Following on from our comparison of stocks-and-shares Isa platforms one reader pointed out that linking up his individual savings account (Isa) with his family enabled them all to benefit from lower charges. We looked at a sample of providers to see how widely available this kind of offer is and whether you could be benefiting.
Our reader said: "Interactive Investor allows you to link accounts with other family members holding Interactive Investor accounts so that they pay no quarterly charges. My wife, my son and daughter are linked so that they pay no charges for running either their Isa or trading account."
However, he was benefiting from a temporary offer run by Interactive Investor between 2012 and 2014, and new members cannot benefit. But do any other providers offer a similar deal?
Barclays Stockbrokers does not offer lower administration fees if families link together their accounts, but there are still solid benefits to be had. The broker will aggregate your dealing activity if you link accounts, enabling you to benefit from reduced trading fees, potentially cutting costs for the whole family. Trading commission fees start at £11.95 for the first nine trades in a month, then drop to £8.95 for the next 10 trades and £5.95 per trade over a threshold of 20 deals per month. Funds trading is free.
Normally any investor buying an Isa through Barclays Stockbrokers pays an annual charge of 0.35 per cent and an annual flat rate of £30 + VAT (although that is waived if investors choose to invest purely in funds) as well as platform fees.
AXA Wealth enables family members to link accounts and aggregate their total portfolio amount to benefit from lower platform charges. AXA's Elevate platform has charges starting at 0.40 per cent for the lowest-value accounts and down to 0.10 per cent for portfolios worth £5m or more, meaning families with small individual portfolios could save by combining their total.
Steve Owen, head of platform proposition at AXA Wealth, said: "We allow members of the same family, such as spouses, parents and children, grandchildren or civil partners, to link their Elevate accounts.
"Our flexible approach to family linking and our competitive charging helps family members with smaller assets benefit from the lower platform charges available to those with larger funds. For example, if you have a portfolio of £85,000, you would pay an Elevate portfolio charge of 0.34 per cent. If your partner has a portfolio of £20,000 they will pay an Elevate portfolio charge of 0.40 per cent. But if you were to link your accounts, your portfolio charge across the total £105,000 is 0.32 per cent."
AJ Bell does not offer a financial incentive for linking, but families can link accounts under a 'lead' customer, so that any accounts held by a husband, wife, brothers, sisters and children can all be linked together for viewing and dealing access by the lead customer, making the process of dealing and viewing your portfolios easier.
Hargreaves Lansdown offers a similar family linking service within its Vantage set of accounts. Investors can open a funds and shares account with the platform, or a Vantage stocks-and-shares Isa with a minimum investment of £100. Once opened, the account allows you to link all family accounts with a single set of login details, allowing you to switch between accounts and monitor performance.
Danny Cox, a chartered financial planner at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: "We offer the ability to link accounts, so clients can manage family money whether in an Isa, self-invested personal pension [Sipp], or fund and share account (general investment account). We charge for each Isa and Sipp account since each requires separate work, including tax reporting on a per-account basis. There is no charge for the fund and share account."
Meanwhile, some platforms might not offer specific Isa deals, but do give you benefits for linking Junior Isa and children's accounts with adults'.
Ben Yearsley, head of investment research at Charles Stanley Direct, says: "We don't have any specific reduction in fees for linked family accounts, ie husband and wife. However, Junior Isas and children's designated accounts are aggregated with the adults for charging purposes.
The platform charges 0.25 per cent for the first £500,000 held and 0.15 per cent on the next £1.5m of assets held with the company, but assesses the amount as a whole, meaning multiple accounts could tip you into a lower charge.
Mr Yearsley says: "Someone could have £300,000 in a pension, £200,000 in an Isa, and then a Junior Isa and a kid's account on top, which would take them over £500k, the excess over this amount gets charged at just 0.15 per cent a year."
