Skandia/Gartmore Global Utils

Advantages: Wide variety of funds for all risk levels, low rates for changing funds
Disadvantages: Needs an independant advisor

...Skandia (web site skandia.co.uk) offer a range of unit trust based investiment oppertunities. They charge at competitive rates but are not in any way cheap to join but the products have some key advantages. The first and most substantial advantage is that you get to choose from a wide range of unit trusts. So if you want to open an ISA (MultISA), move your PEP (MultiPEP) or do a straight forward unit trust investiment (Multifund) you can choose from some of the best companies and funs around. You could for example start an ISA with the following funds: Henderson Global Technology Framlington Health Baring UK Small Companys Threadneedle Americian Select Aberdeen Fixed Interest This portfolio would take five years to obtain by taking out individual ISA's with the companies involved. Additionally you can change the funds... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Provides solutions to investment and life assurance needs.
Disadvantages: Can be very costly indeed.

...I was once a fan of Skandia Life and used their products quite widely. Now, however I would be very disinclined to use any Skandia product. The reason being that whilst initial costs may be or seem to be OK things can change to your serious detriment. My wife and I took out a Whole of Life policy in 1988 designed in our case specifically to cater for the eventual payment of inheritance tax by our offspring. All was well until recently when warning signals loomed large as a result of a multitude of errors and apologies from Skandia at the time of routine annual reviews. A great deal of huffing and puffing from Skandia could not hide the fact that after a period of providing a good service, they were now ripping us off big time. The latest monthly premium we got from Skandia to continue our policy was a monthly sum of over £54. We told... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: wider range of funds to invest in
Disadvantages: higher costs

...I took out a Skandia Multi ISA through an Independant Financial Adivser (IFA) and it has been a good product. As with all investments - it is often useful to take advice from a professional. I had a personnal recommendation for the IFA I used and he recommended a Skandia Multi ISA. It allows you to select different unit trusts to put into your ISA. The costs are higher but it does allow you to spread the risk and gain a broad exposure to different geographical regions and investment sectors. I'm not sure how many different funds you can choose from but it was more than enough for me - I was also grateful for the advice from our IFA on which funds to choose. You can either deposit a lump sump or pay in monthly. I found it a good product.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful