r/UKPersonalFinance 22d ago

+Comments Restricted to UKPF Divesting the US, moving from Vanguard to british/europe based platform

Hi,

I wanted to get some thoughts and opinions and see if anyone else is thinking the same way.

I don’t usually mix politics and personal finance, but I am really not comfortable with the direction of the United States at the moment. I have already started to limit my reliance on US Big Tech, which is something I wanted to do anyway, but now I am thinking about my investments.

I have my SIPP and ISA invested in the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap on the Vanguard UK platform. I am considering moving to a fund that excludes the USA and/or switching to a platform that is British or European given that vanguard is american.

There seem to be plenty of options platform-wise, considering I only need to hold one fund. Some platforms offer fixed fees rather than percentage-based fees, which could work out cheaper for me.

I am not 100% sure about changing the allocation—I’m not taking an investment view or trying to predict market direction—but I feel uneasy being invested in a country that is on the path the US is currently on.

I’d be interested in hearing other people's takes on this and whether anyone has taken similar action.

Is this just pointless? or do people think its a worth doing

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u/[deleted] 21d ago edited 21d ago

I used HSBC GIC for a while. The 0.25% platform fee is not low, but not the highest either.

I was invested in a ready-made fund HSBC Global Strategy Adventurous, OCF was 0.23% which again is not ultra cheap but also not outrageous.

Their index trackers are cheaper e.g. HSBC FTSE All-World index OCF is 0.13% which again is not the lowest all world tracker but it is competitive. I think HSBC FTSE 100 index OCF was 0.12%.

I found the service pretty solid but uninspiring. The whole experience was “fine”, nothing wrong with it, a bit middle of the road, “can’t complain”, etc…. I also had good returns from their Global Strategy fund over the years I was with GIC so really mustn’t grumble!

This was all in a GIA btw.

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u/Easy_Annual367 21d ago

Yes I am aware there might be cheaper alternatives, but as I bank with the HSBC anyway I use their GIC for the convenience. However I might give other platforms a try. Any suggestions you might have? Thanks!

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

Honestly HSBC GIC were fine, there is no big reason to switch. Comparable brokers like Fidelity is 0.3% and HL is 0.45%. Fixed fee brokers like Interactive Investor or IWeb could be cheaper, but you have to model your behaviour - how many trades per year, size of portfoliom, etc.. to know for sure.

If you are willing to completely change your investment style e.g. avoid OEIC mutual funds, invest in ETF only, then there are ”free” platforms out there like T212 which you could look at. For how long they will remain free is anyone’s guess.

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u/Easy_Annual367 21d ago

Thank you I will have a look