Currently looking at restructuring my investments held with numerous financial institutions and investment platforms.
Are there any that anyone can recommend from experience?
I’ve been with AJ Bell for over 20 years. I have looked around over that time but, for me, they’ve always worked out to be the best.
3 Likes
It really depends a lot on what you’re looking for.
I’ve used:
- Lloyds/iWeb which are really the same platform but with different colourschemes and fee structures. Both are fixed fee (£40/yr+£10/trade for lloyds, £100 opening+£5/trade iweb) and work out very cheap for any reasonably sized portfolio. Have the advantage that they’re operated by a major bank. They’ll happily use investments held in the platforms to qualify for the Lloyds private tiers. Only drawback I’ve found is that they’re occasionally missing more obscure funds - sometimes they’ll add them and sometimes they won’t. I’d probably pick somewhere else for international assets. This is my main platform.
- Interactive Brokers - offer basically any asset you could imagine, including derivatives, any international stuff your heart could desire. Dirt cheap foreign exchange. Interface is horribly complicated, and they have a tendency to go overboard on questionnaires before you unlock certain asset classes. Tax docs aren’t great either. They offer margin loans, and various other complex stuff. Useful to have for complex/international stuff.
- Barclays Smart Investor - % fee, so it’s a bit expensive. Not much experience with it, but it seems okay.
- HSBC Invest Direct - cheap, major bank, probably counts towards their higher tiers. But the interface is horrifically outdated (looks like it hasn’t changed in 25 years) and the whole thing is painful to use.
- HL: expensive % fee, though the cap means it doesn’t work out too badly for SIPPs if you aren’t buying funds.
- Vanguard - rudimentary and you’re limited to vanguard funds. Vanguard UK’s offering is really a whitelabel product rather than operated directly by Vanguard - I’m not sure what the implications are in the event of platform failure.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestions.
Lloyds would be my preferred choice of the suggestions you’ve provided
I could not agree more with your point regarding HSBC, the interface needs to move with the times.
I’ve also been engaged with a few calls to Charles Stanley & Columbia Threadneedle, both of whom seem reasonable.
I have contacted St James Place but decided against utilising their services, as they’ve had some bad publicity as of late.
I’m currently with Fidelity for my SIPP/Pension and S&S ISA. They have been decent enough, and have a good selection of funds.
My investment needs are pretty simple though. I just throw everything in a Global All Cap tracker. I’m not interested in mixed-assets or bonds at this stage in life.
I’m still just about young enough to recover if the markets do collapse (mid 30s… 37 is still classed as mid 30s, right?).
I’m considering a switch to Vanguard - I’ve heard good things about them. The global fund I invest in, is a Vanguard fund anyway, so it would be a simple transfer of holdings, without needing to sell.
The main downside, of course, is that they only offer their own funds.
2 Likes
I wasn’t aware of that. Who operates the UK offering, do you know?
Previously used Vanguard for everything (S&S ISA, junior ISA and SIPP) but moved my S&S ISA to InvestEngine in April for a bonus and also because it offered the same Vanguard funds with no platform fees so works out cheaper than holding the same funds with Vanguard.
Vanguard website/app are pretty basic but does everything I need.
InvestEngine has a nicer website/app and support have been very quick the few times I’ve contacted them.
2 Likes
FNZ, I believe.
Do you choose your own funds or self manage?
I personally prefer the simplicity of a single fund. In my case, I only invest in VAFTGAG which tracks the FTSE Global All Cap Index.
As I said, my needs are rather simple. I only invest in the above passive tracker fund, so the choice of platform doesn’t matter as much.
I suspect your needs might be a little more complex than mine. I’m assuming you have an IFA? I think you’ve mentioned previously that you are HNW? (Sadly, I’m not 
).
Fascinating thread and thank you for starting it.
Though I must say I’m a little surprised, would you be better off with an IFA rather than robo investing or similar?
2 Likes
I do have an IFA already.
However, I am keen to do a few investments myself just to see how it goes.
Lloyds is a contender for me at the moment, along with another provider.
As of late? St James Place problems have been going on for over 10 years, unsuitable products, high commissions and pressure sales tactics. Recently I came across an SJP video on youtube where a used car salesman was explaining how he retrained as an SJP advisor according to him the skill set was pretty close…
Recently I moved my SIPP to Interactive Investor and my ISA to AJ Bell Dodl (Dodl is £1/m but has a limited set of funds)
I just use Trading212 and Hargreaves
Have a look at Prosper, I think you’ll hear more and more about these guys. The product roadmap is very interesting but their big USP for the moment is very very low fees
I started an ISA transfer to Prosper a couple of months ago but they didn’t appear to have a clue what they were doing, so I cancelled it after a week. They kept wanting me to do the communication between them and my ISA provider.
I use Vanguard for SIPP and Trading 212 for S&S ISA and cash ISA.
If they finally release a SIPP I’ll move my Vanguard one to them.
1 Like
I have my SIPP with AJ Bell and a S&S ISA with Trading 212.
Both do the job and most importantly have very competitive fees.
Each to their own, but when it comes to my investments I value value(!) over a nice app or bells and whistles.
1 Like
Vanguard SIPP (VAFTGAG)
Lloyds ISA (HSBC FTSE All world Acc.)
Lloyds GIA (inc. version of above HSBC fund)
T212 GIA (individual stocks / play money / dividend payers)
Investengine (various ETFs)
CMC Invest (individual stocks, will probably merge into T212 at some point to simplify)
Freetrade - don’t like the platform so sold up my CTY and have ~7p knocking around
HL - £1 just to be able to access various custom portfolio watchlists with live updates
3 Likes