Charges for UK fund supermarkets are likely to change significantly over the next year due to the FSA’s Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and information in this table may soon be out of date. You may want to read the article on RDR and unbundled pricing to understand the implications before considering which fund supermarket to use.
Comparing UK fund supermarkets can get slightly confusing because the term ‘fund supermarket’ is often used to mean two different things. One is the discount brokerage through which you invest and the other is the underlying platform that handles the administration of your account.
In some cases, both operations are part of the same firm, as is the case with Hargreaves Lansdown Vantage or Alliance Trust Savings i.nvest. But in most cases, they are separate. One discount broker can offer more than one fund supermarket and one fund supermarket can be available through more than one broker.
For a fuller explanation of how all this works, see the guide to fund supermarkets. The table below tries to make the comparison as simple as possible by listing only the cheapest broker for each platform, where there is a clear winner on price. For example, Cavendish Online is currently the cheapest way to invest through FundsNetwork, so it’s the only broker listed for that platform. The exception is the Cofunds platform, for which Clubfinance, ICICI and Interactive Investor are all listed, since the cheapest will depend on portfolio size. Continue reading »