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BMO Review

as of 04/09/2020 at 7:57 am

Holly's View

BMO was better known as F&C before being acquired by the Bank of Montreal. This group was a big player in the Child Trust Fund space and so will have a lot of teenagers today on its books. With a fixed fee of £72 a year for ISAs this is decent enough, but a 0.2% charge on investment purchases will be hefty for larger amounts. Offers access to a solid 10 investment trusts. Website is fresh but help with which investments to pick could be improved.

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Recommended For

Confident Investor

In a nutshell

Old and global pedigree

Decent website

Good service

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You Say

Your overall rating

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Don’t want to take our word for it? We ask existing customers and investors to rate their experience with the company – based on value for money, overall service and the website. We need at least 20 customer reviews before we add anyone to our Best Buys list.

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What to Expect

  1. Overview
  2. Mobile & Apps
  3. Behind the scenes

The Onboarding process is clear enough and some help is given to compare the various investment options.

BMO recently released an app to the market. Whilst it does allow users to monitor their portfolio and track their transactions; the interface is severely limited and trades cannot be conducted.

The app design is plain and there are no eye-catching features or gimmicks.

Nothing fancy - but it is functional and a step in the right direction.

 

Both the regular website and logged-in experience are easy-to-use, clear to follow and allow the user to navigate towards desired information efficiently. However, whilst the website has helpful articles and a wealth of relevant content, information behind the scenes is severely limited.

For users who like to visualise their investments, track their progress and dissect their portfolio, this is lacking and will leave you extremely frustrated.

Investment Choice

Products

Stocks and Shares ISA

Junior ISA

Investment Account

Investments available

Investment Trust

Investment help

The 'Geeky' Details

Provider details

BMO offers a decent range of investment trusts along with the flagship F&C Investment Trust which is a mixed bag of global shares. Fixed fees on accounts (£72 for an ISA, £48 for a GIA and £30 for a Junior ISA) are decent. However the 0.2% charge on investments bought on the ISA will be relatively high for any investment sizes which are higher than £5,000. This structure means this is best suited to buy and hold investors who will not trade much, and who are happy with a limited choice of own-brand investment trusts.

Not for people who want to pick and choose, this will suit those who want a limited range of decent investments from a well-established and well-respected global fund manager, with minimum fuss and a decent website.

Important Facts & Figures

Provider Size:

A huge global fund manager that manage over $850b (CAD) in assets. They have been in the game for a long time, with their Investment Trust founded over 150 years ago.
Minimum amounts: £50 direct debit (£30 for JISAs)
£500 initial investment, £250 thereafter.

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