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Review by hdeakin299
submitted on 26 February 2013
Likes: Low TER : Low AMC: "CORE" appeal
Dislikes: none
This review is about 2 HSBC tracker index funds available on the Fidelity platform from a DIY viewpoint (and not about the HSBC Flexible Saver as per heading)
I was reading the Sunday Times 27 Jan 2013 and I came across Ali Hussain's article "Fund Managers miss the rally" and here was mentioned a low cost tracker the SWIP Foundation Growth Fund , a UK All Companies tracker, which the article states has a fee of just 0.1% a year. I thought this was interesting as the only other Fund I know priced as low is Fidelity's own UK tracker (please also see my review of this fund) so the obvious thing was to see if I could find the SWIP fund on Fidelity's Fund platform effectiveley "head to head" with Fidelity's own offering : I could not find it but I did find something else , which I have not seen before , and which is the subject of this review : the HSBC FTSE 250 Retail Tracker . I realise now that I had first noticed it awhile ago but I had then later forgotten about its appeal. A mid cap fund is very relevant for today so I thought it is worthwhile revisiting it for another look.
The AMC is 0.25% : the TER is 0.27% and the fact sheet shows that around £250 million is under management : so still quite a low amount though it is listed as having launched in 1997 . the fact sheet states that the past performance is 25.51% from Jan 2012 to Dec 2012 ; so I hope it carries on with this a bit longer! Fidelity says Service Fee is included in the TER .
The reason I have decided to invest is that Mid Caps are predicted to do well at this stage of the economic cycle : in fact the Saturday Daily Telegraph lists a "Mid Cap" of the week in their Money Section. I felt it was a good way to add some "mid cap spice" to my Fidelity platforms low cost funds : my criterion for these is that they must have a TER of less than half a percent. So this adds variety to a collection of trackers that has up till now been overwhelmingly LARGE CAP : so this fund is is a very welcome addition to their low cost , low TER ,mostly passive , range of funds offered on the Fidelity platform.
HSBC have a good range of these low cost trackers including one called the HSBC European Index Fund which is available on the Fidelity platform . Recently Fidelity sent me a letter to say that the fund objective is expected to change and therefore a different index will be used. I find this quite interesting : the change is from "world Europe" to "developed Europe" and it states "Investing in smaller stocks in the emerging economies has the potential to create illiquidity and excessive dealing costs. The new objective and policy are intended to provide clarity to investors and avoid potential illiquidity issues with emerging market stocks".
The concept of "CORE" funds is usually used by advisers but I think it also has potential for DIY investors to use in their own way . I think that HSBC is making this fund better in coreness appeal for DIYers as this tracker will be more mainstream and they also appear to be "keeping an eye" on their costs by considered use and selection of the best index available.
Of course everyone can use trackers , both DIYers and advised clients. I hope Fidelity continue to develop the availability of these cheap trackers. For me this will mean that I can DIY invest using core funds and that I can maintain Fidelity as a CORE platform for the basics. But I will also have a strong No.2 platform elsewhere. I hope to leave the excitement of individual equities for this subsidiary platform
On the No 2 platform I will be take a more adventurous approach with a small but evolving part of the portfolio. Here I will use a "quadruple bypass" strategy (bypassing some risk) to include : large CAPS . mid CAPS , ETFs and investment trusts.
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8% Regular Saver
Review by ludo99
submitted on 19 September 2011
Likes: the Aviva travel Insurance is comprehensive and although it does not provide cover for breast cancer it does not exclude breast cancer patients which a lot of insurance companies refuse when you declare it.
Dislikes: Expensive
I think I fall into the "suitable for a few people" category. I tried to get worldwide travel insurance elsewhere and when I declared that I had breast cancer it was refused by three companies I tried.
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