Whats your views on this portfolio...

[Phucker]

I hold my hands up. I get a bit confused and baffled when it comes to investing

I currently have money in this portfolio below. I hold it as an ISA within a Standard Life Wrap. I haven't yet used this years ISA allowance, and can't decide whether to put another £10400 into it before April.

Can someone please give me an opinion on this portfolio. Or even better, put my mind at rest, it's good/ok?



Fund name-

Artemis - Strategic Assets
AXA - Framlington Managed Balanced
HSBC - FTSE 100 Index
JPM - Global Consumer Trends
Jupiter - Merlin Income Portfolio
M&G - Strategic Corporate Bond
Neptune - US Opportunities
Premier - Global Alpha Growth
Stan Life Inv - Global Absolute Return Strategies
SWIP - Property

http://www.sterlingfs.co.uk/popular_portfolios/bal...


Thank you

[XJSJohn]

i have had cash with Artemis for a while now, been giving good consistent returns at above inflation so happy with it as a long term banker for now.

[Manks]

Phucker said:

I hold my hands up. I get a bit confused and baffled when it comes to investing

I currently have money in this portfolio below. I hold it as an ISA within a Standard Life Wrap. I haven't yet used this years ISA allowance, and can't decide whether to put another £10400 into it before April.

Can someone please give me an opinion on this portfolio. Or even better, put my mind at rest, it's good/ok?



Fund name-

Artemis - Strategic Assets
AXA - Framlington Managed Balanced
HSBC - FTSE 100 Index
JPM - Global Consumer Trends
Jupiter - Merlin Income Portfolio
M&G - Strategic Corporate Bond
Neptune - US Opportunities
Premier - Global Alpha Growth
Stan Life Inv - Global Absolute Return Strategies
SWIP - Property

http://www.sterlingfs.co.uk/popular_portfolios/bal...


Thank you

If I were you I'd be looking more towards the 997 GTS with leatherette. Growth of about 25% pa apparently.

[DayTrader]

Phucker said:

Can someone please give me an opinion on this portfolio. Or even better, put my mind at rest, it's good/ok?

Good/OK for what?

Growth? Income? Low Risk?

There is no right and wrong

It looks like a healthy mix to me with relatively low risk, some opportunity for growth and low income.

[Phucker]

DayTrader said:

Good/OK for what?

Growth. ie i want my money to earn more than being in a high-interest bank/cash account. Happy to take a moderate risk. Don't plan on dipping into for at least 5 years. Currently not contributing towards pension - i do have one - it is held within the same portfolio as a separate investment (pension as opposed to ISA) but prefer to put the money towards ISA atm.

My other option is split the £10400 allowance and put the max amount into my HSBC cash ISA (£5200) and the max amount into the above portfolio (£5200).

Thanks for the reply

[cailean]

As said it looks low risk, low growth. When you see names like Assets, Balanced, Index, Portfolio etc they are normally very wide spread funds and not focused in special higher growth areas. First State has a good range of funds such as Asia, China, Agri, Infrastructure, Natural Resources etc. To me those are more interesting and over the longer term should outperform yours.

[Cheib]

cailean said:

As said it looks low risk, low growth. When you see names like Assets, Balanced, Index, Portfolio etc they are normally very wide spread funds and not focused in special higher growth areas. First State has a good range of funds such as Asia, China, Agri, Infrastructure, Natural Resources etc. To me those are more interesting and over the longer term should outperform yours.

The portfolio does look very light on Emerging Markets, Commodities etc

[jeff m2]

The Jupiter is a fund of funds, so two layers of charges plus Sterlings. That's fine on the up, but if things slow down your charges may eat into your gain (but not theirs)
M & G Corp Bond- it has Gilts and Treasuries?
It has lots of triple Bs, I would have expected better income. Nothing wrong with BBBs BTW. The wise money says the Corp "we can't pay" rate is 2% and already priced in.
Also US Treasuries had a great 2011, I doubt they'll do much this year.

It's a very safe collection of quite similar stuff probably put together by someone who doesn't want to be sued.

You'll be fine.

One point though, you are spread between many companies, should you decide to change anything I think you will get the old upfront 5% each time.
Whereas if you were within an umbrella you could switch bid to bid.
I only scan read it, so I could be wrong (usually am)

[Phucker]

Thanks for the replies so far


Has HSBC got any products worth having? I got me a meeting with the Premier relationship manager next week. No doubt he'll have me signing something. Again

[Manks]

Phucker said:

Has HSBC got any products worth having? I got me a meeting with the Premier relationship manager next week. No doubt he'll have me signing something. Again

Do you see much benefit from Premier? I've had it pitched to me a few times by different banks and it appeared to me that I would be paying for a raft of services that I neither wanted nor needed (access to lounges at airports etc etc).

[Phucker]

Manks said:

Do you see much benefit from Premier? I've had it pitched to me a few times by different banks and it appeared to me that I would be paying for a raft of services that I neither wanted nor needed (access to lounges at airports etc etc).

I don't think you pay for it? I don't anyhow

Not really used any of the benefits in the last 3-4 years. It's just nice to have a dedicated relationship manager who you can contact via mobile etc. Service is definitely a tad better - in store and on the phone. To be fair though, i've always been happy enough with HSBC - business and personal.

I don't think i'd miss it either though

[Manks]

Phucker said:

I don't think you pay for it? I don't anyhow

Not really used any of the benefits in the last 3-4 years. It's just nice to have a dedicated relationship manager who you can contact via mobile etc. Service is definitely a tad better - in store and on the phone. To be fair though, i've always been happy enough with HSBC - business and personal.

I don't think i'd miss it either though

I think it was Barclays and Yorkshire Banks who pitched Premier to me, but I have a relationship manager with the latter anyway and also with HSBC who handle the business banking.

[TFP]

jeff m2 said:

The Jupiter is a fund of funds, so two layers of charges plus Sterlings. That's fine on the up, but if things slow down your charges may eat into your gain (but not theirs)
M & G Corp Bond- it has Gilts and Treasuries?
It has lots of triple Bs, I would have expected better income. Nothing wrong with BBBs BTW. The wise money says the Corp "we can't pay" rate is 2% and already priced in.
Also US Treasuries had a great 2011, I doubt they'll do much this year.

It's a very safe collection of quite similar stuff probably put together by someone who doesn't want to be sued.

You'll be fine.

One point though, you are spread between many companies, should you decide to change anything I think you will get the old upfront 5% each time.
Whereas if you were within an umbrella you could switch bid to bid.
I only scan read it, so I could be wrong (usually am)

Yep, a teensy bit wrong on the charges perhaps. There are no switching charges on the Standard Life Wrap.

Its certainly not the most imaginative of portfolios. Absolutely nothing wrong with Jupiter Merlin Income though, even with the slightly more onerous charging structure it's one of the most consistent funds of its type, so be aware of the charges, but don't get hung up on them. Why would a fall in value not affect their charges ? Its a percentage of funds under management not a fixed cash amount, so why would they be happy about a fall in value - your perspective exists for 99.9% of funds and isn't unique to multi-manager.

It is M&G Strat Bond as opposed to M&G Corp Bond, so a slightly more flexible mandate and if you look at the calls Richard Woolnough made last year he was pretty much right all the way through. I would prefer a pure high yield fund though.

Are you quote sure you want Premier?? Yes its got a high North American weighting but theres not a lot in the track record to excite.

I'm not sure about SWIP either. Poor last year - suffered due to huge inflows and the resulting cash drag. I would look elsewhere. GARS is a worry too. A lot of money has gone in there. They are subject to an FSA focussed review at the moment (the sector as a whole is, but GARS is definitely the one they are interested in).

Its a pretty vanilla portfolio. There is a lot I would do different, but, who is to say what you've got won't perform better....

Good luck!

[cailean]

Phucker said:

Has HSBC got any products worth having? I got me a meeting with the Premier relationship manager next week. No doubt he'll have me signing something. Again

I would stay away from Bank's own funds, they are not expertly managed and have higher charges. Stick with specialist fund managers such as Artemis, First State, JPM etc.

The link below gives the main fund managers.
http://www.selftrade.co.uk/market-data/funds.php

[Phucker]

Thanks again for the replies. TFP, cheers for the informative post - just wish i knew what i was doing with regards to these 'funds'