NatWest Invest: Just five funds offered, but ultra-low service fees and robo-advice makes this my top-rated high street bank for investing

• Existing NatWest customers looking for a relatively low-cost and simple entry into investing

Stocks and shares ISA

An investment ISA (Individual Savings Account) is an investment account with a ‘tax wrapper' around it, protecting all your holdings and returns from income tax and Capital Gains Tax. (By contrast, a general investment account does not have these protections.) The government sets limits on how much can be saved into an ISA every year. In the tax year 2024/25, the annual allowance is £20,000.

Some investment ISAs are described as ‘flexible' meaning you can withdraw and repay your cash without it being counted twice towards your annual allowance. NatWest's ISA is not, however, a ‘flexible' ISA.

Junior ISA

A junior self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is a way of investing money for your child’s future retirement, free from capital gains and dividend tax. As it is designed to be started before a child turns 18, it must be opened by a parent or guardian although anyone can contribute. Once the beneficiary turns 18, they take control of the account, however, the money within the account cannot usually be accessed until age 55 (rising to 57 in 2028 and likely to rise further)Junior ISAs allow you to invest (or save, if is a cash Junior ISA rather than an investment junior ISA) up to £9,000 per year. This NatWest JISA is a stocks and shares (investment) ISA.

JISAs must be opened by a parent or legal guardian, although anyone can make contributions into a child's JISA. When the beneficiary reaches 18, ownership of the JISA transfers to them. The NatWest Junior ISA accepts transfers from other Junior ISAs as well as Child Trust Funds (CTFs). However, as I discovered, while NatWest does accept CTF transfers from other providers, it only accepts them for children born before 2009. I have never come across this before and I'm not quite sure why this would be the case as the cohort of children who received government CTFs stretched from 1 September 2002 until 2 January 2011. But it makes this JISA a no-go if your child is 14+.

Cash ISA

Offered by NatWest rather than NatWest Invest, the cash ISA offers a disappointing rate of interest – currently 1.59% on savings up to £25,000 and 2.96% AER on balances over £25,000 – and is certainly not competitive when compared to the top payers, although credit where credit's due, it's better than most other high street banks as you can see here:

Visit our Best Cash ISA page for all the top rates.

Lifetime ISA

NatWest does not offer a Lifetime ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) (LISAs) are designed to help you save for your first home or retirement and come with an automatic 25% government bonus on all contributions up to the value of £4,000. There are stocks and shares LISAs – where you invest your savings – and cash LISAs – where you earn interest on your savings. You must be between 18 and 40 to open a LISA and all income, capital gains and interest earned within LISAs is tax-free, although these funds can only be used to purchase your first home or for retirement. Ensure you are familiar with the rules surrounding this account before utilising itLifetime ISA at this time.

Assets

NatWest offers a choice of five A ready-made portfolio is a pre-made collection of investments that have been put together by investment experts. They are designed to be a simple option for those who don’t want to choose individual stocks or funds for themselves.ready-made portfolios known as ‘Personal Portfolio Funds', which are a mixture of funds selected by professional investment managers at Coutts, and which are designed to align with the following different risk profiles:

• Defensive
• Cautious
• Balanced
• Ambitious
• Adventurous

You cannot add individual stocks and shares, funds or ETFs – the portfolios are complete solution, designed to take away the fear factor of selecting investments. There is also help, in the form of a robo-advice service costing just £10, to choose the portfolio that is best suited to your goals and risk profile.

As these funds were only launched in July 2023, we do not have a great deal of data on which to assess their historical performance. However existing customers are likely to be pleased with first full-year averages coming just above the industry averages. For more details, visit our Ready-made portfolio performance page.

NatWest Investing makes the following charges:

Platform fee

The platform fee varies depending on how much you invest:

• Up to £1m = 0.15%
• £1m – £5m = 0.10%
• £5m+ = 0.05%

These figures are highly competitive. To my knowledge, the only other platforms that offer a top end fee of just 0.15% are Vanguard and AJ Bell's beginner's brand, Dodl. Some other platforms do offer zero service fees on certain amounts over £500k, so if your portfolio falls in this category, it's a good idea to review your other options. AJ Bell, for example, charges no service fees on amounts over £500k, and Hargreaves Lansdown, does not charge service fees on amounts over £2m.

You can pay your platform fee directly from your investment or from a Royal Bank of Scotland bank account.

Fund fees

The fund fee is taken directly from the fund on a daily basis by the fund manager, and varies according to which fund you choose to invest in.

Minimum deposit

You can start investing with £50, or opt for a monthly top-up from as little as £10.

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