Hargreaves Landsdowne SIPP Review

Hargreaves Landsdowne are one of the top UK based pension, savings and investment providers.

A SIPP, or Self Invested Personal Pension puts YOU in charge of your own retirement destiny.

You can select what assets your pension funds are invested in. A Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is a good pension product for those of us who like to control where our own money is invested. On the downside, if your pension fund performs badly you only have yourself to blame!

Hargreaves Landsdowne are one of the biggest SIPP providers.

I've had many different jobs in my career, and several of my jobs have had their own pension plans with companies such as Scottish Widows and Standard Life. I opened my SIPP in 2008 as a way of moving my pensions under a single roof. None of the pensions I moved into my SIPP were worth more than £20,000, so it wasn't worth the administrative hassle of keeping them with separate providers.

Since I already had an ISA with Hargreaves Landsdown, it seemed logical to open a SIPP with them as well. Opening the SIPP was straightforward. Once I had completed the details of my existing pension plans then Hargreaves Landsdown handled all the paperwork associated with moving my pensions from the existing pensions providers. The process did take a while to complete. Unfortunately I also chose a bad time to move my pension funds, as the stock market was extremely turbulant in October 2008!

It is possible to hold funds from the protected rights portion of existing pensions within a SIPP. While you can choose where you want to invest this money it is segregated from the other pension funds within the SIPP.

The Hargreaves Landsdowne website allows most of the day to day managing of the SIPP to be carried out online. I haven't need to contact them at all yet, but you'll be reassured to know that Hargreaves Landsdown's telephone support staff are based in a UK call centre. Email support is also available and response times are generally good.

Since I have many years to retirement I am still at the stage where I am selecting investments. Hargreaves Landsdowne have an unparallelled range of investments available for a SIPP. Investments that may be held in a SIPP include:

• Unit trusts. Hargreaves Landsdowne have a vast range of unit trusts from leading fund managers. Unlike many SIPP providers, Hargreaves Landsdowne refund all or most of the initial charge for most unit trust investments. Hargreaves Landsdowne maintain a list of their 150 favourite unit trusts, and regularly monitor the performance of the most popular unit trusts.
• ETFs. Hargreaves Landsdowne make it possible to trade a wide variety of Exchange Traded Funds online, including those from iShares and ETFS Securities. These include the popular commodity ETFs from ETFS Securities, which allow investors exposure to markets including everything from crude oil, agriculture, Lean Hogs to Wheat and precious metals such as Gold and Silver.
• Stocks and Shares. Hargreaves Landsdowne offer online share dealing in a wide range of securities.

In general the Hargreaves Landsdowne's SIPPs costs are low. There is no annual charge for the SIPP, although there is an annual charge of 0.5% for holding stocks and shares and certain unit trusts.

Hargreaves Landsdowne also have a range of other accounts, including Individual Savings Accounts and standard stock dealing accounts. If you have more than one account with Hargreaves Landsdowne then they are all managed through a single website login and password. It is also possible to use the neat portfolio X-Ray feature to ensure that the investments in an entire portfolio have your desired risk profile and global asset allocation.

Although it's possible to manage most of the SIPP online, Hargreaves Landsdowne also have telephone support and a telephone dealing service. Both are supported by knowledgeable UK based staff, so there are no overseas call centres to contend with. It's also possible to opt for online rather than paper based correspondence. Hargreaves Landsdowne do produce regular newsletters for their customers, so you're always kept informed about new fund launches and investment ideas.

Alternatives to a Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP personal pension include the Sipp Centre pension fund, the Barclays SIPP or just building a portfolio of high yield investments.

The author of this article is not authorised by the UK authorities to give financial advice. This article does not consitute financial advice. Before making investment decisions consult an independent financial advisor.