SIPP Pension Initial Costs - IFA

[vwdan]

Just to chuck in my own experience:
- set things up with Hargreaves Lansdown, they made things very easy.
- switched to Interactive Investor about a year ago (based largely on recommendations on here re price)...this was painful!
We got there in the end, but HL is a much more slick offering. II needed more prodding, and were slow to do things/answer queries.

I don't necessarily regret the decision, and now it's set up with automated transfers in/investments the website being a bit poor doesn't really matter. However, I wouldn't think someone was daft for sticking with HL despite higher charges for the better website/customer service.

Can't remember any names, but when I started up my SIPP I went through a couple of cheap providers and just didn't seem to have much luck. One of them sent me somebody elses application form by mistake....

[Lance]

Just to chuck in my own experience:
- set things up with Hargreaves Lansdown, they made things very easy.
- switched to Interactive Investor about a year ago (based largely on recommendations on here re price)...this was painful!
We got there in the end, but HL is a much more slick offering. II needed more prodding, and were slow to do things/answer queries.

I don't necessarily regret the decision, and now it's set up with automated transfers in/investments the website being a bit poor doesn't really matter. However, I wouldn't think someone was daft for sticking with HL despite higher charges for the better website/customer service.

I am just over the threshold where II becomes lower cost that HL. The process is so painful I've given up.


EDIT: I thought I was at the threshold but just checking and I pay HL about £12.20 a month fees. And II charge £19.99 a month (have they changed their fees now?) So I'll leave to for a while longer......

[Spoiler]

EDIT: I thought I was at the threshold but just checking and I pay HL about £12.20 a month fees. And II charge £19.99 a month (have they changed their fees now?) So I'll leave to for a while longer......

One other thing to consider is trading costs.
II give you a free trade per month included with the £19.99 SIPP (additional trades are £7.50 i believe). This works for me as I make a monthly contribution from my Ltd.
Others, such as YouInvest have a regular investment charge of £1.50 for common funds.
No idea what the HL fee is.

[Lance]

One other thing to consider is trading costs.
II give you a free trade per month included with the £19.99 SIPP (additional trades are £7.50 i believe). This works for me as I make a monthly contribution from my Ltd.
Others, such as YouInvest have a regular investment charge of £1.50 for common funds.
No idea what the HL fee is.

no trading fee for HL. I guess it's hidden in the fund management fee.

[Manic]

Fidelity 0% and cheaper than HL ongoing.

[sludgesurfer]

There are no dealing fees for funds with HL (because they tear your eyes out with their 0.45% platform fee on funds)
For monthly direct debit purchases they charge £1.50 per trade for shares, ITs and ETFs.
For regular trades they charge between £5.95 and £11.95 per trade depending on the trades the previous month:

If you buy or sell a share online you will be subject to our online share dealing tariff. This ranges from £11.95 to £5.95 per deal and is based on the number of share deals you placed in your HL Account in the previous month.

The platform fee to hold ETF's, shares or investment trusts is capped at £200. Whilst not the cheapest, if like me you hold some cheap tracker ETFs plus some ITs in a ultimately fruitless attempt to chase alpha, for a larger pot its not a bad offering.

The annual charge to hold investment trusts in the HL SIPP is 0.45% capped at £200 per annum. This cap is applied across all equity holdings (shares, bonds, investment trusts & ETFs) within the SIPP.

[sludgesurfer]

Hi Guys,

I have spoken to 2 IFA's as I need to set up a pension, i have decided to go for a SIPP Pension.

The first IFA wanted £3k to set up the second IFA a more reasonable £750, it still seems a little steep.

The service has been quoted is to set up a SIPP only not being managed etc as this would be pointless in the first couple of years until the balance grew.

Wondering how much fellow contractors paid when setting up their SIPP or did they do it on their own?

Cheers

Can you clarify? Did these costs include advice on the initial purchase of holdings? If it's literally the administrative costs for setting up the SIPP with literally no risk to the IFA then these costs are extremely high.

[rootsnall]

Can you clarify? Did these costs include advice on the initial purchase of holdings? If it's literally the administrative costs for setting up the SIPP with literally no risk to the IFA then these costs are extremely high.

I'm not one for defending IFAs but I think they have to pay very large insurance premiums due to the governments habit of bailing out people who've thrown their money away. I suspect SIPP advice will be on the bail out list at some stage.

[sludgesurfer]

I'm not one for defending IFAs but I think they have to pay very large insurance premiums due to the governments habit of bailing out people who've thrown their money away. I suspect SIPP advice will be on the bail out list at some stage.

Totally agree with you in circumstances where they actually assume a level of risk. If we're solely talking about the set up cost of a SIPP excluding advice regarding the purchase of any holdings then they are assuming no risk and the bill should reflect that.

[Maslins]

Totally agree with you in circumstances where they actually assume a level of risk. If we're solely talking about the set up cost of a SIPP excluding advice regarding the purchase of any holdings then they are assuming no risk and the bill should reflect that.

Yes but as with anything a bit like this, some cheeky gits will (if something goes wrong) try to make anyone in any way involved with it responsible.

It's one reason we've drifted away from doing isolated one off bits of accountancy work. The client's of the view "I've done all my VAT/PAYE, I just need you to do the accounts/CT return" or similar. We then do those accounts/CT, then it later transpires the client mucked up the VAT. We'll get an email saying "I'd expect a supposedly professional firm like yours to spot such a thing".

We therefore either want to oversee everything (charging accordingly but equally accepting responsibility accordingly) or not get involved. I imagine for IFAs it's similar.