290K to invest - what would you do?

[CherryChapst1ck]

Where can we put this money for the best return? Currently it's sat in a bank account. We are thinking of using Close Brothers as have had dealings with them in the past but I'm just nervous about making the money grow and not losing any.

We have a house we intend to always live in and our mortgage is low so we won't be paying it off as no need to.

Any advice at all? Thank you

Why does everyone say avoid St James' Place?

Because it makes IFAs fees look cheap in comparison.

My parents are with St James' Place, after going through their paper work, their IFA charged them 4% upfront and then on top of the prudential fees was charging 1% a year for servicing, that they never received.

Their friends was with St James', so they decided to try it out. I was skeptical at first, so asked to look over the papers before they sigend anything. The inital charge was 5%, however their adviser does his own sliding scale of charges, and they ended up paying 1.8%. Then it was 1.43% ongoing all in, with the adviser charging 0.5% a year.

With the Prudential it was 2.75% including the adviser charge.

SO cheaper upfront and onging, they went with him. He sees them twice a year, helps with their self assessment, birthday cards, video called when the markets went belly up to re assure.

I imagine there are bad St James place advisers as there are IFA's. So the moral of the story, dont write them off, ask them for a meeting, if you like them great, if you dont then look elsewhere.

Read the FT article about ongoing charges

SJP ongoing charges are 1.25%, of which 0.5 is for the adviser. PLUS fund fees. Smoke and mirrors.

Helped with their birthday cards? Eh?

Previously they were paying 1% ongoing plus 1.75% to Prudential for fund fees and their platform charges. They are now paying 1.93% all in, 0.82% less than they were with their IFA.

I appreciate it is not for everyone, but I think it only fair to compare on accurate figures.

It is not smoke and mirrors with those fees, I asked my parents to obtain a full break down of the charges, as I too was concerned about the article.

Could they get it cheaper, I am sure they can. However, they are happy with what they have, know what they are paying, and are enjoying retirement and not looking at their fund allocation!

Oh and a Bid offer spread to get in their funds of 5%

I say smoke and mirrors because they claim 0.5% adviser charge but it’s not, it’s a 1.25% ongoing charge, of which 0.5% is to the adviser, 0.75% is SJP charge. Then you have a very limited range of high charging funds.

An IFA charging 1% is too much also. Prudential are also quite high charging and I’d not use them except in limited circumstances.