Vanguard Standard Life vs Vanguard All World Degiro

[Cyclingmagpie]

Hi All,

Just wondering is their any other hidden fees or T&C with the Vanguard Standard life product vs the Degiro product ?

- Vanguard Standard life fees - Having an annual management charge of 0.95%.
- Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF (Accumulating), IE00BK5BQT80, TER 0.22%, Euronext Amsterdam

So the benefit off Standard life is they do the taxes for you but you need to save minimum €500 monthly to avail off 101% allocation so why choose the hassle off Degiro for monthly saving vs Standard Life or what else am i missing ?

 

[Airgunster]

@Cyclingmagpie Beware of Standard life's extreme slowness in support (they are very, very slow on responding to your queries / working on thei actions).

 

[Racrus]

One other thing I think you are missing is the disadvantaged way Standard Life do the tax for you. On the 8yrs anniversary when the tax is due, they pay the tax by using money that's within the fund. They won't let you pay the tax from your own separate source of money from outside of the fund. This has an effect on the long term performance of the fund.

With Degiro, you can pay the tax from your own cash, etc and leave the fund alone. It's bad enough having to pay the deemed disposal without being forced to pay it by taking money from he fund itself.

This is the way I was told it is with Zurich anyway and their life products, you could maybe email Standard Life directly and ask this but I'd assume they're all the same. Best get a 2nd opinion in case I'm mistaken.

 

[Corola]

If Standard Life deducts €1,000 from the fund to pay tax why can't you just invest another €1,000 back in? Then you have paid the tax from your own source.

 

[Corola]

With the Zurich funds at least, this is not an option. They don't let you pay the tax via alternative means like from your cash, it's taken directly from the fund, but also they don't let you top up the fund either. Well, they don't let you top up the bond type funds which were a single lump sum investment, if you wish to add more money you have to set up a new separate bond investment.

This point did come up before. Fair enough, some of the life assurance companies may be restrictive on this.

And if the allocation rate was less than 101% it would be more expensive to pay the tax from your own source because of the 1% levy. In general money is fungible and with ETFs it's the same whether cashing in the fund or paying from your own cash, but not with life products.

 

[delta_bravo]

@Cyclingmagpie Beware of Standard life's extreme slowness in support (they are very, very slow on responding to your queries / working on thei actions).

Not just customer support. I sent them a sales inquiry and they came back to me two weeks later

 

[GSheehy]

Beware of Standard life's extreme slowness in support (they are very, very slow on responding to your queries / working on thei actions).

Not just customer support. I sent them a sales inquiry and they came back to me two weeks later

Choosing to deal with them via an intermediary may have been a better option, but don't mention that to @Investor

 

[messyleo]

Not just customer support. I sent them a sales inquiry and they came back to me two weeks later

Had this same experience tbh. Had to chase things up multiple times and took about 7-8 weeks in the finish to receive the final policy document

 

[Sarah Ryan]

I find a big part of the problem with most financial services companies these days is that, you just can't get the staff. The younger generation do not appear to take much pride in their work - jobs are disposable to them.

I have some manager friends in life companies and they can't 'discipline staff' for a want of a better word - the snowflake generation need their safe spaces ya know. It's pure nonsense companies need to get tough - there should be an expected standard that people should be working towards.

 

[Corola]

How would you discipline a staff member? If someone isn't meeting their performance targets/objectives they could have a reduced bonus or be put on an improvement plan.

The days of a manager giving the hairdryer treatment in the middle of a busy office are long gone thankfully.

 

[Sarah Ryan]

How would you discipline a staff member? If someone isn't meeting their performance targets/objectives they could have a reduced bonus or be put on an improvement plan.

The days of a manager giving the hairdryer treatment in the middle of a busy office are long gone thankfully.

I'm not saying somebody needs a dressing down in public.

The improvement plans etc are grand but long drawn out, it's a very softly softly approach these days, managers are afraid to say boo, all the while some people work harder than others, people become disengaged etc.

An honest frank private discussion of pull up your socks never hurt anybody, you are working in an adult environment, expect to act like one and be treated like one.

 

[ClubMan]

I find a big part of the problem with most financial services companies these days is that, you just can't get the staff. The younger generation do not appear to take much pride in their work - jobs are disposable to them.

After almost a lifetime of dealing with organisational dysfunction, bureaucratic incompetence and inefficiency, too many toxic colleagues and the like I can't say that I blame them. I wish that I had figured that out earlier myself.