Bagman
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Post by Bagman on Apr 19, 2015 1:56:40 GMT
After gently stumbling over the age of 55 last week I gave Zurich Assurance a call to find out how to free up a bit of tax free cash from my non DB pension fund left over from my time as a publican for Grand Met.
They told me that they can not do that (just annuities, and I am far to young for that) , so I must transfer the pot to someone else.
The pot is just shy of 200k.
The tax free lump would go on
1. A new Ducati ( I really do need a new bike as the Kwak is 8 years old) 2. S&S ISA 3. into P2P
leaving 150k ++
HL look expensive but very helpful tilney bestinvest seem a bit dear but do offer some good tools etc Iweb or or interactive investor look like the about cheapest but you do all the work.
I would not need too much on-going hand holding but some help when first setting my investments up would be useful.
So, who have you used and in a non investment advice way , would you recommend them?
How good / easy are the online platforms ?
How good / easy are the communications ?
How good is the range od funds / investments on the site ?
A huge thank you to anyone who replies with useful answers , and thank you for your time 
Stuart
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j
Member of DD Central
Penguins are very misunderstood!
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Post by j on Apr 19, 2015 6:28:43 GMT
Nothing to do with your sipp query but wanted to advise not using II. Caused me a lot of problems when trying to close a s&s isa in the past & they still owe me some £25 they charged wrongly despite my account having been closed for a number of months. Have had a number og apologetic emails dating back over 2 years with promiseof refund...stil waiting. Hadn't bothered anymore with them as amount not worth the hassle. If they can do this with a simple small level isa, I dread to think what they'll do with a large sipp figure!
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Steerpike
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Post by Steerpike on Apr 19, 2015 9:28:08 GMT
I use HL, not the cheapest, but excellent web site, very good support, and a wide range of services.
I have been with them for 6 years and they have always been professional, helpful, and efficient.
Extensive range of funds (no dealing cost) (including very low cost trackers and Vanguard LifeStrategy) and shares (reasonable dealing cost).
Because of the level of fees, I have looked at moving away a couple of times, but have not yet been convinced that it would be advantageous.
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david42
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Post by david42 on Apr 19, 2015 10:49:12 GMT
My SIPP has been with Youinvest for ten years. They are one of the cheapest execution only providers for a stocks and shares SIPP. Like many of the platforms I have looked at, the administration charges increase once you take cash out so that the SIPP is in drawdown. Having just started moving my SIPP into drawdown I had cause to ring them up for the first time in ten years and I was pleased with their administration and advice. The range of funds includes the London listed exchange traded funds that I use. I have not used them for buying Oeics. |
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Post by geoffrey on Apr 19, 2015 11:10:26 GMT
I use the Interactive Investor S&S ISA, and have done so for the last four years. I recently opened a SIPP with them. They are a bit DIY, but the big advantage is that the ISA fee they charge (£20 per quarter) covers any ISA in the same household, and you get a trading credit of £20 for the same fee. I can use the credit either on two normal trades, or I can use it on their once-a-month £1.50 per stock purchase days. If you already have an ISA, then adding the SIPP does not incur an extra £20 per quarter fee -- the one fee covers any SIPP and ISA in the household. However, there is an additional SIPP annual administration fee of £80 + VAT.
HL seem to charge admin fees as a percentage of the amount invested. This is a big no-no for me, because although it may seem cheap at first, the idea of a SIPP is to grow the pot, and you end up paying through the nose with larger amounts if you have funds as well as S&S.
II charge 1% FX commission on overseas stock purchases and sales. HL charge 1.7%.
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SteveT
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Post by SteveT on Apr 20, 2015 7:53:38 GMT
I have both my ISA and SIPP investments with TrustNet Direct and I would certainly recommend them. You get direct access to all of TrustNet's analysis front end (linked directly to your account holdings) and their back-office transactional side is managed as a "white label" operation by Interactive Investor. I started out using Interactive Investor but they offer little or nothing in the way of front-end investment selection tools and I was fed up with manually keying my holdings into a virtual TrustNet portfolio to track them.
TrustNet Direct cap their platform charges at a flat £200 per year (across your entire holdings, whether general trading account, ISA, SIPP or Junior ISA) and charge trades at a flat £10, whatever the size. Certainly for anyone with £100k+ invested they work out as one of the cheapest. There is also a separate £80 per year admin charge for the SIPP, which again is administered as a "white label" operation by the Lifetime SIPP Company, which I think is an offshoot of HL.
Customer service is good: you can get through easily on the phone (8am - 8pm) but I use Secure Messaging for most of my correspondence and usually get a sensible reply same day.
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Bagman
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Post by Bagman on Apr 21, 2015 1:55:49 GMT
Thank you all for your input, it has given me some good leads to investigate.
Quite a bit more homework before I chose but you have all made it a bit easier for me.
To answer a PM about the bike..
Current bike is a 2007 GTR1400 Kawasaki, which I will keep for touring Europe with the breadknife, and the target Ducati is a Multistrada 1200st with the full Grantourismo options for my solo jaunts and hi jinks 
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Bagman
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Post by Bagman on Apr 25, 2015 2:38:38 GMT
Stage one is now done ...
Ducati purchased..
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