Hi Folks, Apologies if I’m posting in the wrong place.
I’m looking to set up a ‘share club’ with a handful of friends. I’d be interested to hear any pros or cons from anyone that’s been involved in one before, especially around set up of a constitution and bank account.
Thanks in advance.
Never heard of that but sounds a disaster waiting to happen.
Tax complications, risk of theft, etc.
What are you hoping to gain from it?
It’s really so me and a few like minded friends can pool our money and invest.
legal minefield and fine until it all goes wrong.
why not just set up a club to exchange ideas and you then each do your own trades investing. Years ago a friend of a friend was in a club where they all had to regularly pitch one share (explaining why they were bullish and their research/analysis) and the others would then critique it. Investment club such as that is a great idea but mixing money isn’t and has lots of legal issues not least how is the actual trading account held
Isn’t this the goal of Reddit forums and other social media forums dedicated to finance? 
The club that the friend-of-a-friend was in involved a pint in a pub as well
edit: and was a closed group
I’ve never looked at the redit forums so don’t know what they are like
I would imagine that a lot of people that participates in social media, would do it anywhere and probably sometimes under influence of legal/illegal substances. 
I understood the “old school” informal meetings you described, now the millennials do everything digitally, looking at screens.
I’m teasing you, no stress.
The Reddit foruns can be a very strange experience, specially the “Wall Street Bets”, a lot of trolls, meme stocks, pump and dump schemes, FOMO, FUD, a lot of iliteracy (in every field).
maybe one day I will bravely venture over to Reddit
On top of my mind, I see possible legal and regulatory issues, due to the nature of the entity, investing in financial instruments, it could mean the need for FCA authorization/license.
The “club” would need to have financial reports, do tax statements, have infrastructure (real estate, computers, software, utilities, etc).
To pay all of that, you need a bank account for the legal person created. After that, also a trading account. The bank and/or broker would ask a ton of documentation and information about your “club”, its board members, beneficial owners, for KYC/AML/CFT issues.
Better to have an Articles of Association/Policies about the “club”, its purpose, remuneration, and so on.
When there is money involved, even the best friends can go sour, to say the least. Specially when the investments go south and money is lost. Or when the tax or court authorities knock at the door.
Investment clubs are a dying breed afaik - with fractional share dealing and low cost brokers, there’s little to no need to pool resources to reduce costs.
@comeragh24 I am a member of a share club (joined a few months ago), which has been going for 20 years. Not many brokers support them these days. We are with II. It’s great fun, 9 of us and we all live locally - meeting up at a local pub once a month. None of my friends invest/trade, so this is the only time I get to talk with like-minded people who all bring different sets of knowledge and experience to the group. They are a great bunch of people.