Vanguard vs Hargreaves Lansdown

[whataboutbob]

I have some money to invest in a S&S ISA (£10000) and am shopping around for funds. These two come up regularly in these threads. Looking across the companies, it seems that 1) fees are higher at H.L. around 0.45% vs 0.22 % at vanguard.
2) Risk seems to be allocated differently ie at HL conservative/ low risk is 45% shares 50% bonds 5% other. At Vanguard low risk is 20% shares 80% bonds
On the face of it Vanguard seems a better bet. Am I missing something? To mitigate risk is it better to spread investment across a few companies in case one goes tits up, or does it not work like that? Thanks for any advice/ insights.

Thank you for all the explanations.TBH I’m not familiar with the HL site. So it seems I’m good to open 2 different lifestrategy funds with Vanguard this financial year?

I use HL and have a smaller amount in it, the reason it's good is that it allows you to buy specialist funds via their platform (which is EXTREMELY good, would recommend) amd so charges higher rates. Though you can buy HL funds, I personally research the fund in question given my requirements and risk confidence, but I am a recent economics graduate and quite enjoy this process. I think it depends on a) how confident you are in researching funds b) what risk metrics you are comfortable with. In my case though fees are higher, the funds I invest in have yielded 50% growth year on year, which wouldn't be available at as low rates as the other site. So ultimately I think this comes down to what products you wish to buy, probably not as much point going HL if you want to buy FTSE 100 or NASDAQ trackers, rather than specialist funds, like for example Blackrock sustainable energy, which has higher fees.

Yes op because life strategy is merely a fund not an isa.
You could have every life strategy going, every other fund, individual shares and whatever else you can buy, but only in one isa. Your only allowed one isa wrapper because otherwise millionaires would tax avoid and put all their money in it.

PS I think black rock also does life stragety type funds?

Thank ms for patiently explaining @Puttingouthefirewithgasoline. I still have much to learn. Good I can open 2 funds this year. Not sure about Black rock but it’s good to remember there are different providers as Vanguard always gets a good rap around here.

You can hold as many funds as you like, only open one isa.

Blackrock has MyMap funds which are similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy but have a lower ongoing charge.

So if you are using a platform like HL the MyMap funds will give a lower cost then using Lifestrategy.

Platform fee though is 0.45% for HL which is a lot more than 0.15% at Vanguard.
So when looking at fees, look at the total of platform + fund.

Keep things simple whilst you are learning. One platform with one well diverse fund is all you need.

We use a mix. The children have Vanguard and I am using Interactive Investor although I am having awful problems with them at the moment and thinking of moving.

One thing to note is that once you are over 80k Vanguard is not the cheapest platform to invest in Vanguard funds. This article explains it:

moneytothemasses.com/saving-for-your-future/investing/vanguard-investor-uk-review-is-it-the-best-in-the-market

@Changemusthappen I have reached that point and was looking at Interactive Investor but not hearing great things at the moment. Even changing a direct debit figure they seem to need a postal form - is that really the case? Interesting to hear you are not impressed with II and are considering moving.

I am reading the article @Changemusthappen. it is most informative and clearly written, thanks for posting it.

Nannynick - we havent found them good at all, and yes they do require hard copy forms for some stuff. I'm a bit tired of companies using covid as an excuse for their lack of service.

If i wanted an income from an investment with a Vanguard life strategy fund/s
How easy is it to get? could i for example i take x per month? (subject to tax)
Or are these types of funds not suitable for this?

@Puttingouthefirewithgasoline

Op I think your confusing the vanguard platform to buy its own products with the h and l platform where you can buy its own but also lots of others including vanguard funds.

Apologies for re-opening this discussion, but I am looking at the same comparison and the thread popped up in my search results. From my reading of the HL website (snapshot attached), if you buy a Vanguard fund through HL you will actually pay two annual charges, the 0.45% to HL plus the 0.22% to Vanguard, so 0.67% in total. However, if you get the Vanguard fund through Vanguard you only pay 0.22%.

I'm leaning towards opening a Vanguard account, but keeping the HL app because it's very good for tracking funds. Vanguard doesn't seem to have its own app.

Correction: Vanguard also have an account fee of 0.15% so you pay 0.37% in total