Investments

[RogerL]

After years of refusing to discuss Stocks & Shares Investments publicly, because he's not an authorised adviser, Martin Lewis has announced that his show next Tuesday 9th December 2025 will cover Stocks & Shares Investments - I think this is an excellent move as he has also said that's where is own money is held, not in the savings accounts he covers on his show! Over the longer term, 5 years or more, stock market investment always beats savings accounts but in the shorter term you may get less than you paid in.

I've used Stocks & Shares ISAs, and PEPs before them, starting with Abbey National shares when they privatised followed by a selection of Unit Trusts. It's important to state that everyone needs a "rainy day" fund held in an easy access savings account before venturing into stocks & shares. The advantage of Stocks & Shares ISAs is that they're completely exempt from capital gains tax, dividend tax and income tax - as well as inheritance tax if they're left to your spouse.

I've used Hargreaves Lansdown for my PEP/ISAs for about 30 years, at the time they were about the only retail investment platform but since then others have joined the market with varying charging structures, some lower monthly charges but adding dealing charges on, others with higher monthly charges but no dealing charge. In the case of Hargreaves Landown they also provide comprehensive information on investments leaving the customer to choose which to buy.

I presently have 4 unit trusts, in mirrored accounts for my wife and myself, which have averaged 16.64 % per year over the last 5 years, from which 0.45 % is deducted for platform charges - despite having a poor pension due to historical goverment incompetence we have some income left over each month which is used to increase our investments, along with all the dividends which are reinvested - this has resulted in a healthy investment "pot" from which we can withdraw large amounts for a car or caravan, or just helping our son and daughter-in-law.

The 4 unit trusts we have are a global income trust, a global indexed trust, a UK income trust and a UK growth trust - each chosen for their performance over 1, 3 and 5 years compared to their peers. We've also put some money into Lifetime ISAs for our son & daughter-in-law when they retire and into Junior ISAs for our grandsons when they're 18 - with their agreement I manage their investments and use the same 4 unit trusts as our own.

With a 50:50 split between global and UK, we're light on global investment according to convention but the present government wants more investment in the UK - so it's a dilemma which way to go.

I have used Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) in the past but found their recommendations poor and biased towards their own commission - just my experience, others may be better.

I'd be interested to hear if any other contributors have Stocks & Shares ISAs which they manage themselves.

 

[Jcloughie]

I am one who finds the whole world of finance and investment totally baffling. This is not helped by the language used and the expectation that others are expected to understand the ‘lingo’. Which always makes me feel that I am being scammed.

Having said that. I made a few bob on the Royal Mail sell off (but why should I). A little on a Virgin stocks and shares ISA’s. And a little on a starter company ‘Just Park’. But that never lived up to what they promised for years.

I am very lucky though in having a reasonable indexed linked pension which leaves a moderate monthly surplus.

John

 

[RogerL]

I am one who finds the whole world of finance and investment totally baffling. This is not helped by the language used and the expectation that others are expected to understand the ‘lingo’. Which always makes me feel that I am being scammed.

Having said that. I made a few bob on the Royal Mail sell off (but why should I). A little on a Virgin stocks and shares ISA’s. And a little on a starter company ‘Just Park’. But that never lived up to what they promised for years.

I am very lucky though in having a reasonable indexed linked pension which leaves a moderate monthly surplus.

John

I understand what you mean about baffling - it took me a long time to get the understanding I have now - and even that is "keep it simple" as far as possible.

 

[Beardy]

I'd be interested to hear if any other contributors have Stocks & Shares ISAs which they manage themselves.

I have a few. One I opened in 1997, stuck some money in a UK index tracking fund and haven't touched since (it was a PEP before they were all converted to ISA's). Another with a mix of managed and index tracking funds, I rarely touch that one but I did sell a couple of the under peforming funds recently and transfered the procedes to a new S&S ISA with trading 212. This is the one I use for day to day trading as it's commission free and deals in fractional shares. I've been really impressed with it so far.

 

[otherclive]

When I was “offered” compulsory retirement in 1999 part of the resettlement package was a session with financial advisors Frizzels. So on leaving I bought a number of unit trusts which just about kept up with inflation but little more. There were six in total spread across market segments both nationally and internationally.

I’d used a financial advisor in 1999 to fund a second house for my daughter and family to live in as they were continually at the whim of landlords when on shorthold tenancies and it was detrimental to their young sons education continuity. So around late 2007 contacted the financial advisor about the performance of the unit trusts. I’d been a subscriber to H&L monthly investment publication for some years so was aware of their offerings. My FA suggested I might consider an approach where everything was wrapped in to a single tax efficient package. So we agreed to transfer the unit trust investments into a Standard Life WRAP which would enable maxISA status as each year’s allowance was released. But the FA became concerned at some small US bank problems and Northern Rock and advised shielding the money in safer havens. Then after the 2008 crash the money went into Standard Life WRAP which has subsequently morphed into Aberdeen. The funds were reinvested when the market was deemed to have bottomed out.

Since then the FA appointed two companies to advise. One EV Value who carry out an annual client attitude to risk survey. The other FE Invest who look at global funds against perceived risks and model options. Inputs from these two inform the FAs advise on what funds to invest in our WRAP portfolios via Aberdeen. After that the investments are managed. virtually on a day by day basis to keep within the client risk level. Investments that are falling short will be sold, fund managers challenged and the portfolio rebalanced as required. From our perspective it’s given us funds for holidays, homes, caravans etc and grown too as well as coping with covid, Ukraine and US tariffs. I couldn’t have done it myself.

 

[RogerL]

I found that Financial Advisors (FAs) analysis of customer's attitude to risk was very superficial with no "education" for the customer so unlikely to be an accurate assessment - a major reason for my dislike of FAs so havent used them for a long time.

Whilst individual shares can lose or gain massively, I've found that unit trusts include a valuable level of management expertise in their stock (share) selection. Restricting my choice of unit trusts to the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth Shortlist adds another layer of expert management which I don't have and often provides a discount on the unit trust managers' charges.

Over the last 20+ years, interest rates have been very low, compared to historical rates and many peoples savings have struggled to keep pace with inflation - whereas stock market invests have comfortably beaten inflation despite the many "crashes", eg the 2000 dot.com bubble, 2008 financial crash, Covid, Ukraine and Trump's tariffs.

 

[otherclive]

I found that Financial Advisors (FAs) analysis of customer's attitude to risk was very superficial with no "education" for the customer so unlikely to be an accurate assessment - a major reason for my dislike of FAs so havent used them for a long time.

Whilst individual shares can lose or gain massively, I've found that unit trusts include a valuable level of management expertise in their stock (share) selection. Restricting my choice of unit trusts to the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth Shortlist adds another layer of expert management which I don't have and often provides a discount on the unit trust managers' charges.

Over the last 20+ years, interest rates have been very low, compared to historical rates and many peoples savings have struggled to keep pace with inflation - whereas stock market invests have comfortably beaten inflation despite the many "crashes", eg the 2000 dot.com bubble, 2008 financial crash, Covid, Ukraine and Trump's tariffs.

As you said in #1 your experience of IFAs wasn’t good. I had similar when I took advice gained from my resettlement course. But my current one who I’ve been with since 2007 for investment, and 1999 for purchasing a second house, has been excellent. His company comprises an investment team, plus other skills including taxation and accountancy with links to specialist legal advisors, one of which is our solicitor. Especially wrt their use of specific consultancies for client risk, and investment risk modelling their partner companies are globally based, one springing out of Cambridge. The client risk assessment is carried out annually via a particularly comprehensive questionnaire and a follow up discussion with the IFA to make sure , as far as one can, that it is tailored to a client’s needs. It can be changed at any time if the client so wishes. So overall I’m quite content with my approach over the last 20 or so years.