Insiders score
More info4.0out of 5
Now owned by JP Morgan, Nutmeg was the UK’s first and is now the UK’s largest digital wealth manager, providing tailored, managed portfolios while offering vast savings compared to traditional wealth management.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. Tax treatments depend on your individual circumstances and may change in the future. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.
4.0out of 5
23.5%
24.8%
23.5%
24.8%
Aug 2025 Ready-made portfolio performance updated
May 2024 Review published
This is a good option for investors with limited to no investment experience or knowledge, who still have a medium to high appetite for risk, as those are the portfolios that have historically outperformed competitor robo-advisors.
It’s also an easy option for saving for your first home via the
While there is a simple service available complimentary from a wealth manager, those with more complex financial needs may benefit from the complete financial planning on offer, although this does come at a cost that is comparable to the industry average, and the advice is restricted, which means Nutmeg will only make investment recommendations on the products and services that they offer, and not the whole of the market.
In addition, if growing your money in a high-performing portfolio is a priority to you, then a robo-advisor would historically not have provided you with the best returns, as illustrated by the comparison of Nutmeg’s portfolio with the industry average.
Nutmeg offers an excellent range of accounts, with a special mention going to the
General investment account (GIA)
As always, the
There are a few ways that this can be of value to investors. Firstly, they can help you establish whether you have already taken full advantage of all the tax allowances on offer to you and whether the GIA is your next best option. They also offer advice on Capital Gains Tax, and how the reduction to the allowance will impact you.
Stocks and shares ISA
All the usual ISA tax advantages are available, as well as full access to the Nutmeg
Junior stocks and shares ISA
A
Remember, however, that Nutmeg offers ‘restricted’ advice rather than independent advice. That means they will only make investment recommendations on the products and services that they offer.
Lifetime ISA
This is a
Pension
A pension can be one of the most valuable areas to seek human guidance and the Nutmeg pension offers just that. With a free call, the retirement experts can help you identify if this service would be of value to you. It comes at a cost (£900 – £1,350), but the upside of that is the peace of mind you will get knowing you are on track to achieving the retirement you want.
It’s a very tailored service but you should be aware that this is restricted advice. Meaning, that the advisors will only point you towards one of Nutmeg’s products, unlike an independent financial advisor, who can point you towards the best product for you from the whole of the market.
If you are going to pay for advice that will point you towards a Nutmeg pension, then it’s important to know that the pension you are matched with will perform well. Whilst the Nutmeg pension has performed better in the last year, the 3 and 5 year returns are very disappointing, which makes it difficult for me to recommend this platform for retirement savings. We would need to see some greater consistency for that to happen.
If you need more information about retirement, Nutmeg has a useful webinar available which will provide you with an overview of everything you need to know.
Portfolio performance
Below, I have compared Nutmeg’s portfolio performance against those of other robo-advisors to provide you with a like-for-like comparison. They have performed well for medium to high-risk investors. However, I must point out that, when compared to the
Lowest risk portfolio for cautious investors – 5-year average 10.8%
Medium risk portfolio for confident investors looking for a balanced portfolio – 5-year average 22.8%
High-risk portfolio for adventurous investors – 5-year average 44.4%
It is worth noting that while Moneybox offers ready-made funds, they do not risk match you with a portfolio; the onus is on the investor to pick their own portfolio and in this way, they are not considered a traditional robo-advisor. However, I have included them as a high-returning alternative. Check out my Moneybox review here.
It’s worth noting that Nutmeg still underperforms one of its competitors in Moneybox across all risk types and time horizons. This indicates that there may be better options out there if investors are adamant on investing in ready-made funds.
Fully Managed
With ten risk levels to choose from, the fully managed option is provided for investors who would like the peace of mind of knowing that their investments are being constantly monitored and adjusted by industry professionals. You will be allocated a portfolio that consists of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Fixed Allocation
These portfolios will cost you less as they are designed to require human intervention just once a year. There are five risk levels to choose from here, with each portfolio consisting of ETFs again.
Fully Managed vs Fixed Allocation
You will pay slightly more to access fully managed portfolios on any platform so it’s important to establish whether the returns suggest this is worth the extra cost.
Our analysis comparing like-for-like risk portfolios in both categories suggested that fixed allocation portfolios actually outperformed fully managed portfolios at Nutmeg. So unless they can produce evidence to contradict this, I would stick with fixed allocation.
Socially responsible investing (SRI)
If investing in line with your principles is important to you, then the SRI portfolios are designed to include companies that consider the risks that come from environmental, social, and governance factors. You can still choose from 10 risk levels to match your appetite and historically, these portfolios have performed in line with their non-SRI counterparts.
Thematic Investing
If you are comfortable assuming some level of risk (level 5 and above), then Thematic Investing allows you to gain exposure to emerging trends or themes that could be about to shape our future, and therefore offer greater opportunity for growth. This can include themes such as AI, clean energy, and healthcare.
The way this works is that the thematic theme you have chosen will represent a total of 10% – 20% of your total portfolio, depending on your level of risk, with the remaining portfolio being actively managed.
If you are in any doubt about whether this option is right for you, then the Nutmeg team is on hand to advise.
Thematic investing sounds like a good method for investors who don’t want to miss out on ‘the next big thing’. However, it’s worth noting that investing 10-20% of your portfolio in supposed ‘riskier’ assets could result in hefty losses. This may end up more than offsetting any gains made from the rest of your portfolio, as there’s no telling what sort of investments the Nutmeg team may make, whether it’s cash-generative companies, SPACs, or even potential scams.
Additionally, it should be worth noting that not every ‘theme’ has generated meaningful returns over the past decade either. The hype over blockchain technology, NFTs, and crypto might’ve resulted in extremely lucrative gains for some. However, many have also lost huge chunks of their money as a result of a lack of fundamental analysis, such as downside risk assessment, prior to investing.
Therefore, I’d advise potential investors who are thinking of getting into thematic investing to enquire about the sorts of investments the Nutmeg team plans to venture into before signing up for them.
Smart Alpha
The final option for investors is the Smart Alpha Portfolios, which are managed by JP Morgan Asset Management. These have been available since 2020, so no long-term portfolio performance is available, but Nutmeg promotes these portfolios as being managed in a way that can glean greater returns, while also including
Without any significant historical data, it would be difficult to recommend these portfolios, given their slightly higher price. They are comprised mainly of JP Morgan ETFs with a small holding of cash.
Robo Advisory services
When you sign up for Nutmeg, you will instantly be taken to a questionnaire, which will help the platform establish an investment style that is right for you as well as how much you can afford to invest. You will also receive potential outcomes and a complete breakdown of costs. This is a nice level of transparency that you don’t always encounter.
Nutmeg provides an excellent user experience, with a clear, easy-to-navigate interface and plenty of options for managing your account.
Web platform
I found the web platform to be more user-friendly than the mobile app, despite their similarities. It’s easy to move funds between pots, although you will be waiting 3 working days for transactions to finalise, which is a long time for a robo advisor.
Mobile app
The Nutmeg app is clean and easy to navigate, although I have encountered complaints from other reviewers that it has taken on more of a corporate feel since the acquisition by JP Morgan.
I have worked out the actual cost (there are percentage costs below) for various-sized pots to give you a complete picture of how Nutmeg compares to other robo advisors and the sorts of costs you can expect to incur when you hold your investments with them.
As you can see, Nutmeg is coming out at a comparatively low cost in the robo-advisor space. If you consider the performance of their portfolios, then this makes for a compelling argument for Nutmeg to sit at the top of this platform category.
In terms of what you will be charged as a percentage, here’s a full breakdown of fees, including fund costs and market spread:
Please note: all published fees are correct at the time of publication. However, we suggest checking Nutmeg’s website for the most up-to-date figures.
There are several tools and guides available. It’s not a comprehensive offering such as you would find at a traditional investment platform, but for a robo-advisor, where you can access help with your investment decisions, it feels adequate.
Tools include:
Guides include:
This platform is so easy to use that investors with no experience looking to grow their wealth can tap into the actively managed portfolios and leave everything to experts.
If, as an investor, you get to the point where you would like more tools and research available, then it’s probably time to cash out and move to another platform that offers more of a hands-on experience. AJ Bell and Freetrade are both cost-effective solutions for intermediate investors.
All investing comes with the risk of losing some, or even all, of your money, although this is less likely with a fully diversified portfolio. However, what investors need to know is how safe their money is on the platform in question, and what would happen in the event of the platform going bust (this is a legitimate concern as platforms go bust more than you may think).
Nutmeg is one of the more secure options, largely due to its ownership by investment giant JP Morgan, which gives it great financial backing.
All appropriate levels of authorisation are in place via the Financial Conduct Authority and client funds are covered up to the value of £85,000 as part of their membership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Account Security
Accounts are fully secure, with memorable information and biometric authorisation.
Nutmeg has a dedicated section for education called Nutmegonomics. Sadly, this is limited to articles and blog posts, with a lack of any interactive experiences such as webinars, videos, or questionnaires.
Articles are separated into three main topics, including
It is worth keeping in mind that Nutmeg does offer human financial advice, and they are quick to say that this is available at any time to those who need it. However, in terms of furthering your education in investing, this is fairly limited, and the advice Nutmeg offers is ‘restricted’ rather than independent so it won’t cover every option on the market, just their own products.
There is a lot more content available on YouTube, where Nutmeg has regular updates from their investment desk, the factors affecting things like inflation, and what to expect from your portfolio. These are much more helpful than anything available on the website. However, given the lack of control that Nutmeg investors have over their investments, this could be redundant for many.
Excellent. Instant. Helpful. Everything you could want from customer service. The live chat is easy to access and you can expect immediate responses (or at least that was my experience).
I gave Nutmeg customer service the task of changing my original investment choice from the high-interest pot to the Level 10 portfolio. Claire pulled up my account in moments and advised me on how to make this happen.
Nutmeg has a ‘Great’ score of 3.8 from 1,856 reviews on Trustpilot.
As you would expect from this type of service, the account opening process is extremely quick and easy. Have your National Insurance Number to hand.
**Note – It takes 3 business days for funds to appear in your account at Nutmeg. This is significantly slower than at other platforms I have tested, most of which can facilitate instant deposits.
In the interest of giving my account time to demonstrate the functionality of the investment process, I have yet to withdraw my funds from Nutmeg. Therefore, I will return to the platform at a later date in order to document that process. In the meantime, I suggest you look at reviews on Trustpilot that mention withdrawals.
Costs: InvestEngine won’t be beaten on cost. If low cost is your primary concern, then you should stick with InvestEngine.
Accounts: Nutmeg has a
Investments: Both of these platforms are limited to ETFs; however, at InvestEngine, you can put a DIY together from your own choice of funds, whereas Nutmeg is restricted to
Performance: InvestEngine is still too new to have any meaningful historical data, whereas Nutmeg has performed well compared to other robo-advisors, while still remaining under the industry average.
Costs: Which of these is more cost-effective will depend on whether you are seeking an actively managed or passively managed investment strategy. Nutmeg is certainly more cost-effective for actively managed pots, whereas Moneyfarm is slightly cheaper for passively managed pots.
Accounts: Nutmeg has the
Investments: Both of these robo-advisors offer
Performance: In our analysis, Nutmeg’s portfolios have outperformed Moneyfarm’s for all three risk levels, with especially strong returns for medium and high-risk investors.
Costs: While there is not a significant difference, Nutmeg is slightly cheaper than Wealthify, regardless of the size of your investment pot.
Accounts: Nutmeg has a
Investments: Both of these platforms offer
Performance: Nutmeg has performed better for the last 5 years on their medium and high-risk portfolios. However, this changes for cautious investors, who would have seen slightly better returns at Wealthify.
If you are looking for a robo-advisor then this would probably be my top pick, although this is only due to the lack of historical data on the performance of the InvestEngine ready-made portfolios.
Yes, Nutmeg is owned by JP Morgan, the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation. This makes it financially secure, in addition to the high levels of regulation.
Have a question about Nutmeg that we haven’t covered? Ask it here and we will get back to you as soon as possible!
This review is the result of my first-hand experience as an account holder at Nutmeg and in no way represents financial advice.
If you’re looking for the best robo advisor, then head to my review of all the leading robo advisors, where I dissect each one and pitch them directly against each other to establish which one is offering the best service and, most importantly, which one would have made your money grow the most in the last 5 years, taking into account portfolio performance and fees.