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Wealthify Review

as of 03/12/2020 at 4:42 pm

Holly's View

A nice user-friendly robo adviser which actually feels like a pleasure to use. Clear graphical interfaces make things easy. A major stake held by household name Aviva adds credibility. A good option for beginners who don’t want to pick their own.

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We score each provider on about 20 different criteria including cost, service, website, functionality, customer feedback and our experience of the service. All overseen by our PhD gonk!

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Recommended For

Beginner Investor

In a nutshell

Really easy to use

Invest from only £1

Great website & design

Visit Wealthify

You Say

Your overall rating

How Your Ratings Work

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.

Based on 57 reviews

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Not the provider you wanted to review? Please contact us at bestbuys@boringmoney.co.uk if you would like to propose an ISA or pension provider for us to add.


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What to Expect

  1. Investor Choice Awards 2020
  2. Best Buy 2020
  3. Ease of use
  4. Mobile & Apps
  5. Behind the scenes
  6. Customer opinion

Online Investment Service:

Winner 

 

Wealthify were the clear winners by a country mile.

We asked their fans why they rated their services, letting voters choose between Ease of Use, Price, & Service.

70% of Wealthify's voters chose Ease of Use, just 8% of their voters chose Price, and 22% of their fans selected Service.

Best Buy for ISA
Good all-rounder; very strong on front-end ratings

Best Buy for Beginner
Clarity of UX and online journey; simple to use for novices

Best Buy for Sustainable Investors
Their Ethical plans offer investors a clear path to investing their money into “a blend of environmentally and socially responsible investments” 

The website is super simple, easy to use and it’s great on mobile too. 
 
Wealthify presents plenty of information up front about what’s involved, telling you what returns you can expect, what you’d be charged and what your investments would be before you even hand over a name. There are nice interactive tools, of which the risk slider is particularly useful to the end user; accompanied by clear, jargon-free text with good detail. Account set-up was smooth. 
We really like the Wealthify app. It’s clean and has great usability, such as a very simple and easy to understand view of performance. 
 
The display of your investments by type and region is interactive, slick and very user friendly. And it is possible to sign up as a customer through the app. Our only gripe is not being able to top-up your investments without manually setting up a bank transfer or doing so by cheque (if those still exist!). 

The service works really smoothly and is even a pleasure to use (which is rare!). The dashboards and reporting are clear, and information is very easy to find across the account page. Our only issue is it lacks some additional detail for a more experienced or engaged investor wanting to know a bit more about their investments, however there is enough information to suit most.

This wordcloud has been created from customer reviews of Wealthify.

Pink is positive and grey is negative. The size of the word indicates the frequency of mentions.

Ease of use shines out as a commonly held opinion. 

Investment Choice

Products

Stocks and Shares ISA

Junior ISA

Investment Account

Pension

Investments available

Ethical investments

Chosen for you

Investment help

Robo advice / ready-made portfolios

The 'Geeky' Details

Provider details

Wealthify is a robo-adviser, that lets you invest as little as £1. Aviva recently completed its acquisition, so it has a big household name as an owner. Our testing shows that this really appeals to people who are fed up with the status quo and want to see something a bit different.

Investors are asked about their goal (they can select from a list, or choose freely), how much they want to invest upfront, how long for and whether they want to invest monthly. There are five different investment styles, each with their respective portfolios that are spread around the world and amongst different sorts of investments – you don't pick your own funds and shares.

Cost is around 0.8% per year, including Wealthify's fee and the cost of the underlying investments. This goes up to around 1.25% for the ethical investment portfolios.

Important Facts & Figures

Minimum amounts: £1 minimum monthly amount
£1 minimum initial amount

Your Questions

"I currently have my children's Stocks & Shares ISA's with H&L however I am not that savvy with investing so I am thinking of moving it over to Wealth Simple and allowing them to do it for me. Would you recommend this or are there other roboadvisors you would suggest? I am happy to leave the money in long term until they are about 18 so looking at an 'ambitious' risk. I also have the same account with H&L and will potentially swap also."

Funmi, LDN

12/10/2020

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Your question

I currently have my children's Stocks & Shares ISA's with H&L however I am not that savvy with investing so I am thinking of moving it over to Wealth Simple and allowing them to do it for me. Would you recommend this or are there other roboadvisors you would suggest? I am happy to leave the money in long term until they are about 18 so looking at an 'ambitious' risk. I also have the same account with H&L and will potentially swap also.

Funmi, LDN

12/10/2020

Holly Mackay says

Fidelity has recently announed no fees on Junior ISAs - they also have ready-made investment options. If you want to keep it super simple I would look at Nutmeg, Wealthify or Wealthsimple - you can read more about them on our Best Buys pages. 

"Hi! Another question for my most trusted money info site! I am thinking of setting up a SIPP. I currently have a workplace pension and a S&S ISA with Wealthify (also two previous workplace pensions, one of which was 6 years in the Met Police). I am trying to diversify my investments and spread the risk, which is what led me to thinking about a SIPP. I looked at AJ Bell. They look fine, but I'm nervous about doing my own investments, given that Wealthify does all that for me, so I don't really know where to begin. Are there SIPPs which do it for you? Or if not, should I continue investing in my previous workplace pension pot which is with Aviva? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? Argggg, so many questions! Thanks!"

Holly, Sussex

03/07/2019

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Your question

Hi! Another question for my most trusted money info site! I am thinking of setting up a SIPP. I currently have a workplace pension and a S&S ISA with Wealthify (also two previous workplace pensions, one of which was 6 years in the Met Police). I am trying to diversify my investments and spread the risk, which is what led me to thinking about a SIPP. I looked at AJ Bell. They look fine, but I'm nervous about doing my own investments, given that Wealthify does all that for me, so I don't really know where to begin. Are there SIPPs which do it for you? Or if not, should I continue investing in my previous workplace pension pot which is with Aviva? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? Argggg, so many questions! Thanks!

Holly, Sussex

03/07/2019

Lesley James says

Hi Holly,

Good question.

Great to hear you’d like to add to your existing arrangements – and considering how you diversify your money is very sensible.

 

Salary contributions

I don’t know how old you are, nor what your income tax status is, but you say you have 3 workplace pensions, one of which is public sector and I, therefore, assume comes with some salary related guarantees.

The pension you are in at the moment will be receiving at least 8% of your salary from contributions made by you, your employer, and tax relief from the Government.

ISAs vs Pensions

You also have the Stocks and Shares ISA with Wealthify, but don’t say what that is worth.

The first thing to think about, then is the balance of your investments across pensions and ISAs.

A Stocks and Shares ISA may not offer you tax relief on the way in, as a pension does, but it does allow you to take benefits free of tax on the way out. And your money is not tied to any ‘age’ or date.

Notwithstanding the fact investment should never be considered for a timescale of less than 5, ideally 7+ years, if you needed to get your hands on money, you could access your ISA at any time.

With a pension, on the other hand, it is locked up until at least age 55 (age 57 if you are not yet 48 years old) and should actually be left alone until you finally retire. There are additional rules that make accessing it any earlier than actual retirement somewhat unattractive.

When a pension plan becomes attractive...

If you are:

  • within 5 or 7 years of retirement,
  • have maxed out your ISA allowance,
  • or you remain a higher rate taxpayer even after your workplace pension contributions,

then the pension plan does start to become more attractive.

But in the latter case, that question about potentially needing the money is still more important than a bit of additional tax relief.

Your investment approach

For the ISA, you have an approach with Wealthify that you are happy with.

But how do you invest if you do go for the pension option?

Thankfully, virtually every pension plan now offers some form of multi-asset, passive investment approach.

The SIPP and pension designation is almost irrelevant from this point of view. Most workplace pensions are SIPPs these days.

What most SIPPs do now, workplace or otherwise, is segment the features of an all-singing (more expensive) SIPP, from the more basic offering of decent investment funds at a reasonable price. So please don’t feel just to diversify that you must go for an AJ Bell Youinvest-type approach, and manage your own investments within there.

However, to cover that off, AJ Bell Youinvest do offer access to a range of multi-asset passive funds that will do that work for you – from Vanguard, Architas, Legal & General, amongst others – and their own offering, called the Managed Portfolio Service.

Workplace pension top-ups

You should also be aware that your existing workplace pension will accept top ups – and should also offer a managed option.

In auto-enrolment arrangements, these are usually called lifestyle funds. You may already be invested in one of those if your workplace pension is fairly new. These offer the added feature of managing risk exposure downwards, automatically, over the final 5-10 years ahead of your chosen retirement date.

In terms of using a previous workplace plan, or if your current one is quite old, whether to use it will depend on:

  • how old and what the terms are,
  • ongoing fees & exit fees,
  • fund selection
  • what flexibility will then be available to you at retirement.

Whatever you decide, make sure you don’t tie yourself up in a high-fee or limited investment arrangement.

In that regard, pensions have (mostly) moved on.

 

Hope this helps,

Lesley

 

 

Just be aware...

We are not regulated to give personal financial advice - This isn’t full-fat regulated financial advice. Boring Money is a publisher and not regulated by the FCA. 

This means we can't help with specific personal circumstances or recommend specific investment products. It also basically means that if we say something daft, you have no recourse to come back and complain.

We’re only allowed to give you a steer or share an opinion or tell you the facts - That said, we promise that our answer to you is an independent unbiased perspective with no commercial gain to make. If you need regulated financial advice, you can find a good adviser via sites such as Unbiased & Vouchedfor.

"Hi. I am looking for a Junior ISA for my son and can't decide between a robo investor like Wealthify, or investing via Interactive Investor with an investment trust for my son's Junior ISA. I want to invest ethically and am happy to research investment trusts myself. The fees seem similar and both have fund managers. What would you do?"

Rick, Sussex

01/07/2019

Read our reply

Your question

Hi. I am looking for a Junior ISA for my son and can't decide between a robo investor like Wealthify, or investing via Interactive Investor with an investment trust for my son's Junior ISA. I want to invest ethically and am happy to research investment trusts myself. The fees seem similar and both have fund managers. What would you do?

Rick, Sussex

01/07/2019

Simon Bullock says

Making fund selections

If you’re happy making the selection yourself, and it sounds like you are, then I would suggest fund choice will be the important factor in deciding which way to go.

Costs

You mention that costs are similar, so it comes down to whether you feel the ‘robo’ option adds any value.

Investment Trusts

Investment trusts can work well for long-term investment, but there are two added complications to consider: leverage and the fact that they can run at a ‘premium’ or ‘discount’ to ‘net asset value’.

Overall

I would suggest that unless your son is within five years of turning 18 – and therefore having access to the money – then a global portfolio makes sense.

Just bear in mind that most research suggests the best ‘anxiety-adjusted’ return, is found in a diversified basket of shares and fixed interest, and only some funds will offer that.

Investing ethically

As for the ethical side of things, your own research should reveal which funds cover the areas you feel are important.

There is definitely a wide range of ‘shades of green’ available.

Finally, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Junior ISA is a ‘locked box’, except for in extreme circumstances, until the child turns 18. Not even you can access it for your son’s benefit e.g. his education.

 

 

Just be aware...

We are not regulated to give personal financial advice - This isn’t full-fat regulated financial advice. Boring Money is a publisher and not regulated by the FCA. 

This means we can't help with specific personal circumstances or recommend specific investment products. It also basically means that if we say something daft, you have no recourse to come back and complain.

We’re only allowed to give you a steer or share an opinion or tell you the facts - That said, we promise that our answer to you is an independent unbiased perspective with no commercial gain to make. If you need regulated financial advice, you can find a good adviser via sites such as Unbiased & Vouchedfor.

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