Charles Stanley Direct platform review

How we rated Charles Stanley's investment features

Charles Stanley is a robust and well-rounded platform that has plenty to offer in the way of asset types, and unique features like an in-house financial planning team. However, its fee structure is stuck in the past – being both complex and expensive in a number of areas. Yet, for a certain type of investor and those with a sizable portfolio, Charles Stanley could tick a lot of boxes.

What is Charles Stanley?

Charles Stanley is one of the UK’s oldest investing companies. It was founded in 1792, yep that’s right, around the same time a little country called the United States of America was just getting started.

Along with this pretty remarkable heritage, Charles Stanley was also one of the oldest members of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) being listed in one form or another since 1852. In 2022, Charles Stanley was bought and taken over by US wealth management firm, Raymond James. Charles Stanley has around £27 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Charles Stanley fees

You’re going to want to hold onto your horses here before you consider joining Charles Stanley and make sure you have a complete understanding of its fees. We’ll explain them as best we can but it’s certainly not the simplest or cheapest fee structure from a UK investing platform. Recently, Charles Stanley adjusted its fees making some cheaper, some more expensive and unfortunately – leaving in a layer of complexity.

Let’s start with the platform fee. If you’re investing in stocks, investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and most other investments – it’s a 0.3% annual platform fee based on the size of your holdings. This is charged monthly and there’s a £5 monthly minimum and a £50 monthly maximum. As an example, if you had a £10,000 portfolio – this would cost you £60 a year (£5 a month).

Now, here’s the first of many quirks – no matter the size of your portfolio, Charles Stanley will give you £50 worth of trading credits to use every 6 months (on a use it or lose it basis). This is a welcome addition because the investing commissions are £10 for most types of investments and £4 for funds.

The only respite is the multi-asset funds which now have no commission to buy or sell. You can also pay no commission for funds (unit trusts and OEICs) if you set up a regular monthly investment. So at least these trading credits will soothe that sting.

For international investments, you’ve got the high £10 commission to pay and then either a foreign exchange (FX) fee or an “international charge”. This is basically just two ways to skin the same cat. If you’re buying overseas investments you’ll pay a 1% FX fee (that gets cheaper with trades over £10,000). Or, if you’re buying CREST Depository Interests (CDIs), which are basically UK securities that represent international securities, you’ll pay the international charge (the same structure and cost as the FX fees) – even though these investments are denominated in pounds.

There are some other confusing perks too for “Direct Investment” clients. For example, a 6 month fee waiver if you transfer in £200,000 or more and a free self-invested personal pension (SIPP) wrapper if you hold over £30,000 in your retirement account (normally £100).

That’s most of the basics covered, but there’s more. If you want to invest in the range of UK bonds or gilts available on the platform, you can’t trade them online so the telephone dealing charge of 1% will apply (with a £25 minimum and £100 maximum fee).

There are also a number of “miscellaneous” charges that can apply to customers in unique situations or for personal requests and you can check those out over at Charles Stanley, we’re not detailing them here because they’re not likely to be relevant for most investors – unless of course you still handle all your finances using a physical cheque book.

Thanks for bearing with us there, investing fees and costs aren’t fun to begin with and Charles Stanley doesn’t do a lot to ease the burden with all the added complexity.

High-net worth investors and those with large portfolios will find the best value here. Sadly, the smaller investors or those with average-sized portfolios carry the biggest fee burden.

Charles Stanley investment choice and stocks

Charles Stanley comes into its own in this category and uses all the experience and years in the market to its advantage.

On the platform, you’re able to invest in:

• Stocks and shares
• Investment trusts
• ETFs
• Funds (including multi-asset options)
• Bonds

You’re spoilt for choice with over 12,000 investments to choose from, covering the UK, US, Europe and Canada. There’s also an absolutely enormous library of over 6,000 funds.

Keep in mind that although there’s no commission to invest in funds, you need at least £25 a month to get started and there’s an ongoing platform fee attached.

The lack of fractional shares is a pain, but to be honest, paying such high commissions – you’d probably not want fractions of a share (otherwise you could pay more in commission than what your fractional share is worth).

Is Charles Stanley safe?

Charles Stanley is a sturdy and safe place for investors, scoring full marks in our safety and security assessment. As you’d expect, it’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

When it comes to security, Charles Stanley has an excellent reputation and is trusted by plenty of customers. It’s been around for hundreds of years and is now owned by Raymond James Financial (RJF), a public company listed in the US on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Your deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which means that you’ll be able to claim up to £85,000 if Charles Stanley were to go bust.
As always, keep in mind that the value of your investments can go down as well as up. So make sure you consider any investing decisions carefully, and if you’re unsure it may be worth seeking financial advice, something Charles Stanley can help you with.

Charles Stanley account types and products

Charles Stanley is up there with the best platforms around when it comes to the account types available. It offers a diverse and well-rounded section of accounts for your investments, savings and even accounts for your kids:

• General investment account (GIA)
• Stocks and shares ISA
• Junior ISA (JISA)
• Self-invested personal pension (SIPP)
• Junior SIPP (JSIPP)
• Cash savings account

For the most part, all of the same fees and investment choices apply to all accounts, the only exception is the SIPP.

It costs £100 + VAT each year if you want a SIPP (unless your retirement account is worth at least £30,000).

There are also a number of SIPP-specific fees that don’t apply to other types of Charles Stanley accounts, here’s a breakdown:

Charles Stanley ease of use

Charles Stanley received a decent score in our ease of use assessment. We think it’s great that there are so many ways to contact its dedicated customer support team (and this is part of the reason for the high fees elsewhere). One of the key things you’re paying for with Charles Stanley is a higher level of customer service.

When it comes to Charles Stanley’s app, most reviewers on Apple devices seem to like it, but quite the opposite for Android users. On the App Store it has an impressive 4.5 out of 5 from over 300 reviews and on Google Play, it has a much lower 2 out of 5 from over 250 votes (as of July 2024). On Trustpilot, the reviews aren’t great with a 2 out 5 “poor” but just from 20 pieces of feedback.

The app itself is fairly limited and if you want the full experience, you’re better off using the desktop platform for investing instead.

Charles Stanley tools, resources and features

Charles Stanley has a decent range of tools and resources packed into its comprehensive platform. The only area where it’s lacking is the social investing aspect, with no community forum or way for investors to connect and share ideas.

With Charles Stanley, there’s plenty of features like:

• Interactive charting
• Watchlists
• Investment research and analysis tools
• Ability to use a range of trading order types
• Calculators for pension contributions and drawdowns along with inheritance tax (IHT) planning
• Articles, guides and webinars providing insights
• The option to use ready-made multi-asset funds
• Market news and commentary

As you’d expect, with such an emphasis on funds across the platform, there’s also loads of fund-related information and research for you to get stuck into like a preferred funds list and in-depth details around things like fund management.

Charles Stanley also offers financial coaching and financial advice services, which is the platform’s main USP. For the financial coaching, you can get a free 15 minute intro session and then each 1 hour coaching session afterwards is charged at £150.

Then, for those that need more in the way of planning, you can speak to an expert financial planner. Charles Stanley recommends those with a complex financial situation or a portfolio of at least £200,000. There’s no listed prices for this service.

The other option is a “OneStep” financial plan which costs £900 and covers major events like retirement savings, reaching retirement, estate planning and a financial health check.

Who might Charles Stanley suit?

This platform is going to be best-suited for those who really have no idea where to start with investing and are looking for guidance and support throughout the whole process – looking to speak to real professionals and not just a chatbot.

Charles Stanley could also suit those with a large or complex portfolio, because it rewards its high-net worth customers much more than your average retail investor. It has investments to suit most types of investors but the costs and fees means that it’s not going to be a useful platform for everyone.

If that’s not you, why not compare share trading platforms to find the right fit to match your style.