What transparent fees actually look like

A fee you cannot find is not a small fee, it is an unknown one. Transparent fees mean three things in practice: every charge has a name, every charge appears in the same place, and you can add them up before you commit any money.

Where charges come from

There is the charge for running the platform, and there are the charges made by the funds you hold. Dealing and transfers may add something on top. Each of these is listed separately on the price board, and the agreement sets out how each one is taken.

Read the fund charges carefully. A cheap platform holding expensive funds is not a cheap portfolio, and the fund charge is the part people forget to check. Where two holdings do a similar job, the one with the lower ongoing charge leaves more of the return in your pot.

Ask for a worked example in writing if the figures on the site feel abstract. Ours are illustrations, and the binding numbers sit in the agreement and in the fund documents. Anything you cannot find, send to us and we will point to the line it appears on.