Hi all
I’m approaching the 85k threshold and would appreciate some thoughts on how other investors work this. Either carry on regardless or open another trading account . Like all investing decisions this is very personal in opinion . I would presume if any broker went under I own the shares so they would not be an issue .
Thanks in advance
You’ve pretty much answered your own question here. It would be an absolute pain no doubt, but you would go to the companies where you hold the shares directly in the event of the broker going bust.
From what I understand, the £85,000 threshold applies to cash held in savings accounts and therefore wouldn’t be relevant to you unless in the unlikely event that you actually had over £85k uninvested.
My approach is to diversify brokers.
As well as diversifying risk it allows me to utilise different fees structures to my advantage.
Technically speaking you don’t. Freetrade owns the shares, and holds them in trust for you. You just own the associated benefits (increase in value, dividends ect.) In practice, i don’t think this should make any difference to us.
In my opinion, the biggest risk is a breach of the rules, if our shares are misused then our money (above 85k) may be at risk.
‘Breach of the rules’ isn’t harsh enough a phrase though. If Freetrade would do this
I’m not so sure
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this much appreciated.
I’m thinking something would have to go catastrophically wrong for me to loose out but agree with Allan it would be a pain to sort out.
I do like the Freetrade format and don’t fancy splitting brokers so it depends now on how much I’m comfortable going above 85k .
Thanks again and wish all a HEALTHY happy and prosperous 2023
85K is a non-issue unless you are keeping that amount in cash…
Stocks are held in trust with
I wouldn’t call it a non-issue
Why?its exactly what it is really,whos got over 85k sitting in cash in their trading app?
Some people may cash out of the markets and still keep the cash balance in their account so it can still be relevant
Not me, but you might cash out in a volatile market and want to leave the cash in your ISA.
Numerous reasons. You may deliberately have that amound of cash in the amount for some reason. You may have stocks which you can’t access for year while trying to track them down. There may be forced sales for whatever reason.
You need to look at the Madoff documentary on Netflix. Not saying it is the same thing by any means but it is a lesson in keeping your wits about you and not having all your eggs in one basket.
There is no sensible reason to have OVER 85k sitting in an investments app,not one.
The fact that people may not want to remove the cash from an ISA and use it to reinvest later.
They can always use the transfer feature to get part of it into another ISA, even a Cash one if they are not going to invest for the near future. Yes, it does take time but better than sitting earning 1% in a FreeTrade ISA isn’t it?
There are also reasons why you may not want to break the law or commit fraud…
Exactly what I was thinking!
Hi @Ayd and everyone else, thanks for helping with an answer.
Just a gentle nudge to bring this back on topic. If there are any outstanding questions, let me know and I’m happy to help.
Best,
Alex
I notice the FCA are talking about the possibility of removing ring fencing for banks.
Sure we are talking about brokerage accounts here.
How does the FCA’s potential removal of ring fencing of client money affect non invested cash in a brokerage account?
Any brokerage account and not limited to freetrade