]

Mr Pointy said:

Do you want to manage the stock/fund selection yourself? Do you think you can beat the fund managers with your selection? Few manage it (although neither do many fund managers). There's a sticky you might want to read if you don't want to control the funds in detail.

Hargreaves Lansdown have a good website & platform with charges around 0.45% plus the fund charges. Fundsmith have their fans. Vanguard are cheap for passive tracking (Lifestrategy, but maybe not in an ISA direct).

There's a lot of good advice on this forum but it takes a bit of work to absorb.

Edited by Mr Pointy on Thursday 7th February 11:54

Thanks! Something like Vanguard lifestrategy is exactly what I’m looking for as I certainly won’t want to pick stocks/funds myself.

Edit: The target retirement funds look interesting also. Thanks again, I'll do some reading now!

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 7th February 13:23

[Stu-nph26]

Mr Pointy said:

Why don't you go to Vanguard direct? The overall charges might be lower.

It wasn't an option when I set it up and I've never looked at changing to be fair, is it cheaper?

[Testaburger]

Stu-nph26 said:

It wasn't an option when I set it up and I've never looked at changing to be fair, is it cheaper?

You can invest with Vanguard directly now.

Their platform charge is 0.15%, so VLS funds are 0.37% in total.

[emicen]

If you are putting in £40k off the bat, HL’s 0.45% platform fee would be £180 a year.

Interactive Investor is £22.50 a quarter and that goes in to trading credits to help pay the purchase fees, so on £40k your annual platform fee would be £90.

[Mr Pointy]

garyhun said:

Thanks! Something like Vanguard lifestrategy is exactly what I’m looking for as I certainly won’t want to pick stocks/funds myself.

Edit: The target retirement funds look interesting also. Thanks again, I'll do some reading now!

I was maybe too subtle but read this thread, especially the two long posts by JulianPH on the (current) last page. There's useful information there.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[anonymous-user]

Mr Pointy said:

I was maybe too subtle but read this thread, especially the two long posts by JulianPH on the (current) last page. There's useful information there.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks. I've read quite a few of JulianPH's posts and they are all very insightful. Not seen this one before so will add it to my memory bank!

[bitchstewie]

My suggestion would be to pay as much attention to how you will invest as what you will invest in.

Investing monthly or daily or once a quarter or year can make a massive difference to your costs and trading fees.

Whether you invest in Open Ended Funds (LifeStrategy is an example) or ETFs or Investment Trusts can also impact fees.

[Testaburger]

bhstewie said:

My suggestion would be to pay as much attention to how you will invest as what you will invest in.

Investing monthly or daily or once a quarter or year can make a massive difference to your costs and trading fees.

Whether you invest in Open Ended Funds (LifeStrategy is an example) or ETFs or Investment Trusts can also impact fees.

Certainly true on some platforms that charge you per transaction, but of course not all do. Vanguard and Fundsmith (directly) for example.

I currently buy into the two above for about 60% of my savings, and then via interactive brokers (HK) I put about 20% into Scottish Mortgage IT and 20% ‘fun’ investments that I trade. Of those, the US-asset trades are negligible in price ($1 or 0.005%, whichever is higher), but as you say, bhstewie, the U.K. assets are £6 commission and 0.5% stamp duty. Multiples of that £6, compounded, can add up over time.

For me, that means I generally muck around with US stocks, and once that pot has grown a bit, I’ll throw it into SMT or Fundsmith.

Interactive Brokers charges commission as described, with a minimum of US$10pcm.

[bitchstewie]

Testaburger said:

Certainly true on some platforms that charge you per transaction, but of course not all do. Vanguard and Fundsmith (directly) for example.

I currently buy into the two above for about 60% of my savings, and then via interactive brokers (HK) I put about 20% into Scottish Mortgage IT and 20% ‘fun’ investments that I trade. Of those, the US-asset trades are negligible in price ($1 or 0.005%, whichever is higher), but as you say, bhstewie, the U.K. assets are £6 commission and 0.5% stamp duty. Multiples of that £6, compounded, can add up over time.

For me, that means I generally muck around with US stocks, and once that pot has grown a bit, I’ll throw it into SMT or Fundsmith.

Interactive Brokers charges commission as described, with a minimum of US$10pcm.

It's certainly something to check. As you say Vanguard and Fundsmith as examples won't charge you if you go to them directly, but then if you do you only have their products and personally I'd sooner have access to a wider range for what is a reasonably small fee.

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/
https://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/

Are good starting points on fees.

You'll see it can be difference between paying a tenner a year (for example) or hundreds every year. Fees are odd

[Testaburger]

bhstewie said:

It's certainly something to check. As you say Vanguard and Fundsmith as examples won't charge you if you go to them directly, but then if you do you only have their products and personally I'd sooner have access to a wider range for what is a reasonably small fee.

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/
https://monevator.com/compare-the-brokers/

Are good starting points on fees.

You'll see it can be difference between paying a tenner a year (for example) or hundreds every year. Fees are odd

Yep - I didn’t really need to counter your point(!) - when considering long term investments, the commission/cost schedule can make huge material impacts when you come to retire, which is (I think) you were trying to say...

I think it was JulianPH a few months ago who spelled out his calculations of investing at low cost VS a few basis points higher over a working lifetime; and his example showed 6-figures difference in pot-value at the end.

Man maths translates that into a free Lamborghini. Win/win.

Edited by Testaburger on Thursday 7th February 18:04

[bitchstewie]

Testaburger said:

Yep - I didn’t really need to counter your point(!) - when considering long term investments, the commission/cost schedule can make huge material impacts when you come to retire, which is (I think) you were trying to say...

It was more, and this is just my opinion, I'd be hesitant at limiting my options to only Vanguard, or whoever, for the sake of a few quid a year for a platform where you can hold pretty much anything.

Of course, that brings its own set of challenges and I totally get that too much choice isn't always a good thing

[Testaburger]

bhstewie said:

It was more, and this is just my opinion, I'd be hesitant at limiting my options to only Vanguard, or whoever, for the sake of a few quid a year for a platform where you can hold pretty much anything.

Of course, that brings its own set of challenges and I totally get that too much choice isn't always a good thing

Indeed! It’s almost as if the financial incentive is to limit yourself when you have high six-figures at play.

Ho-hum! We’re all after the same thing, after all!

[PF62]

Also worth considering is Halifax Self-Select Stocks & Shares ISA, where you can buy Vanguard funds.

They don't charge a percentage for the platform fee, but a straight £12.50 a year plus fees to trade. Those are £12.50 each, but only £2.00 each for regular scheduled investments.

Seems an awful lot less than some of the others.

https://www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing/our-account...