MOve S and S ISA?

A question about : MOve S and S ISA?

Knowing that having (nearly) all my money in cash not a great idea, several years ago I went to my Financial adviser who had set up my SIPP (with which I'm very happy - pays me an additional pension of circa Ј350 per month and is still sitting with roughly the same balance in it as 5 years ago) to ask for advice on an S and S ISA.

He recommended a split between 5 funds with AJ Bell
these are they

ABERDEEN EMERGING MARKETS EQU A ACC
BLACKROCK BLACKROCK GOLD AND GEN A
INVESCO FD MNGRS LATIN AMERICA ACC
INVESTEC FUND MGRS UK SMALLER COS A ACC NAV
J P MORGAN NATURAL RESOURCES A ACC

I know the usual stuff about S and S being for the long haul, but over a period when the markets have generally been on the up only one or two funds (Investec UK smaller Co's and Aberdeen) are ever in positive territory, and i'm currently down overall by circa Ј576 on an investment of Ј4735

Having read Tim Hale, last year I 'self' invested circa Ј5.5 with Charles Stanley for both myself and OH. one in Vanguard LS 100 and one in Vanguard LS 100 and LS80 mixed - one currently showing a profit of Ј960 and the other circa Ј750.

I'm very tempted to move the AJ Bell ISA into Vanguard with CS.

What do others more experienced in S and S think?

Best answers:

• I find it very hard to believe that any reputable financial adviser would setup a portfolio like that as a standalone entity.
  On the risk scale it is about as high as you can get with funds. What exactly did you ask for and agree with the adviser?
  Commodities and gold have fared extremely badly recently so it's a surprise you're even in positive territory at all.
• He did point out to me that I already had exposure to the markets in my SIPP and to be fair to him I do remember talking about taking 'a bit' more risk.... but I think I hoped it would fare a little better than this !!!!
  So overall - should I cut and run and put the money into Vanguard?
• As a stand-alone portfolio I would share jimjames view. It is very poorly diversified with around 40% in mining/resources. Something like 10% in this highly volatile sector would be more sensible.
  However it seems it isnt a stand alone portfolio.You really need to look at in conjunction with your other investments. You dont say but your SIPP must be worth over Ј50K, perhaps getting on for Ј100K. So Ј5K in the highly risky ISA portfolio may make more sense in that context.
  Your ISAs are a fairly small portfolio seen on their own. What do you want them for and when? How much volatility are you prepared to accept? These factors should drive what sort of allocations you make. However in the absence of any other information putting the whole Ј10K ISA in Vanguard LS 100 is unlikely to be a really bad decision.
• Very ballsy recommendation by the FA - not many would risk an angry phonecall a few years down the line with the client asking where the other 90% of the money they invested has gone, even if the investment was done in the context of a much larger portfolio!
• I read someone the other day who pointed out that (i) low risk investing tends to give a low return, and (ii) so does high risk investing, because people lose money and then panic and sell up, crystallising the loss. He, naturally, recommended middling risk investing.