After a few months of having Investment Trust rather than Funds, I can clearly see the effect on charges with Hargreaves Lansdown. I’m now paying £3.75×12 = £45 per year for my ISA and £16.66×12 = £199.92 per year for my SIPP/Drawdown, plus any dealing charges which are usually somewhere around £10 each time. Those annual charges are capped at those levels. That makes me very happy. (And it means that for someone holding over £10,000 in an ISA there are lower charges to hold 100% ITs than to hold 100% Funds.)
Previously I’d planned to shift to Interactive Investor, mainly to reduce charges. But with the charges above I can get low charges from HL. I far prefer using HL’s customer service versus ii’s, plus HL have been error free with me (unlike ii). I find the HL interface easier, and perhaps because of that my overall investment return has been a few percentage points higher on both my HL ISA and my HL SIPP. I’ll also have my “pots” of SIPP crystallisations in one place so it will be easier to keep them roughly in proportion in advance of BCE5A at age 75. So I’m in the process of consolidating with HL. The ISA consolidation was quick. The SIPP consolidation is taking weeks, with multiple forms to fill – I think driven by ii protecting themselves from transfers out to bad pension schemes – and the effect is that my impression of ii deteriorates by the week. Ah well, not long now.
