- Good Money Guide experts rate IG's Smart Portfolios highly, noting their competitive pricing and strong performance history, particularly praising the low management fees and the diversified investment strategy developed in collaboration with Blackrock. However, they caution that the portfolios have experienced erratic performance in certain years, which may concern potential investors.
- Across 746 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 4/5, customers frequently commend the platform's ease of use, reliability, and comprehensive range of investment options. Many users appreciate the seamless integration of trading and investing features, while some express concerns about occasional performance issues and the platform's minimum investment requirement.
IG's Smart Portfolios Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.Our experts have rated IG's Smart Portfolios across five key areas of our review framework.
- Pricing5.0
- Market Access4.5
- Online Platform5.0
- Customer Service5.0
- Research & Analysis5.0
Pros
- Cheaper than other robo-advisors
- Blackrock investment style
- Diversified portfolios
Cons
- Erratic performance
- A high minimum of £500
See full expert review
Our verdict
IG Smart Portfolio have been developed in conjunction with Blackrock, and let you invest in series of six smart diversified investment style portfolios including stocks, bonds and commodities that range from conservative through to aggressive risk/reward.
Are IG Smart Portfolios any good?
IG Smart portfolios are a great way to invest in pre-made managed portfolios with one of the UK's largest investing and trading platforms. IG's robo advisor offering are cheaper than other robo-advisors, follow the well-tested Blackrock investment style in diversified portfolios.
IG Group is probably best known as a provider of margin trading services be that FX, CFDs or Spread Betting, but they also acts as a stockbroker and fund manager and provide Smart Portfolios in conjunction with one of the world’s largest asset managers, Blackrock.
There are six IG smart portfolios which were launched at the end of February 2017 which either replicated existing BlackRock products were created specifically for IG, by BlackRock. BlackRock is best known as an originator of ETFs and other passive investments however the products it produced for IG are not index trackers.
The minimum investment for IG Smart Portfolios is £500 and you can request a withdrawal from your account at anytime and your portfolio will be reduced to cover the withdrawal amount.
Fee reductions
Back in 2020, IG announced that it was reducing the management fees it charges on the smart portfolios to just 0.50% per annum, and it also capped those fees at £250 a year. According to IG's Smart portfolio price comparison, their portfolios work out significantly cheaper than robo-advisor competitors, Wealthify, Moneyfarm and Nutmeg.
As IG Smart Portfolio fees are capped at £250 a year, it means that anything you invest above £50k is effectively fee-free.
Investment Strategy
IG Smart Portfolios are smart beta funds, rather than index trackers. Smart beta is an investment style that tries to benefit from idiosyncratic features associated with particular groups of stocks this is also known as factor investing. These factors or characteristics include traits and identifiers such as value, growth, momentum, size, low volatility and others.
The thinking behind this approach is that by identifying and isolating these factors we can create portfolios which could outperform or are uncorrelated to a broad market basket.
This is the type of strategy that Hedge Funds might employ.
Smart beta portfolios such as those offered by IG stockbrokers aim to bring these quantitative and qualitative investment approaches to their clients, via low-cost vehicles.
Performance
IG Smart portfolios have a six-year track record and generally perform well. Overall the growth portfolio generated the best returns for investors, with the Aggressive fund lagging due to it's shorter run time and early losses in 2018 doubtless caused by the sharp selloff in the markets at the end of that year.
However, it's been a bit of a rocky ride with some portfolios having losing years, especially 2022 when they all took a battering. The chart below shows each portfolio's yearly performance but does not include 2023, which you would expect to be good seeing as the overall markets are up around 20%.
Investing versus trading at IG
Despite this positive performance the fund management business has not caught the imagination of the IG client base in the same way that say trading CFDs or Spread bets on equity indices have.
For example, in the FY 2019 margin trading clients generated revenues of £454 million pounds for IG, whilst the investments and stockbroking division returned revenues of just £5.9 million. A positive result but a drop in the ocean when compared to the margin trading business.
Since the departure of former CEO Peter Hetherington IG has made no secret of its desire to broaden both its product range and customer base. It has recently recruited both a new chairman and a head of institutional business, with that in mind.
The reduction in fees, and in some cases the removal of them altogether, in the Smart portfolio's business is doubtless aimed at growing both funds under management and annual revenues.
Welcome though this cost reduction is, we can’t help but feel that the existing funds IG offers are somewhat staid when compared to what's available elsewhere and the type of products and trading the wider group is involved in
IG would surely be able to attract money to funds that replicated or in some way participated in the firm’s own trading book
After all the business takes no directional view on the market but rather hedges customer flows, once the firm’s risk reaches certain predetermined levels.
You can count the number of losing days that IG experiences in a year, on the fingers of one hand and surely that's the kind return that people would be prepared to pay up for.
Customer reviews for IG
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 746 reviews
- Excellent38%
- Very good36%
- Basic18%
- Poor5%
- Bad3%
Read customer reviews
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Darren Fox @ 05/06/2020 10:48
This company charges way too much for overnight fees , Its not really worth trading with them and when markets are volatile they raise their commission too . You cannot get hold of them by phone at all unless you are trying to signup then miraculously they are available , I am dubious about the reviews on here I think the 5 star one could be fake . RIPOFF
Nuri @ 04/02/2020 07:25
it is a great company offering an amazing product, always in front in terms of offering and technology
Alex Jones @ 02/28/2020 12:49
Best platform to use, fast entry and exit. I usually use Spread betting just for the tax benefits and not the leverage.
Mr Smith @ 08/10/2019 04:24
IG is NOT an options trading platform. It is a spreadbetting / CFD platform. You can only take out CFDs or place spread bets with IG. You never actually own the options that the CFD or spread bet is based on. You are basically just betting on variations in the price of the option.
There are very few advantages to doing this. As option prices vary with the underlying, you may as well just bet on the underlying instead. Betting on the option instead just introduces another layer of complexity.
Saleem Akbar @ 05/09/2019 08:15
I have been with IG for many years, the main reason being I really like their charting software. However, since they have reduced leverage, after the European directive, their spreads have become even wider, probably to make up for the fact that one is forced to use smaller trade sizes. The worse thing currently about IG is the spreads that they apply to Indices and Equities. If they can reduce their spreads then I think it would be the best online broker for sure.
Nicos Dem @ 05/02/2019 12:15
Super satisfied from IG
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
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