Are AJ Bell funds any good?

Yes, AJ Bell offers a fantastic selection of funds for investors. Currently, there are more than 4,000 funds on the platform. These funds – which include both active and passive funds – offer access to specific asset classes, markets, and geographical locations. You can invest as little as £25 per month into funds with the company’s regular investment service.

Fees: AJ Bell charges 0.25% for fund account which reduces to 0.10% on the value of your funds between £250,000 and £500,000. There is no charge above £500,000. Dealing costs are £1.50.

Is Hargreaves Lansdown good for funds?

Fund investing is where Hargreaves Lansdown gets very expensive. There is no charge for buying and selling funds on Hargreaves Lansdown. Fund accounts are charged at 0.45% for the first £250,000. Then 0.25% up to £1m, 0.1% up to £2m. There is no charge above £2m.

This is quite high compared to AJ Bell’s scaled fund fees starting at 0.25% and Interactive Investors’ flat account fee of £11.99.

However, because of it’s size, Hargreaves Lansdown is able to negotiate Fund discounts where they say their clients save an average of 17% on the ongoing charges figure (OCF), which is the fee charged by the fund manager as opposed to your broker.

OCF fees are rarely capped, so having a discount on the fund charge is even more valuable for people holding large sums in funds.

Hargreaves does have a pretty good research offering for funds alongside their excellent market data portal. HL, as well as offering access to more funds compared to other fund platforms, currently have 72 funds on the Wealth Shortlist for which they provide full research and recommendations. In addition, HL provides research updates on 32 Open-Ended Funds, 38 Investment Trusts, 15 ETFs.

One thing they are particularly good at is flagging funds that are underperforming so investors can switch out of them. This is particularly helpful as in a recent update the also flagged four of their own funds, including; HL Global Bond Fund, HL Emerging Markets Fund, HL Multi-Manager UK Growth Fund and HL Select UK Income Fund and include notes on what they are going to do to improve performance.

How many funds are available on Interactive Investor?

You can invest in over 3,000 funds with Interactive Investor, but if that sounds daunting, ii publishe their most popular funds and have “Quick start”, “Super 60” and “ACE 40 ethical” best buy lists to help you pick the best funds for your portfolio.

Fees: *Fund dealing commissions are a free trade every month, then charged £7.99 or you can upgrade to a £19.99 “Super Investor” account 2 free monthly trades and deal for £3.99. Regular investing is free.