[Nigel Bell]

Surely the main point about Carillion is that it is but one stock in a portfolio of high yielding shares. The nature of high yielding shares is that a minority may end up like Carillion but that others in the portfolio will make up for the always possible disasters like Carillion. I don’t intend to change my approach which is to buy and hold for eternity and benefit from the natural yield that the portfolio generates. I am more aggrieved that the directors at Carillion were in effect being economic with the truth in their releases to the Stock Exchange. There were plenty of rumours and the stock was being shorted back in 2016 so those who wanted to get out could have. I wonder also how the auditors will deal with the questions they need to answer. Carillion has gone but that’s the nature of investing – some will go bad and my advice is to move on and enjoy the benefits of the other high yielders.

[Nigel Bell]

Just picking up on the Barclays Smart Investor launch disaster. The platform has been universally slated on many websites for its poor functionality and Barclays communications have been utterly dire. I am going to move my 2 accounts to alternative providers but interested to know if anyone has had any feedback from using the Smart Investor website.

[Nigel Bell]

Hello Patrick I too have a Barclays Stockbrokers account. I agree the switch from the old Barclays Stockbrokers to the new Smart Investor platform has been fraught. It appears to offer less functionality and analysis – or at least it is much harder to find. I noticed an article in one of the weekend papers saying that they had received a number of customer complaints and the helplines were asking people to wait for 40 minutes at least. I also hold a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown which I can highly recommend. The information is easy to access, the analysis is extremely good and everything is within easy reach. There is a charge for the SIPP of course which depends on whether you hold shares or funds (or a mix of the two). I think their charges for the fund and share account are negligible (this is the equivalent to the Barclays Investment Account).

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