Comparing charges across providers can be tricky as each provider has a different set of fees and the way they apply their fees differ. As a result, we have detailed below the core assumptions we have used in order to compare charges across platforms.
Overall assumptions
- All charges relate to the annual cost, with no investment growth. Fees are assumed to be taken out of a separate cash balance, with no effect on the investment value.
- For platforms, underlying investment charges have not been included.
- For robos, we have used the total cost of investing including any administration fees, underlying investment fees and transaction costs/market spread.
- For all providers, admin charges are assumed to be taken on a monthly basis, with the total charge an accumulation of 12 monthly charges.
- Charges do not include any temporary promotions i.e. discounts on fees for a fixed initial period.
- Share trades include other investments traded on an exchange such as investment trusts, ETFs and bonds.
- Share trading fees do not include stamp duty and the PTM levy.
- Where a user selects a combination of accounts, the fund/shares split applies across all accounts.
- For example, if someone selects the following:
- £50k invested
- 50% ISA, 50% SIPP (£25k each account)
- 50% funds, 50% shares
- The calculator will assume the following:
- ISA: £12.5K invested in funds, £12.5k invested in shares
- SIPP: £12.5K invested in funds, £12.5k invested in shares
Default trading assumptions
To keep the calculator simple, we created default trading assumptions based on average investor behaviour according to portfolio sizes.
Fund trading assumptions:
- Less than £10k invested in funds: 1 trade
- £10k to £50k investment in funds: 2 trades
- £50k to £100k investment in funds: 4 trades
- £100k to £250k investment in funds: 6 trades
- Over £250k investment in funds: 8 trades
Share trading assumptions:
- Less than £10k invested in shares: 1 trade
- £10k to £50k invested in shares: 2 trades
- £50k to £100k invested in shares: 4 trades
- £100k to £250k invested in shares: 6 trades
- Over £250k invested in shares: 8 trades
