Platforms! Faahzands of em! Barclays et al go over the top.
Yes, I know that was never in the film. But it seemed relevant as we round up some of the platforms who we haven’t covered hitherto (posh) and also take a look at Barclays Stockbrokers, who announced their plans today. Judging by the traffic on these blogs, and some of the comments, investors are really […]
Next please – Fidelity joins the new world
So yesterday Fidelity showed the best of British pluck and joined the huddled masses of direct platforms in our Tables Of Repentance – obviously the only reason a provider declares its new pricing is to get a spot therein. Happily for you, and for us, Fiddy went down the simple(ish) route, and here’s what happened: […]
All hotting up – AXA Self Investor declares its hand
So here we go with the first of the week’s pricing launches in the direct platform space. AXA Self Investor (disclosure: ASI is a client of the lang cat) has been around for a wee while, but hasn’t really pushed it in the direct space; preferring to test out instead whether it could act as […]
Back for more – Hargreaves Lansdown, Part The Second
That’s been quite a day. Reaction to HL’s announcement has been pretty mixed – more than I thought it would have been. Hater of the day prize goes to Dan Hyde in the super soaraway Torygraph with this piece – “Why investors should leave Hargreaves Lansdown“. Others were a bit more measured, and for once […]
Big Bristol beasts bring the beat back – Hargreaves Lansdown unveils its pricing
So this is an unusual blog for us. I’m very conscious that quite a lot of real people, as opposed to financial industry apparatchiks, are going to read this given the nature of the subject. I’m afraid I’m going to have to be a bore and outline a couple of things up front. First, we’re […]
Happyish New Year – ATS hikes its charges
Well, here we are on the last day of 2013 and I’m writing about platform pricing. Plus ca change, and all that. Our subject today – and I’ll be brief – is Alliance Trust Savings (disclosure: ATS is a client of the lang cat), which has hiked its price for both advised and direct customers. […]
The lang cat’s albums of 2013
So for no other reason than I can, let’s leave all that financial services crap aside for a bit and concentrate on the really important stuff – what music was on heavy rotation on the lang cat’s patented Tune-O-Matic Stereogram this year. I appreciate this is massively self-indulgent, more so than usual even, but there’s […]
Architaxa takes it up a notch and a surprising admission
Part of being independent is having the freedom to say what you think, even when it’s not popular or doesn’t do you very much good. This normally translates to having a pop at stuck-in-the-past lifecos if you’re me, as the long and growing list of folk who would rather have endless Miley Cyrus videos beamed […]
Tiers for fears – Standard Life comes out of the shadows
Note:Hidden craftily throughout this blog are song titles by Tears for Fears. Anyone who gets them all wins a free copy of the lang cat Guide to Platform Pricing, along with regular updates for stuff like this. Enter via the comments form below. Standard Life is the last platform to reveal its post-RDR charging structure. […]
Mr Blonde and the art of platform pricing Cofunds wields the razor
As a business which analyses platform pricing, amongst other things, we do have a rich and varied life, we spend a fair bit of time pressuring platforms who have not adequately described what it is they do and why it’s worth what they charge. It’s those platforms which feel the greatest price pressure and which […]
