InvestEngine for ISA 2022/23

I have made the decision to try InvestEngine as my ISA provider for tax year 2022/23.

Let me tell you why I did that and in doing so take a look at what InvestEngine is offering in terms of fees, what you can invest in and so on. Anyone who reads this blog will know I’ve been impressed over the last few months with what I’ve seen from InvestEngine so it’s perhaps not a huge surprise to hear I’m going to put my ISA there for the next year.

I’m going to talk a little bit about my investing strategy for 2022/23 and finally I’m going to rebuild the portfolios I have in Vanguard and in Trading 212 to show you exactly how easy it is to build the kind of portfolio that I want to invest in with InvestEngine.

Rewind to 2021/22 for a moment

So let’s just rewind a little bit for context.

Last year, I decided to leave Vanguard as my stocks and shares ISA provider. Vanguard is obviously a massive provider, very low cost and a huge reputation in the industry. In saying all that, I wanted to see what else was out there.

I was also interested in picking a few of my own stocks and wanted to try fractional shares – something that Vanguard don’t offer.

So I decided to try Trading 212 for a year to see how that matched up in terms of an investing experience. I have to say it was pretty good. There was something of a downside though. Throughout the last year I’ve been talking about Trading 212 and investing on that platform but there was a growing sense of frustration with everyone who watches my videos and reads my posts that they couldn’t quickly get set up on that platform if they weren’t already on it. As a creator on YouTube and as someone who is trying to spread the message of investing, it’s not great for your audience if, all the time, you are simply saying to them “here’s what you could have had”.

As I began to focus on index trackers throughout the year, I found I wasn’t that interested in buying much more in the way of individual stocks and shares and instead piled all my investing money into index trackers provided by Vanguard and available on Trading 212.

Things like VUSA and VHYL for example.

So what has changed?

It has become apparent that Trading 212 offers more than I really need in terms of my straight-forward investing strategy. On top of this, there have been some changes in terms of costs with Trading 212 and some changes to the app which I don’t love. Jamming the CFD button between the ISA and Invest products is one such change. Doesn’t exactly scream, stable, long term investing to me. Feels like they are trying to pull users in there a little bit. Not a fan.

Anyway, I started to look around to see what else was available to try out for a year – in the same way I did with Trading 212 – and see what experience is being offered by other providers out there. So if I was going to jump ship to a new provider it had to meet a few criteria

My parameters were as follows:

Has to offer Stocks and Shares ISA.

I’m not looking for a general investing account right now. I want my investments up to £20k for the year 2022/23, their growth and any profits to be tax free forever. That’s what the ISA scheme offers us here in the UK. So if there is no ISA, I’m not interested. This rules out Etoro and Stake, for example.

Has to be regulated by FCA and take part in the FSCS scheme.

These things are vital for investors here in the UK – the reassurance that your provider is being properly regulated and that investments up to £85k are guaranteed. Now that doesn’t mean any losses through investments. Investments can go down as well as up, and it’s important to go in with your eyes open to this fact. But rather this guarantee is that if your provider goes bust for whatever reason, that what you have in your account is protected by the government up to £85k. 

Low costs

Vanguard is the benchmark for low cost investing so I’m looking for something to beat that. If it can’t, there better be some very good reasons why I would pay more than Vanguard’s platform fee of 0.15%.

It has to be easily accessible to new users.

Part of what this channel is all about is to get some conversations going about investing for regular people like me. People who want a simple, no nonsense approach to investing.

Now I am not a financial planner, I’m not qualified in any way, shape or form to advise and if anyone is taking anything they see on YouTube or anything they read on my blog as financial advice they need to stop!

I have friends who are financial advisors and I’m happy to send anyone details if they want to talk to them. However, as I am a big fan of simple, long term investing, I want to have my investments where my mouth is and to be able to answer any questions about my investing platforms from a position of experience. From that point of view then I need my investing platform, above all else, it has to be somewhere I would be happy to put my own money in. I have to be happy to have it here for at least this next tax year, and with the ambitious intention of maxing out my allowance. This way, if people come to my channel they can see first hand what it’s like to be investing with a long term view on whatever platform it is that I eventually decide on.  

InvestEngine fits the bill

I said at the top of the video I elected for InvestEngine for this incoming tax year for 2022/23 and here is why.

1. They offer a stocks and shares ISA
   
2. They are indeed regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and they are indeed in the FSCS scheme.
   
3. Low costs – if like me, you know what you want to invest in, then you will incur absolutely zero fees with InvestEngine. No deposit fees, no transaction fees, no monthly fee for an ISA or anything like that. More money in your pocket for investing.
   
   If you do want InvestEngine to manage a portfolio for you, and that might be suitable if you haven’t any interest or inclination to select your own ETFs, it’s still an incredibly competitive flat fee of 0.25%.
   
4. I know what I want to invest in – I want to replicate my T212 Vanguard pie, and InvestEngine have those ETFs available on their platform and are adding more options all the time.
   
5. Easily accessible – InvestEngine has a very smooth onboarding process where you can answer questions about how much risk you want to take, how long you want to invest and so on. I have another video on this channel that talks about the onboarding process so I’ll not dwell on it here. They have a nice website where you can see what’s in the ETFs you invest in. You can get started with a minimum of £100 and top up with just £1 at any time after that. You can invest in fractional shares so you can easily spread your investment across a variety of assets.

Get a boost for your investing

EEEEEK!!!

Update: 19th December – InvestEngine have suspended the offer below… look out for something new in the new year!

If any of this has piqued your interest, I have a link in the where you can get £25 when you invest £100 for a year. It is an affiliate link so I’ll get some kickback for referring you, but this offer of £25 isn’t available on the website. You do need to go through a referral link to get it, so I’d certainly appreciate it if you considered using mine. It’s a nice way to support the channel and gets you a bit extra at the same time!

InvestEngine are actually running a bonus on top of this bonus for new accounts – here is a link to the article on my website explaining that one, but if you have a bit more cash to invest, then there are bigger sign up rewards available.

Anyway, with InvestEngine chosen, I want to quickly run through creating a new portfolio for myself that mirrors what I’ve already got going on in Trading 212. 

You can join in the fun on my video right at the point where I do this with the link below:

And that is it.

We are ready to rock in 2022/23.

Strategy for 2022/23

My strategy for the incoming year is to continue a simple accumulating approach to investing. I’m going to try not to think about whatever as yet unknown new hotness comes along in this next year. and just continue to make consistent additions to my investments as best I can until we hit that magical £100k target. It’s some way away yet, of course, but if you are interested in more independent, unsponsored investing content you can subscribe to my Youtube channel, sign up to my email list or bookmark this blog.

More importantly if you have gotten any value from this blog post I would massively appreciate a comment below or even a share on your socials. Spread the word!

And if you want to see what you can expect from a managed portfolio by InvestEngine then you need to check out how my first two months of investing with InvestEngine went compared to some of the other benchmarks out there.