Low-cost ETF investing platform InvestEngine passed the £1 billion mark in client assets for the first time this week.
In a LinkedIn post, the firm thanked its customers for their support and stated that £1 billion had been invested on its platform.
That came shortly after InvestEngine released an unaudited quarterly trading update in which it stated its client assets grew more than 200% last year, to reach around £900 million on behalf of 75,000 clients as of the end of December.
That implies the firm must have received around £100 million in just a month – another impressive figure for a new entrant to the platform space.
This has enabled InvestEngine to take more than 5,000 Individual Savings Account (ISA) and Self-invested Personal Pension (SIPP) customers from Vanguard. It even set up a special service to help Vanguard customers transfer their SIPPs across without having to sell their ETFs.
The new Vanguard fee was initially set to apply to investment ISAs, personal pensions and general investment accounts which fall beneath £32,000 from 31 January (investors are currently charged 0.15% a year below this amount). However, Vanguard has now postponed this change until 28 February.
Transfers to InvestEngine have also been boosted by its move to completely scrap account fees on its Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) at the end of last year. It previously carried an annual management fee of 0.15% on assets.
This change brought the SIPP into line with the firm’s general investment account (GIA) and Individual Savings Account (ISA), which also carry no fees.
InvestEngine is able to offer such low fees as it takes the interest earned on customers’ uninvested cash. Most other platforms, which usually charge account fees, at least partially pay that money out to investors.
The platform’s ISA proved popular last year, attracting £218 million worth of new deposits. The business also launched a range of low cost managed ETF portfolios called Lifeplans.
Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.
You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com
