Bigger Savings - Five ways we can help you save money

Giving up our initial commission

In most cases we give up all our initial commission, usually 3% or £300 for every £10,000 you invest. This means we make nothing at all when we arrange your investments. Our income is the ongoing renewal/trail commission we keep as long as we remain your broker.

If we arrange investments that don’t pay ongoing commission (only a small minority of investments) we usually keep half the initial commission.

Negotiating additional discounts with product providers

Because we’re one of the UK’s leading discount brokers, we’re able to negotiate additional discounts with many product providers. We don’t keep these additional discounts to ourselves; we pass all the benefits on to you. This means you often pay no initial charge at all so 100% of your money is put to work from the start.

Annual Cashbacks – your 50% share of our ongoing renewal (trail) commission

We were the UK's very first broker to give up renewal commission. Most still don’t. Of the minority that do, only a few will do so outside of platforms. And none of those offer valuation and fund monitoring services. That’s why we believe we still give the best value discount investment service in the UK.

We include all investment related renewal commission in Annual Cashbacks, for example from:

• ISAs
• Junior ISAs
• Funds outside ISAs
• SIPPs/Personal Pensions
• Stakeholder Pensions
• Investment Bonds
• VCTs
• Annuities

We include investment related renewal commission from all product providers, regardless of whether we arrange your investments directly or through platforms.

Registering investments you already have.

If you register investments with us – investments originally arranged yourself or through another broker, most product providers will transfer future renewal to us. We use this renewal commission to give you Annual Cashbacks, Valuations and Fund Monitoring.

If you register investments where we don’t receive renewal commission (many fund companies don’t pay if you originally invested direct) we can almost always offer the same funds through a platform that will cost you nothing to transfer, but pay us commission that we can include in Annual Cashbacks.

50% share of renewal commission as long as you hold £5,000 of investments

Annual Cashbacks are 50% of renewal commission received from your investments over a year and credited to your CommShare Cash Account as long as you hold at least £5,000 of investments that pay renewal commission at your Annual Cashback date. The minimum Annual Cashback is £1. Terms and Conditions apply.

Passing on additional incentives offered by product providers

Occasionally, product providers offer additional cash incentives for clients to invest, or transfer investments. We often pass part or all of this to you by crediting your CommShare Cash Account.

Charging fees so you can invest funds with lower commission or charges

Sometimes it’s better for you to pay us fees in return for lower commission or charges.

Here are some examples:

Pensions

We prefer not to offer Annual Cashbacks on pension products because HMRC rules and guidelines are unclear with regard to the consequences and tax position. Instead, we usually arrange for renewal commission to be retained in your pension plan for your benefit. Depending on the product provider, we keep the first 0.25% p.a. renewal commission or charge a fee of 0.25% p.a. of the value of your pension and arrange for all renewal commission to be retained in your pension plan. These are broadly equivalent and approximately the same value as Annual Cashbacks. If neither of these options is possible, we’ll include renewal commission in your Annual Cashbacks.

Same Funds – Different Share Classes

Invesco Perpetual offer No-Trail versions of all their funds, typically with annual management charges of 1% rather than 1.5%. These No-Trail funds are only available through Financial Advisers, so retail investors can’t invest in them directly.

We can arrange investments in these No-Trail Funds in return for a fee (typically 0.25% p.a. of the value of your No-Trail funds) charged to your CommShare Cash Account.

We’re expecting many more companies to offer these No-Trail share classes over the next year or so.