The Lemon Fool

Anybody have any views or experience of this Investment Management Company?

Offering a platform for online savings accounts. So one relationship to reduce the hassle of opening multiple accounts across multiple institutions, and the ability to offer higher rates due to the scale of aggregated deposits they can place with institutions not available to individuals. Obviously they aren't free and take their own fee for offering this "product".

I hadn't heard of them, but been approached for my opinion by a distant family member with a requirement to find a home for a 6 figure sum with no risk, or ambitious return expectation.

dealtn wrote:Offering a platform for online savings accounts. So one relationship to reduce the hassle of opening multiple accounts across multiple institutions, and the ability to offer higher rates due to the scale of aggregated deposits they can place with institutions not available to individuals. Obviously they aren't free and take their own fee for offering this "product".

Don't HL also offer something like that?

dealtn wrote:...and the ability to offer higher rates due to the scale of aggregated deposits...

Hardly so for instant access, at 0.65% £75K minimum! (Although some of the short term notice accounts look very competitive). https://www.flagstoneim.com/rates/

dealtn wrote:I hadn't heard of them, but been approached for my opinion by a distant family member with a requirement to find a home for a 6 figure sum with no risk, or ambitious return expectation.

The only no risk provider for a six figure sum is NS&I ... and (unusually) they also currently top the tables for easy access accounts at 1.16% https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... -interest/

Oh, and don't overlook....

"Flagstone charges a one-off set-up fee of £500 for new clients opening an account on the platform, for deposits over £250,000.

There is also an Annual Management Charge of between 0.15% p.a. and 0.25% p.a. dependent upon the value of deposits held by the client on the platform." https://www.flagstoneim.com/how-it-works/ (under FAQ)

mc2fool wrote:Oh, and don't overlook....

"Flagstone charges a one-off set-up fee of £500 for new clients opening an account on the platform, for deposits over £250,000.

There is also an Annual Management Charge of between 0.15% p.a. and 0.25% p.a. dependent upon the value of deposits held by the client on the platform." https://www.flagstoneim.com/how-it-works/ (under FAQ)

Yes seen this, but £500 not a huge amount with £250,000 for money potentially tied up for 2 years. If aggregated amounts allow for a rate improvement >0.1% then it's probably worth it I guess.

mc2fool wrote:The only no risk provider for a six figure sum is NS&I ... /

Why do you say this? You can spread a six figure some over many institutions (and platforms like this make that easier don't they) and get the full FSCS protection, or are you meaning something else?

dealtn wrote:

mc2fool wrote:"Flagstone charges a one-off set-up fee of £500 for new clients opening an account on the platform, for deposits over £250,000.

There is also an Annual Management Charge of between 0.15% p.a. and 0.25% p.a. dependent upon the value of deposits held by the client on the platform." https://www.flagstoneim.com/how-it-works/ (under FAQ)

Yes seen this, but £500 not a huge amount with £250,000 for money potentially tied up for 2 years. If aggregated amounts allow for a rate improvement >0.1% then it's probably worth it I guess.

£500 one-off PLUS £375-£625 each year on £250K (0.15%-0.25%pa), so over 2 years a total of £1250-£1750.

dealtn wrote:

mc2fool wrote:The only no risk provider for a six figure sum is NS&I ... /

Why do you say this? You can spread a six figure some over many institutions (and platforms like this make that easier don't they) and get the full FSCS protection, or are you meaning something else?

I say it because it's true, but of course you can spread it around amongst several unrelated providers.

mc2fool wrote:

dealtn wrote:

mc2fool wrote:"Flagstone charges a one-off set-up fee of £500 for new clients opening an account on the platform, for deposits over £250,000.

There is also an Annual Management Charge of between 0.15% p.a. and 0.25% p.a. dependent upon the value of deposits held by the client on the platform." https://www.flagstoneim.com/how-it-works/ (under FAQ)

Yes seen this, but £500 not a huge amount with £250,000 for money potentially tied up for 2 years. If aggregated amounts allow for a rate improvement >0.1% then it's probably worth it I guess.

£500 one-off PLUS £375-£625 each year on £250K (0.15%-0.25%pa), so over 2 years a total of £1250-£1750.

dealtn wrote:

mc2fool wrote:The only no risk provider for a six figure sum is NS&I ... /

Why do you say this? You can spread a six figure some over many institutions (and platforms like this make that easier don't they) and get the full FSCS protection, or are you meaning something else?

I say it because it's true, but of course you can spread it around amongst several unrelated providers.

Yes. But if you can get say 0.3% better than on offer at an individual institution then it is better after fees, no? That's why I am asking if anyone has any experience. Sure £1250-£1750 is a lot of money (if it is as much as that) but so is 0.3% of £250,000 (or indeed more).

Platforms like this allow you to have, say, £85k at several institutions. So you are only opening a single "account" but have the same protection surely. So I don't get your point about "only no risk provider..."

I am researching on behalf of a family member and I have very little experience of savings accounts, let alone for one comfortbaly into six figures. I only have a single savings account and can't recall an occasion when I had more than 1% of my wealth in it. I only want to be able to provide feedback on an approach he has suggested, given he isn't the type to want to deal with the admin of "multiple" accounts and institutions.

dealtn wrote:Yes. But if you can get say 0.3% better than on offer at an individual institution then it is better after fees, no? That's why I am asking if anyone has any experience. Sure £1250-£1750 is a lot of money (if it is as much as that) but so is 0.3% of £250,000 (or indeed more).

But they don't offer +0.3% extra do they.
The 1-Year rate is only 0.1% above elsewhere. The 2-year is +0.15% and 3-Year is +0.2%

dealtn wrote:Platforms like this allow you to have, say, £85k at several institutions. So you are only opening a single "account" but have the same protection surely. So I don't get your point about "only no risk provider...".

You can't safely put all your £250k into a single 2-Year bond with Flagstone. It will only be guaranteed to £85k in each sub-account provided they are all at different banks. You couldn't safely have three 2-Year bonds all with the same ultimate supplier. So you need to contact them to see if they have three separate suppliers of 2-Year bonds.

DrBunsenHoneydew wrote:

dealtn wrote:Yes. But if you can get say 0.3% better than on offer at an individual institution then it is better after fees, no? That's why I am asking if anyone has any experience. Sure £1250-£1750 is a lot of money (if it is as much as that) but so is 0.3% of £250,000 (or indeed more).

But they don't offer +0.3% extra do they.
The 1-Year rate is only 0.1% above elsewhere. The 2-year is +0.15% and 3-Year is +0.2%

Thank you. I honestly don't know so it's good to get info from others that have more knowledge than I do on the subject.