Ready to invest but I'm overwhelmed with the number of brokers and services

My solution, since I was only interested in mutual funds, was to bypass brokers entirely and open an account directly with the firm which runs the funds I was interested in, and directly purchase and redeem shares of no-load funds through them. No transaction fee, no broker fee, pretty easy access via mail and/or network...

I can't trade in individual stocks/bonds, or derivitives, though this channel. It does tend to push me toward buying funds from that single family, since it's easier to move money between them than to pull it out and put it back into another company's funds. And I don't have a broker advising me.

Then again, there's the question of how much you want to trust a broker's advice (given that they're motivated to make the most profit for themselves which may not be what's best for you), and I honestly don't feel a need to play with anything more complicated than a fairly standard balanced mix of index funds, and the fund family I chose has so far had a fairly high-rated fund to offer me in whichever category I've looked at -- not always the highest, but good enough for my purposes.

This may not be the right answer for everyone, but it's been pretty painless for me. And "painless" is among my top priorities -- I find no pleasure in pushing numbers around, I don't suffer from the fantasy that I'm going to out-think the pros, I want the investments to work for me (with minimal supervision) rather than my having to make an effort to maintain them.

From experience (i have just invested around 15k in this manner) I would suggest investing in some of the large general investment trusts as they tend to have lower fees and better performance.

Most IT houses run in house low cost saving schemes for regular monthly investors.

Id suggest Lowland, City of London, Bankers, and the Granddaddy of the all F&C - though F&C's saving scheme isn't that good for smaller amounts.

Note that some of the above companies have increased their dividends every year for the past 3 or 4 decades.

If you are a higher rate tax payer do this inside a self select ISA ie don't use all you ISA allowance in cash.

Also if your employer offers a share save max this out if you can afford it - last years BT one returned almost 100k tax free if you had the max amount.

Perhaps try a company like Hargreaves Lansdown. They have share accounts, SIPPs, ISAs etc. Like many online brokers they discount the initial fee on funds/unit trusts so you avoid the 5% dealing fees that fund managers charge if you go direct.

For many investments, including ISAs and pensions, it's possible to go straight to the fund managers and cut out the middle-man.

The yearly fees on each fund will be higher as a retail invester, but you can offset against that not having to pay anything to the broker. Many ISAs (and pensions) will accept monthly payments.