ISA fees

Apr 21, 2006 7 Replies

Bitstring , from the wonderful person fj said

There are none that have zero % annual fees for looking after your investment, as far as I know. There are some which have no ­ditionalfees over and above what the underlying Unit trusts or Investment Trusts are charging (which is already non-zero).

Since there is very little extra work to do (tax reclamation on dividends having bit the dust) I don't see any reason to pay an =extraannual fee for investing via an ISA wrapper, and most places agree with me.

The underlying fee covers all the investment 'looking after', in terms of where to put the money. This ranges from ~0.5% for simply tracking an index up to several% for aggressive ITs which have performance linked management fees (i.e. is they beat the index, their cut goes up).

And you're wrong, you don't get what you pays for anymore. You get =at best= what you pays for. Most places these days you have to kick and scream to do even half that well (he says, sitting here waiting for an 'overnight delivery' shipment via AMTRAK [Telford] which should have been here yesterday).

Some ISA's have a zero percent rate on initial purchase while others can attract fees up to 2.5%.



Also some have a zero percent fees for looking after your ISA and others can have an annul fee's.



Now the question is do thoase products that have fees get better performance trhan the so called 'free' products?



You get what you pay for so in my mind if something has nil charges for looking after your investment then it is probably not being looked after properly!



Any comments?



cheers



fj


It's worth ensuring that the company you're ordering from isn't going to use Amtrak to "deliver" your goods before you order. Royal Mail is another one, especially if it's important that the goods are delivered to your address, and not left outside your house, or with a neighbour you've never spoken to etc.

Thanks to everyone who answered - any comments on using Fidelity for managing ISAs?

fj

Bitstring , from the wonderful person fj said

Their admin is OK, their online dealing etc. works, however I got a better kickback using hargreaves lansdown (who offer at least as many fund options).

"There are none that have zero % annual fees for looking after your investment, as far as I know. There are some which have no ­ditional fees over and above what the underlying Unit trusts or Investment Trusts are charging (which is already non-zero)."

I know at least one - the Personal Assets zero charge ISA (name may have changed - but it is the ISA wrapper run by/for Personal Assets Investment Trust).

Thom

"There are none that have zero % annual fees for looking after your investment, as far as I know. There are some which have no ­ditional fees over and above what the underlying Unit trusts or Investment Trusts are charging (which is already non-zero)."

I know at least one - the Personal Assets zero charge ISA (name may have changed - but it is the ISA wrapper run by/for Personal Assets Investment Trust).

Thom

No idea why that appeared twice ... I missed the "There are some which have no ­ditional= fees over and above what the underlying Unit trusts or Investment Trusts are charging (which is already non-zero)." first time round, but in the Personal Assets scheme non-ISA holders are effectively being subsidized in terms of charges by other classes of investor (assuming ISAs cost more to administer - which they probably do).

Thom

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