As a place to read up on ISAs, pensions, funds and shares, the website is nice. Will suit those with a mix of investments who are happy with some degree of choice. Administration can be occasionally problematic
What we say
Holly's View
A good place to read up on pensions, funds and shares – especially for a beginner investor. The website is easy to navigate, with interesting articles and a solid range of investments. Customer service is particularly strong according to reviews.
Customer review
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Overall Summary
Mobile & Apps
No mobile app, however logged-in pages are mobile optimised. Not the slickest of experiences, there are a lot of different pages viewable once logged-in and it can take some searching at times to find what you want to do.
Long standing customers would perhaps find the experience ok, but mobile usability could definitely be improved. We like that the online chat feature follows you on mobile, making it easy to speak to someone at any point.
Behind the scenes
The administration is done on a smaller scale than many of the larger brands. The positive is that it will typically be more ‘human’ and personalised = good. The negative is that when things go wrong its slower to fix them and some of the processes can be slow or frustrating = bad.
We struggled with account set-up and met very unusually tight anti-money laundering requirements. Hard to tell if this was one-off bad luck or illustrative of a more general issue.
A recent site update has made the logged-in user experience smoother, enabling us to both trade and view our portfolio with minimum hassle.
The 'Geeky' Details
Provider details
One of the longest running mid-sized platforms, they focus often on the newer, less experienced investor by including some great jargon-free educational pieces on the website. There's a wide choice of investments that can be held in your pension, including funds, shares and investment trusts.
You can start your pension account with as little as £25. They have a tiered charging system with a service fee starting from 0.60% on portfolios with less than £50,000 invested and reducing in increments until 0.15% for sums greater than £250,000. There are investment and trade charges on top of this depending on the type of investment you purchase. It is worth noting that fund dealings are free.
Users have the option to choose from ready-made portfolios, which can be a great option for beginner investors. Alternatively, more confident investors can construct their own from scratch.
Willis Owen focus a lot on instant feedback and a personalised approach, catering comms specifically to the user and are definitely a platform that are constantly improving their offering. Overall it’s a good pension proposition - especially for a beginner looking to learn more about investing.
For investors approaching retirement, there are no additional charges for drawdown and accessing your pension. These are all included within the service fee.
Important Facts & Figures
Provider Size:
Mid-sized investment platform administering around £1bn
Minimum amounts:
£25 minimum investment - either as a lump sum or monthly.
Willis Owen