Share portfolio management

[vixpy1]

I'm being charged .3% on my share portfolio by my brokers, it equates to almost 9% of the income i get from the portfolio.

I think this is a tad too much, considering its advisory (ie, they send me a letter every half year telling me not to change everything) and the trading charges are not exactly cheap either.. The portfolio just outperforms the market.

Am i paying too much?

Yours,

A little cheesed off of Surrey

[J_S_G]

Yes. An index tracker would (over the last 36 months) have made you more than that and cost you less - and that's not even the cleverest investment.

[vixpy1]

J_S_G said:

Yes. An index tracker would (over the last 36 months) have made you more than that and cost you less - and that's not even the cleverest investment.

Having a tracker fund that big is not viable (eggs all in one basket), plus there is little or no income from a tracker fund

I'm not that unhappy with the performance of the portfolio, saying it just outperforms the market is a little unfair on the broker, its done me very well..

just don't think i should be paying such a big proportion of my income from it on a management fee for no management unless i ask for it.

I would have thought a management fee of 0.3% would be more suited to them totally managing it

[J_S_G]

Well managed funds will charge over 1% as an annual fee for the privilege, let alone individual portfolios. If your portfolio is simply a set of managed funds that you're paying fees on twice, then I'd be more worried.

If you're comfortable with knowing roughly how you want to split your money between various high-level markets (geographical: UK/Europe/USA/Far East/India, type of asset: service companies, natural resources, etc), and are pretty much making your own call around what's best at that level . E.g. "this year I'm going to move 10% of my money from an US Bonds fund to a Japanese Equities fund". Then I'd ditch them and do it yourself through a funds supermarket like Fidelity.

Personally, I use Fidelity, picking the funds myself (with the odd outright stock purchase here & there), and am averaging approx. 25% return annually, with 1-2% fund management charge per annum. But I'll only invest in a fund that consistently beats the market it operates in - hence that 1-2% is usually to achieve an extra 10-15%.

[Jasper Gilder]

I was on advisory for a few years - Ok in a stable market but as soon as things turn down there's too many people to advise in too short a time, and the minnows get caught out.

I got out of my advisory deal and went discretionary with a broker who put a portfolio together just for me - he's really good and based in Kendal!!

If you want some details mail me off line

[johnfm]

Me and wife have been wondering how to invest some money we've put aside for the kids. How 'easy' is it to find a well managed fund that can return 20%~ish? We have about £20-£30k to play with.

[fid]

J_S_G said:

Well managed funds will charge over 1% as an annual fee for the privilege...

Is that 1% of any gains, or 1% of what you have invested?

[J_S_G]

fid said:

J_S_G said:

Well managed funds will charge over 1% as an annual fee for the privilege...

Is that 1% of any gains, or 1% of what you have invested?

1% of investment regardless. OK, so some are less... and others are more.