True Potential Investor Pension Review

Hi,

I was surprised to see Investec Click and Invest shut down. And I'm sorry you find yourself in this position, looking for a platform of a 'similar nature'.

1. True Potential Investor is a very large financial advisory firm, which also takes DIY investor customers and will put them into pre-packaged portfolios, which they do manage for them on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, most of the groups offering portfolios which are continually managed and tweaked for you, are the newer and more digital start-ups often called 'robo advisers'.
2. If you're not married to the idea of a managed option, maybe take a look at the AJ Bell Youinvest platform, which is well priced and well rated by its customers. They have what they call 'ready-made portfolios', which will guide you into a mix of investment funds within your ISA. As I mentioned, this is not managed on an ongoing basis. So it will be for you to check in and see that this is perhaps re-balanced, and to check in once a year to see that the funds are still considered to be doing a good job.
3. Investec Click and Invest was an active option. So if you're looking for a lower cost option than this, maybe consider passive investing (you can read more about this here). Though you may potentially sacrifice some of the higher gains of active funds (although of course these aren't guaranteed). Inactive funds may well end up costing more, and performing less. If you'd be interested in a passive investment approach an option could be to open an ISA with an investment platform - these could be Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, or AJ Bell Youinvest - and then put what we call a multi-asset fund inside your ISA. Now you can get these from groups such as Vanguard or BlackRock, and these will be managed and tweaked for you on an ongoing basis, to give you an access to a mixed bag of global shares and investments. They are what we call passive.

If you'd like to make you own comparisons between the options out there, take a look our Best Buys page to get all the details on different providers.

Hope this is helpful.

Just be aware...

We are not regulated to give personal financial advice - This isn’t full-fat regulated financial advice. Boring Money is a publisher and not regulated by the FCA. 

This means we can't help with specific personal circumstances or recommend specific investment products. It also basically means that if we say something daft, you have no recourse to come back and complain.

We’re only allowed to give you a steer or share an opinion or tell you the facts - That said, we promise that our answer to you is an independent unbiased perspective with no commercial gain to make. If you need regulated financial advice, you can find a good adviser via sites such as Unbiased & Vouchedfor.

Hi,

Thanks for your note.

I was surprised to see Investec Click and Invest shut down. And I'm sorry you find yourself in this position.

You said that you don't want to go to a new digital start-up and that you are looking for a more established brand. Plus you'd prefer to stick with an option where the investments are put together for you.

1. One option might be to look at the AJ Bell Youinvest platform, which is well priced and well rated by its customers. They have what they call 'ready-made portfolios', which will guide you into a mix of investment funds within your ISA. The only problem with this option, is that it's not managed on an ongoing basis. So it will be for you to check in and see that this is perhaps re-balanced, and to check in once a year to see that the funds are still considered to be doing a good job.
2. If you want to completely wash your hands of this, another halfway house might be True Potential Investor. It's a very large financial advisory firm, which also takes DIY investor customers and will put them into pre-packaged portfolios, which they do manage for them on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, it's a tricky question because most of the groups offering portfolios which are continually managed and tweaked for you, do tend to be those digital start-ups.
3. Your other option, if you're happy with the investment approach which is called passive investing (you can read more about this here), could be to open an ISA with a more established investment platform - these could be Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, or AJ Bell Youinvest - and then put what we call a multi-asset fund inside your ISA. Now you can get these from groups such as Vanguard or BlackRock, and these will be managed and tweaked for you on an ongoing basis, to give you an access to a mixed bag of global shares and investments. They are what we call passive.

Investec Click and Invest was an active option. So read up on that, and see if you're happy to take the lower costs of passive, but potentially sacrifice some of the higher gains of active funds. Although of course these aren't guaranteed. Inactive funds may well end up costing more, and performing less.

Hope this is helpful.

Just be aware...

We are not regulated to give personal financial advice - This isn’t full-fat regulated financial advice. Boring Money is a publisher and not regulated by the FCA. 

This means we can't help with specific personal circumstances or recommend specific investment products. It also basically means that if we say something daft, you have no recourse to come back and complain.

We’re only allowed to give you a steer or share an opinion or tell you the facts - That said, we promise that our answer to you is an independent unbiased perspective with no commercial gain to make. If you need regulated financial advice, you can find a good adviser via sites such as Unbiased & Vouchedfor.

Hi Richard, 

The first thing I’d do, is challenge the need to diversify.

Diversification is really important in terms of the actual investments themselves. So we don’t just buy a few blue-chip UK shares, for example.

However this doesn’t apply to the actual service providers, platforms, ISA managers or robo advisers that we use. To put it more simply, we need a good spread of investments in our baskets but we don’t need to visit lots of different supermarkets or shops.

The risk you are presumably concerned about is any of these providers (or shops) going bust.

Investment companies need to have capital so they can cover administration costs if they stop trading. But if the administrator can’t recover fees from company assets, it’s legally allowed to do so from client assets instead. But this is just the fees for the administrator. 

In this instance, from April 2019 we’re also all covered to the tune of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  

Client money is held separately and can't be used by an investment company to pay their debts or to pay any creditors.

This link from Hargreaves Lansdown explains it well - www.hl.co.uk/security-centre/how-safe-is-your-investment

So my sense is that you are over-complicating your administration life here more than you need to.

However if that’s what you want to do, then let’s have a look at the three options you suggest...

Investec is a big global bank and assets manager - them of the zebra!

Click & Invest has a minimum of £10k, so I haven’t tested it personally. It’s actively managed as you say, so not as cheap as some but could deliver more. Costs will be about 1.4% in total every year. From Jan 17 – June 18 their middle portfolio did 10.6%. To me it looks like a good and solid option.

True Potential Investor is a firm of financial advisers which have built out tech solutions and gone direct to clients.

I have a test account there – there’s an average annual fee of 1.16%. Their mid portfolio did 4.2% from Oct 17 – Sep 18. And 7.9% the year before that. I like the app and I think it’s quite easy to use.

And Nutmeg is the oldest standing of the UK robos, which is well reviewed by clients and does well enough in performance charts.

But this is a passive choice, so the investments are managed a bit differently and it’s correspondingly cheaper with all-in costs of about 0.95%. To be honest, if you’re already with Wealthify, I'm not sure what else you’d get from coming here.

I don’t know if that’s been helpful. All three options you mention are solid, I think.

They’re also all quite new, so it’s hard to look back at long track records and make definitive calls about who runs the money best. And comparing like with like is very hard!

My sense is that if you really are keen to diversify providers, then I would pick either True Potential Investor or Investec Click & Invest depending on their customer reviews, and also which website and app you find the best.

Good luck!

Just be aware...

We are not regulated to give personal financial advice - This isn’t full-fat regulated financial advice. Boring Money is a publisher and not regulated by the FCA. 

This means we can't help with specific personal circumstances or recommend specific investment products. It also basically means that if we say something daft, you have no recourse to come back and complain.

We’re only allowed to give you a steer or share an opinion or tell you the facts - That said, we promise that our answer to you is an independent unbiased perspective with no commercial gain to make. If you need regulated financial advice, you can find a good adviser via sites such as Unbiased & Vouchedfor.