Jarvis Securities Share Discussion Threads

[cwa1] 17/4/2024 16:38

arvis Securities plc



("Jarvis" or "the Company"

And with its subsidiaries the "Group")



Strategic Update



The Directors of the Company provide the following strategic update on the Group:



The Group will be 40 years old in June 2024. It was founded and has continued to be led by Andrew Grant. Andrew is now working to strengthen the senior management team of the Company's operating subsidiary, Jarvis Investment Management Limited ("JIML") to help facilitate his retirement. There are no planned changes to the management of Jarvis itself, but there have been, and will continue to be, changes at board and senior management level of JIML. These changes at the operating level are intended to enable a smooth transition, and for Andrew to take a step back from that business over a gradual period.



The Directors confirm that Kieran Price will remain as Finance Director of the Company and Steve Middleton will remain as a non-executive director of both the Company and JIML.



A recruitment process to identify and select Andrew's successor as Managing Director of JIML will be carried out with a number of specialised agencies and it is intended that Andrew would retire from JIML by 31st March 2025. In the interim, with effect from 1 May 2024, Will Kett will be appointed as deputy MD of JIML to assist with the handover of relevant responsibilities.



At this stage, and as set out above, Andrew Grant does not intend to retire from, and will remain as Chief Executive Officer of, Jarvis; which, as parent company of the Group, will retain oversight of the Group.

[fegger] 12/4/2024 09:34

Have to say when Abrdn acquired Interactive they updated their site and it is worse since they did that. Quite extraordinary how many screens you have to go through to get in now. And the screens overall are a mess. Their pricing is good and staff helpful but I wish they would un update the site - it was better previously

[phowdo] 12/4/2024 09:16

> Investing has become gamified.

It has. And has attracted a big swathe of younger investors/traders too. I fear it will be those who lose out big time in the next downturn. But they have to learn somehow. Otoh I do have an account with Trading212 and I can see how for smaller accounts the zero trade fees, fractional shares and tiny FX fees really do make it easy to start small and invest outside the UK. No wonder the London markets are moribund nowadays. Democratising personal investing is a good thing. All the flashy bells and whistles and gamification less so.

[thrugelmir] 10/4/2024 11:15

Used to be websites that were style over substance. Now it's Apps. Investing has become gamified.

[saucepan] 10/4/2024 07:02

Melton John. Yes, I do rememember when the interface was under the control of a third-party provider. I learnt that fact when I wrote to Jarvis to say how unsatisfactory I thought their platform was. At the time, they explained they were soon hoping to have the platform under their own control and I could look forward to seeing major improvements. One of my disappointments was that it was never substantially different. In fairness, however, I agree that reliability of the simple things it does has improved over time - but that is arguably the case of technology generally. I'd also give Jarvis credit for the politeness and efficiency of their dealing staff on the occasions I have had to resort to telephone dealing.

I am glad the service is to your satisfaction and thanks for the reply.

[thrugelmir] 09/4/2024 18:12

Be wrong to assume that JIM is being singled out for particular attention. Those that survive the course often come out the stronger. Covid drove a huge spike in trading activity everywhere. Never was going to be sustainable.Active trading accounts in the US are down by around 40%. People have again found other things to do with their time.

[saucepan] 09/4/2024 18:09

Melton John: as you have been a customer for 20 years or so, have you noticed one iota of improvement in their trading platform in that time? With a similar customer track record, I certainly have not and I think it is indicative of unwarranted business complacency.

I transferred from X-0 to interactive investor a few months ago. The resources available to private investors and the whole trading experience are infinitely superior.

Justiceforthemany: it might be. However, when you consider that you have the whole universe of FTSE listed stocks to choose from: is this the most promising? I think not.

I have no real axe to grind with JIM, not least as I was fortunate to be invested to the 300p levels, when I thought price had got ahead of itself. I had not anticipated terminal decline at the time of my lucky exit, but it rather seems that way to me these days. No advice given or intended, just personal opinion.

[melton john] 09/4/2024 17:54

Well I am obviously biased towards a yes having put my money where my mouth is. I think there is obvious upside but until the FCA review is completely finished who can say what that might be. They finished the year with over £5 million cash so I would dismiss the opinions of they who are saying we're doomed. Fair to say that with a following wind from interest rate rises we got a handy boost but that has probably been swallowed up with costs of the review, and with reduced trading and ending of some "Model B" relationships to reduce the risk of financial crime recently, we won't see £3 again any time soon. However, numbers of Model B clients have stabilised I understand and markets are busier so as long as extra compliance costs and changes to charging structure are reasonable and comparable to competitors they should continue to overcome difficulties as they have several times in the past 20 years that I've been a customer.

[justiceforthemany] 09/4/2024 16:35

Worth a punt?

[thrugelmir] 08/4/2024 14:15

AJ Bell charge a monthly account fee. Swings and roundabouts.

[rp19] 07/4/2024 20:06

Useful summary, thanks Melton John. I have an X.O. ISA and am going to switch to AJ Bell shortly. AJ Bell's trading costs are £5 which is less than X.O. (£5.95) and as you point out, AJ Bell pay interest on cash balances. I think X.O. will lose a fair few customers unless they change. I did email and query if they would and I just got a stock response back along the lines of 'currently pay interest at a rate of 1% less than the HSBC current account rate (which is zero) and will let customers know if there are any changes'. X.O. charge £15 per stock to transfer out, but these charges will be refunded by AJ Bell.

[melton john] 07/4/2024 17:20

Investment Chronicle have an article which updates some ISA and Sipp providers varied responses to the FCA. Once again, JIM is not alone in being sqeezed but we have yet to hear the final outcome. I don't normally like copying from subscription sites but the information vacuum enforced by the FCA leaves little choice but to gather what I can from press articles:-

Various investment platforms still do not pay interest on cash balances held by customers, despite a new regulatory focus on getting them to pass on the higher interest rates that they earn.

In December 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told platforms and personal pension providers to ensure that the level of the interest rate they were retaining on cash balances represented “fair value” for the customers.

It also demanded that they stop the practice of “double dipping”, where some platforms both retained part of the interest rates they received on cash and charged customers for it.

“This practice may be particularly likely to confuse consumers and we do not consider that it demonstrates that a firm is acting in good faith, that is honest, fair and open dealing, and acting consistently with the reasonable expectations of customers,” said FCA executive director of consumers and competition, Sheldon Mills, in December.

The deadline for platforms to make changes and address the concerns in the FCA letter was 29 February.

Platform differences

Investors’ Chronicle has looked at the treatment of cash by a range of popular retail investment platforms. The results were mixed.
Among the main platforms on the market that practised double dipping at the time of the FCA letter were Vanguard and Willis Owen. Vanguard charged 0.15 per cent a year on all assets including cash, and then paid an interest of 2.6 per cent on cash balances. But the platform told Investors’ Chronicle it stopped charging for cash on 28 March, “in line with FCA expectations”.

Willis Owen still charges its annual service fee, which starts at 0.4 per cent for the first £50,000 and gradually decreases on higher amounts, on all assets including cash. It then pays a 2.46 per cent interest rate on cash balances.

A Willis Owen spokesperson said: “We operate a two-tiered pricing structure, one for customers investing on our platform and another to cover the costs of managing cash on the platform. We believe this is fair as investment platforms are designed for active long-term investment, not holding cash. It would be unfair to pass the costs of moving cash to all customers as most do not use our platform for this.”

The spokesperson added that the platform sends regular communications to customers that might be holding more cash than necessary to cover fees to let them know that doing so may not offer thebest value.

Meanwhile, various other platforms do not pay interest on cash. Halifax Share Dealing and iWeb, both part of Lloyds Banking Group, only pay interest on self-invested personal pensions (Sipps),for example.

Holly Mackay, founder and chief executive of Boring Money, said that the FCA’s focus on the issue “is a wake-up call for investors that there are generally better cash options available and leaving large sums in a platform account is rarely a good idea”, although she added that there have been improvements across the board recently.

Perhaps the most high-profile change as a result of FCA pressure came from AJ Bell. At the end of 2023, the platform announced increases to the interest rates it paid on cash held in its drawdown Sipp and on cash balances above £100,000 in Isas and accumulation Sipps. The changes became effective on 1 April.

Among the platforms that pay the highest interest rates on cash is Bestinvest, which currently pays 4.45 per cent on all cash held in any of your accounts. Trading 212 advertises a competitive 5.2 per cent on any uninvested cash, but this is achieved by investing the money in “a mixture of products and vehicles such as qualifying money market funds, time deposits and current accounts”, so part of it is actually invested, albeit in very low-risk funds.

In some cases, customers need to make sure they have opted in to receive interest on the cash they hold on their platform. For example, Barclays Smart Investor does not pay any interest on cash held in its general investment account, but offers a feature that moves customers’ cash to an “investment saver” each day, so it earns interest when it is not invested.

[melton john] 03/4/2024 13:22

I've just been checking something on LondonSouthEast site and noticed that JIM are still providing their white label trading service.

[tenapen] 30/3/2024 20:24

Directors

Andrew J Grant
Kieran M Price
Jolyon C Head - £98,156 + £60,726 Total £158,882.
S M Middleton


The British way to pay for failure.

it's also the British way never to employ people who are smarter than you ...... Incase they take your job..... Mr Grant !

[graham10k] 26/3/2024 14:44

Prefix this with https

://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6175111/protection-for-share-isas-over-85-000

[graham10k] 26/3/2024 14:43

Thrugelmir. Thanks for your interest. My concern is,"what happens if JIM should go out of business" and therefore the impact to clients accounts.
I hold a stocks & Shares ISA with JIM value >£250k and therefore if JIM were to fail what protection is there? £80k?
I have found the below communication with Martin Lewis that answers my questions and therefore it seems a good move to exit JIM!

[thrugelmir] 26/3/2024 12:53

What risk do you consider yourself exposed to?

[graham10k] 26/3/2024 10:44

Thank you again saucepan, very helpful.
I will look into this with a view to spreading the risk.

[badger010776] 26/3/2024 10:28

I instigated a sipp transfer from Jarvis to iweb in November. It's still not processed despite me chasing up both parties which is really poor..

[saucepan] 26/3/2024 10:00

As I understand it, you can move portions without issue. See here:

"You would be able to open a new stocks and shares ISA and transfer the funds from the old ISA. If you want to transfer money you've invested in an ISA during the current year, you must transfer all of it. For money you invested in previous years, you can choose to transfer all or part of your savings."

Source [Gov.uk]:

"Transferring existing Stocks and shares ISA to two new ISAs"

That should be enough to get you looking further. I re-iterate I am not a financial adviser, so not giving advice!