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Fastest Growing Fintech Investment Platform, InvestEngine, Launches LifePlans to Better Serve Investors and Fuel Further Growth

By Dominic Sow · 27 November 2024

InvestEngine
More investors will be able to access professionally managed, diversified portfolios based on their risk profile with the launch of LifePlans from InvestEngine - the UK’s fastest growing investment platform. The launch comes as recent industry figures show that InvestEngine has experienced significant growth in 2024 to become the year’s fastest growing investment platform, with current AUM at £900m.  This year, InvestEngine has grown 190%, significantly outpacing other investment platforms. The growth has been driven in part by the significant increase in ownership of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the UK, which has grown by 57% since 2022.  To continue this momentum, LifePlans offer ready-made portfolios that aim to make access to professional portfolio management easier and lower cost than traditional expertly managed funds and portfolios, while also providing a balanced alternative to trading individual stocks and shares, which may prove risky or confusing to many investors.  Ready-made portfolios are already a significant market, with £51 billion invested through three of the current leading providers alone.* InvestEngine’s LifePlans seek to cater to a similar range of investors, whilst providing an improved experience, thanks to InvestEngine’s low fees and existing regular investing automation enabled by open banking-powered Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs).  Research has found that DIY portfolios tended to perform 1.1% worse than the average 7.3% yearly total return on professionally managed portfolios due to mistimed purchases and sales. By contrast, portfolios like LifePlans with a professional making the decisions boast the best performance.  InvestEngine’s own research shows that 37% of investors would feel more confident investing if they knew a professional was managing their decisions and half (55%) rank low fees as their top priority when selecting an investment provider.  Key benefits of LifePlans include:
  • Cost efficiency: LifePlans provide a competitive, lower-cost alternative to traditional managed investment services, charging just 0.25% per year for access to professional investment expertise (ETF costs also apply). With a focus on low fees, InvestEngine has already helped its users save £3.2 million in account fees and nearly £25 million in trading fees to date. 
  • Global diversification and no “home bias”: LifePlan portfolios are broadly diversified across regions, currencies, asset classes, and sectors, providing robust growth potential while mitigating risk in a way that comparable products are not. LifePlans are also free from “home bias - where portfolios have an excessively large allocation to the investor’s home market. Such home bias is common among many existing ready-made portfolio offerings, with some having as much as 20% in the UK - despite the UK being under 4% of the global market. 
  • Behavioural benefits: Managed investment solutions, like LifePlans, have been shown to help provide investors with better long-term returns by  removing the temptation to regularly check and amend investments. LifePlans also help investors  avoid making knee-jerk, reactionary investment choices during market fluctuations.
  • InvestEngine’s platform and expertise: A digital-first platform, with flexible ways to regularly invest weekly, fortnightly or monthly via Savings Plans and more intuitive analytics than competitors, combined with highly rated customer service. InvestEngine created LifePlans to give investors who prefer to choose their own portfolio direct access to the expertise of InvestEngine’s investment team. Unlike a traditional robo-advice solution, with LifePlans investors can select the portfolio that suits their needs up front - making professional portfolio management more accessible. 
  • Not constrained to single ETF issuer: The portfolios are also not constrained to holding ETFs from any single ETF issue - offering broader investment opportunities and helping to reduce the portfolios’ underlying ETF costs over time.
Offering five portfolios designed to meet differing risk appetites (covering 20% to 100% allocations between equity and bonds), this streamlined, expert-managed portfolio solution is designed for  investors who want to grow their wealth while staying within a personally chosen risk level. Andrey Dobrynin, Managing Director and Co-Founder of InvestEngine, said: “It is our commitment to building services and products which alleviate the issues that investors currently face - high fees, poor user experience, and lack of clarity around their investments. Focusing on automation, removing fees wherever possible, and ETFs clearly meets our customers’ needs and has helped to make us the UK’s fastest growing investment platform. The launch of LifePlans is the next step in this journey, giving investors easy access to professional investment expertise without the limitations.” LifePlans are built and managed by InvestEngine’s team of investment professionals and are available for ISA, General, Pension or Business accounts. Investors should assess their risk tolerance periodically, while the InvestEngine team handles the complexities of asset allocation, ensuring portfolios remain aligned with the chosen risk profile.

Companies in this story: InvestEngine

People in this story: Andrey Dobrynin

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