There is quite a bit of buzz around the upcoming Vanguard SIPP and, as much as I know they have a good rep, Iām struggling to get excited about it cus their funds just donāt seem to perform as well vs. some of those Iāve invested in via Hargreaves Lansdown. So as much as Vanguard might be offering a really low fee, the historic performance of their funds should be taken into account. Would be keen to hear other peopleās thoughts on this topic?
The funds you talk about presumably you mean the actively managed specialised funds like Woodford and LT?
Actually my best performing fund this year is an index fund by L&G:
https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/l/legal-and-general-global-technology-index-class-i-accumulation
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Comparing apples with oranges Paul.
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Can you expand? Iām clear that Vanguard fundsā diversity makes them lower risk- is that what you mean?
Sure. Youāre not comparing alike funds. The Vanguard funds are tracking an index and the L&G is tracking a different index.
Its not fair to say one has better performance then the other if theyāre tracking entirely different sectors. The only difference between alike funds tracking the same index is the fund fee and the tracking error.
(Caveat, apologies if Iāve misread something youāve said as Iām out of the office today)
Looks like FT is getting serious about SIPPs:
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Any news from FT on a likely SIPP launch month/quarter?
Pretty please! 
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No official news that I am aware of but this was put in the 6-12 month road map bucket early Aug last year so, if they deliver on time, this means latest expected delivery Aug this year. This seems forever to me, I canāt waitā¦
Relatively to SIPPs, ISAa are a piece of cake to deliver because SIPPs are more admin with HMRC involved when you make a personnal net contribution and the SIPP provider has to claim from HMRC the 20% grossing up. However, as legacy brokers have had this live for nearly 2 decades, this is not new, thus not that complicated.
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Iād be interested to know if anyone has experience with Interactive Investors or iWeb SIPPs?
My pension is with Standard Life currently and the default funds have underperformed the market for years 
The fees on a lot of the other funds are high. With no timeframe confirmed, I donāt want to wait any longer. I can transfer in, when Freetrade SIPP becomes available. Iāve no doubt it will be awesomeā¦
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Iāve recently changed jobs, and employer. My new workplace pension is with another provider. I wonder if I can transfer the workplace pension I had with my previous employer into a Freetrade SIPP. That would be cool
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Iāve done that to Pensionbee - so canāt see why Freetrade couldnāt eventually recreate.
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Cool. I wasnāt sure that would be a legally accepted option. I take it from your comment that it is. I also understand youāre not giving legal advice and will not be liable for any decision I make 
Thanks 
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Thanks. Bookmarked
Iāve consolidated various previous employer pensions into an ii SIPP about 5 years ago. All gone well since and very happy with the service from ii. The only issue is their mobile app interface is horrible in comparison to FT but the web interface is detailed and works well. +
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Thanks, useful to know. We have been spoiled by the Freetrade app!
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As most of SIPP trades happen on old existing SIPPs, not much SIPP account openings and trading would happen at FT without users first being able to transfer their SIPP in. So, once SIPPs are available, the vote button on SIPP transfers will quickly get hot.
Hence considering how much closer the basic SIPP functionality is getting on the roadmap, is not it about time to add a SIPP transfers item to the roadmap?
Also, I feel there is so little communication on the SIPP item delivery from FreeTrade that it makes me feel like it will be delayed, a lot delayed. Indeed, the invest platform is grabbing all the attention at the moment but users and FT shareholders would be more interested in concrete impacts on specific delivery timeline improvements (improved go-live ETAs) than what are usually behind-the-scene āunder the hoodā topics that should create buzz only for technologists. To summarise, tech achievements are worth no more than the features they deliver and I am quite unimpressed by the pace of the latter at the moment or at least the breadth of communication about them. This negatively impacts user growth.
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Having done further research, one of the key fees is the charge for foreign exchange conversions. iWeb and Interactive Investor each charge an eye-watering 1.5%. Weāll have to pay that on the way back too, so total fee 3%.
For example, buying Ā£1000 of shares in a foreign currency.
| Provider | Account | Transaction cost | Foreign exchange fee (%) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IG | Standard | Ā£10.00 | 0.5 | Ā£15.00 |
| Hargreaves Lansdown | Standard | Ā£11.95 | 1 | Ā£21.95 |
| iWeb | Standard | Ā£5.00 | 1.5 | Ā£20.00 |
| AJ Bell | Standard | Ā£9.95 | 1 | Ā£19.95 |
| Interactive Investor | Super Investor | Ā£4.99 | 1.5 | Ā£19.99 |
| Freetrade | Standard | Ā£1.00 | 0.45 | Ā£5.50 |
My original plan of transferring now and waiting for Freetrade isnāt looking so smart. Iāll have sunk a lot of cost due to these fees. 
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