Author Topic: FNB Share Investor Platform vs Stockbroker vs Fund Manager  (Read 6181 times)

chang9015

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FNB Share Investor Platform vs Stockbroker vs Fund Manager
« on: September 06, 2014, 03:37:01 pm »
Hi all,

Been following this forum for about half a year and only now making my first post :) I know this topic has been touched on a few times, but its all over the place so I would just like to consolidate a few things followed by asking a question or two.

FNB: chose FNB out of convenience since I bank with them.
FNB share investor charges R49 pm = R588 per annum to use their platform.
Brokerage fee of 0.6% (min R80) now trade per transaction. Which means any transactions below R13 333 (calc by:R80 /0.006)  is a bit of a waste.

Fund manager e.g ETF-  STXINDI: (not going to even bother with active fund manager costs for obvious reasons)
TER: 0.45% per annum

Stockbrokers:
zero to as high as 3% depending on who you speak to.
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Following the above, going with Satrix themselves that charges 0.45% per annum, if you equate that to FNB's annual R588 charges, you would need to invest about R130 666 (calc by R588/0.0045).

Wouldn't that mean if you're investing anything more than R130 666 "threshold" with the Satrix fund manager.. you'd end up paying more in annual fees than if you had stuck with e.g FNB share investor? Of course there is FNBs 0.6% once off brokerage fee, but that would be offset against less than 2 years of TER with Satrix Fund Managers? You would obviously keep for more than 3 years for tax purposes, and any years beyond that is less management fees spent.

So if you had a lump sum greater than "threshold", it would be cheaper to go with FNB since annual fees are fixed at R588 (subject to FNB annual fee restructure but it would be minimal).

If you had monthly deposits on the other hand, below threshold then probably cheaper to go with Satrix themselves. Anything above threshold, 0.45% per annum vs 0.6% on amount deposited every month. Keep in mind 0.6% is once off, whereas 0.45% is every year on the TOTAL amount after shares have risen and dividends reinjected etc
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Assuming i'm correct up to now...which i may not be since i'm new to this...i'll go ahead and ask the dumb question :P If you buy STXINDI through the FNB share investor or any other trader platform, would you still have to pay the TER 0.45% in addition to the FNB charges? or is that TER only when you buy directly through Satrix Fund Managers?

I'm planning on investing a lump sum in ETFs but not sure whether to go Satrix fund managers directly or just through FNB or any other online broker. I read through other topics some people have been doing it through Imara, though i've never heard of them so not sure...

p.s i hope my calculations are correct. If they are not, I apologize since I haven't touched mathematics since high school and it has been a while.

If all of the above is correct, why do people still go to Satrix Fund managers as opposed to just buying through another cheaper platform?

Any feedback is well appreciated,
thanks

Patrick

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Re: FNB Share Investor Platform vs Stockbroker vs Fund Manager
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2014, 10:55:12 am »
Interesting question, looks like you're trying to eke out every last rand, which sounds like such small amounts, but even small amounts compound!

You're pretty much spot on. But you need to remember that the satrix charge is every year, so basically if your investment ever reaches that R130k level it would be better off in a stockbroker account.

If you had a stockbroker account without an annual charge then it's a no brainer. ABSA has no annual charge provided I trade 5x a year. The minimum fee is R120, so I need to trade R150k a year to make the maximum benefit.

I've read in some moneyweb comments that you can actually transfer your holdings out of satrix into a stockbroker account just before the fees are due and pay no fees. Apparently you can even transfer back afterwards, but likely that's abusing the system. I've never used satrix directly myself so I don't have all the details.

I've heard computershare has no annual fee, and only charges 0.25% per transaction, but never done the research there either. I've once sent them a mail but they never got back so I'm not sure how good there customer service would be in that case.