Fund Selection

[BizzyMissy]

I’ve finally got my act together and have started setting up some S&S investments for me (S&SISA); DH (SIPP and LISA) and DD (JISA and SIPP). DD is 5.

I have set up an account for each of us with Vanguard and invested in Lifestrategy funds. I still have to set up the LISA for DH and the SIPP for DD. For each of us I just want passive/tracker diversified funds hence the Lifestrategy investments. My question is whether it’s a problem to have all 5 investments in Lifestrategy. If not, how would I choose other diversified funds of funds? I looked at AJ Bell but couldn’t easily find a fund similar to Lifestrategy (maybe with a different balance of indices).

For more background these are our timeframes and goals:
My S&S ISA: building up a fund in case DD goes to private secondary in 6 years (have Lifestyle80 as shorter timeframe than other investments - wouldn’t necessarily use for first year of secondary in any case)
DH: SIPP and LISA both for retirement (he doesn’t earn much at the moment so will max out SIPP contributions quite quickly)
DD: JISA for uni or flat deposit / SIPP will just be small monthly amount as seems sensible to take advantage of 25% top up and long time frame until retirement.

For extra background, I have a very good employment pension and too old for LISA!

Thanks for any tips.

Does AJ Bell give access to MyMap funds from Blackrock? Those are multi-asset funds which are similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy but often cheaper (lower ongoing charge) then Lifestrategy.

Legal & General have some low cost funds - UK Index Trust, International Index Trust. Those combined would give some global exposure.

I don't see a problem though with using all Vanguard funds but if you wanted to diversify a bit between fund houses, then on the platforms that give you access to them, you could use Blackrock or L&G. I would be more inclined to do that if it reduced the costs, as with a LISA for example you may have quite a high platform fee, so you want the fund fees to be as low as possible.

I'd stick with Vanguard to keep life simple. They are huge and will still be around in a hundred years. Plus their charges are the lowest.

Maybe use some different funds as well, such as index trackers for the UK, Europe, and/or global.

(NB: I thought Legal & General had stopped doing funds?)

I would suggest going to a site like Trustnet where you can add funds to a basket, compare their historic performance against each other and against various benchmarks and also compare the underlying investments

I do rate the Lifestrategy funds, I’d probably also look at the VG global balanced fund but don’t take my word for it as a random on the internet!

Vanguard don’t accept employer contributions in to a SIPP, so if that is a requirement, then you can’t have a SIPP with them at the moment.

Very helpful - thank you!

Which lifestrategy fund did you go for? I looked at 100 but decided against it because of quite a lot of exposure to UK equities.

I'm with vanguard and have gone for S&P 500 ETF.

It's so difficult to decide, I tie myself in knots over it.

No need to tie yourself in knots. The important principle is diversification - aka not putting all apples in one basket. UK, Europe, global, plus a US fund - mostly or exclusively trackers. Maybe add emerging markets or India or China or a tech fund if you have built up a significant portfolio and/or are looking for some 'spice'. Look at it every few months but don't get worked up about minor fluctuations. Remember this is a long game rather than get rich quick.