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Charles Stanley Direct waives fees for £500k+ clients

Tahmina Mannan
Written By:
Tahmina Mannan
Posted:
Updated:
04/02/2014

Charles Stanley Direct is to scrap fees for customers who transfer £500,000 or more to its platform before 1 April, for a limited time.

The offer, which sees Charles Stanley Direct waive its charge for a period of six months, applies to new clients or those transferring from another platform who move at least £500,000 on to CS Direct.

Customers can transfer or subscribe new money into an ISA, self-invested personal pension or non-tax wrapped investment.

Charles Stanley is waiving both its own platform charge and any custody fee in an effort to entice investors and help offset any exit penalty they may incur from leaving another platform.

Its offer comes after a spate of platform pricing announcements, including from the country’s largest direct-to-consumer platform, Hargreaves Lansdown. As well as unveiling its own tiered pricing structure, Hargreaves introduced exit fees, with the Bristol-based platform charging £25 for a cash transfer or stock transfer to another platform.

The investment platform said eligible customers will not have to pay the 0.25% platform fee for funds or 0.25% custody fee for shares and investment trusts until October 2014.

Charles Stanley Direct estimates that the platform fee waiver alone could save an investor up to £625.

Rob Hudson, head of Charles Stanley Direct, said: “Many clients have expressed an interest in using our service, but some have been put off by high transfer fees from competitors. Our six month fee free offer helps offset the cost of moving. In addition, we will guarantee that if any client isn’t satisfied with our service and wishes to transfer to another provider in the first year, we will waive any exit charges.”