20Yrs Dormant Portfolio still alive?

[BirlingB]

20Yrs Dormant Portfolio still alive? House sold, Renting for now. What to do with the funds?
Many years ago I remember coming across TMF and trying to educate myself reading the articles and forum posts. Unfortunately (or not!) life in the form of work, mortgage, children etc got in the way and time {20years } seemingly drifted by without notice and I never managed to be able to fully grasp the idea of investing. I now seem to have more time on my hands to put things right but the vast volume of information available just fogs me into a never ending spiral of confusion and procrastination. So my hope is you good folk on The Lemon Fool can give me a kick in the right direction!
Back in 1997 my wife had 6 funds purchased for her on execution only via parents broker at the time and they have sat in the drawer ever since with just the odd glance every few years with the self reassurance that they are doing well or will do well in another 5 yrs! We recently decided to arrange a financial review with the same large broker but after lots of inactivity on their part I have lost faith in their ability to actively manage anything we put their way!
The Unit Trusts purchased in 1997 were;
£500 each in
Jupiter UK Growth (current value now £2100)
Fidelity Open World Fund N acc? (was Money Builder Plus) (current value now £2200)
and
£1500 each in
Jupiter European Inc (£12000);
Black Rock UK (£4300);
Schroder Asian Income Acc (was Retail Far Eastern) (£5500);
Invesco UK Growth Fund acc (£5800).
In addition we have 5 random shares collected over the years of circ £10000 current value:
286 x BT
236 x Barclays
305 x Lloyds
983 x National Grid
399 x Standard Life
We had paid off the mortgage and wanted to move house but could never seem to find anything suitable. So last year we sold and rented a lifestyle property to enjoy whilst we look to buy another property sometime in the next 5-10years.
That means we have some £400k cash spread over a number of interest paying current accounts and easy access savings averaging 2.2% with another £100k in premium bonds average prize 1.1% whilst we decide what to do with the funds over the next few months!
We are in our early 50s and late 50s and current income just about meets expenditure. We have the option of additional income by taking a deferred pension in 2022 that would give us a lump sum of £31000 and annual pension of £10418 or alternatively wait until 2027 when the pension is payable for a lump sum of £41000 and annual £14000.
We want to grow capital so presumably looking to Invest in a combination of Unit Trusts or ITs, shares or a buy-2-let to stay in the property market also with the option of dividend income from a small selection of shares. Still looking at platforms to keep everything together and was considering Cavendish.
Well thats my first ramble, sorry its so long but if you can pick anything from it and point us in a more focused and straighter line it would be appreciated.

[Alaric]

We have the option of additional income by taking a deferred pension in 2022 that would give us a lump sum of £31000 and annual pension of £10418 or alternatively wait until 2027 when the pension is payable for a lump sum of £41000 and annual £14000.

It would be more flexible than that, as you should be able to start taking the benefits any time between those dates.

Take a closer look at the OEICs as the dividends may be of a size that you would need to declare them on a Tax Return. Even though they are probably accumulation units, there's still taxable income in them unless they are held in an ISA.

[StepOne]

You could start by opening a couple of ISAs (if you don't already have them?) . You can put in 20k each a year. So you could have 80k sheltered from tax this way by April. Apart from the financial benefits it also means you never have to worry about them from a tax return point of view.

The next thing you might want to do is review the charges on the funds you hold, and compare these to tracker funds/etfs.

Cheers,
StepOne

[BirlingB]

Hi StepOne
Thanks for reply. We Dont have any ISA as yet, so was thinking of opening account with Iweb, II or Cavendish and putting full £20k funds into a S&S ISA for me and MrsB now and then again in April - just need to decide on what to invest in. Hopefully should be able to pick a good selection based on the posts Ive managed to read so far.

Regards the charges? Is that the ongoing charges etc. Still trying to get my head around those for the existing funds we have, for example
Jupiter European GB0006664683 seems to be charged 1.78% overall.
Looking at the paperwork we have against online info it seems some of them have changed names and the GB**** number is also different, something to do with 'clean funds'?

[BirlingB]

Thanks Alaric, yes they are accumulation but having just read some of the 'statements' and tax vouchers and it does say although its 'not paid out as such' it should be considered for Tax Returns so I will be checking the existing ones and have made a note for any new ones we get!