Wealthify review: Better options are available

Wealthify is really easy and simple to use and they provide a decent level of customer service, but this isn’t enough to make me recommend this platform. Regardless of what type of investor you are, there are better options out there for everyone.

Hopefully, the injection of financial backing from Aviva will bring about some much needed changes here.

General investment account (GIA)
There’s very little substance to the General Investment Account (GIA) and if you were dead set on using Wealthify, the likelihood would be that you were completely new to investing and would therefore be better off with an ISA (assuming you haven’t already opened an ISA elsewhere and used up your £20,000 allowance).

On a positive note, you can get started with just £1, and there are 5 original portfolios and 5 ethical portfolios to choose from. There are also monthly direct debits available that allow you to automatically drip feed your money into the market, although that is a fairly standard offering and Wealthify offers no round up, or payday boosts to enhance your savings.

*Read more about GIAs

Outside of the GIA, there are 3 other investment accounts that carry all the same features as the GIA in a tax efficient way. They include:

• Stocks and shares ISA
• Junior stocks and shares ISA
• Personal Pension

The only difference I could find between these accounts was with the pension, where there is a starting amount of £50, and, of course, the automatic government bonus that is standard with all pension accounts. There is very limited information available about the investments you can hold within these accounts but I have done my best to make sense of what they do offer. Needless to say, it's simply a matter of answering a few questions to determine your risk level and getting matched to one of the ready-made portfolios.

Investment Options
Regardless of which investment account you choose to open at Wealthify, the investment options are the same. My immediate issue with this is that on many of the other platforms, people saving for their retirement will have pension portfolios specifically designed for that purpose. I realise it may sound like I’m dragging Wealthify over the coals here, but the purpose of having specially designed pension funds is that they adjust as you get closer to retirement, reducing your exposure to risk. As far as I can tell, Wealthify assesses your risk as you come through their virtual doors, matches you with a portfolio, and that’s the job done. The investments are passively managed, which means there is minimal intervention beyond that point, other than the odd tweak here and there.

I’m not saying that passively managed investments are a bad thing; indeed, our preliminary analysis of this has indicated that the additional cost of actively managed portfolios may not always result in further gains. However, you still expect portfolios to perform well, and in this instance, they haven’t. And a platform does need to provide the tools and services to justify its cost, which I don’t think is the case here.

Ethical Investments
There are five ethical plans on offer at Wealthify; which one is best suited to you will depend on your risk profile. The ethical portfolios exclude any assets that could be deemed harmful and instead seek to gain exposure to organisations that are making a positive impact on society. There are 18 funds that are used to create each portfolio, all managed by the likes of Vanguard, Rathbone, Liontrust and Royal London, to name a few. Average fund charges are higher on ethical plans so you can expect to pay slightly more for this option.

Savings accounts
There’s just one savings account at Wealthify. It’s not an ISA so you should be aware that you would be subject to tax on any gains. If you would like to save into a cash ISA with easy access, then Moneybox provides one with a better interest rate than you will find here. Check out my Moneybox review for more information on this.

At the time of this review, Wealthify was offering 4.91% AER on their Instant Access Savings Account.

This makes for pretty grim reading, especially for the medium and high risk portfolios. The numbers really speak for themselves, but in case you are in any doubt, I’ve had our senior equity analyst give us his take, which you can read just below these tables.

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%

Missing from this data is InvestEngine, as despite our best efforts, InvestEngine was unwilling to release any data relating to the past performance of their portfolios.

There are two platforms available on web and mobile.
Web platform

This is one of the simplest platforms I have encountered. It could not be easier to perform transactions, create new plans, or move money between plans. Savings and investing are two separate tabs at the top of the page to keep things really simple. Of course, the lack of choice or functionality makes this kind of user experience easier to achieve.

Mobile app
As far as investment apps go, this one is actually a pleasure to use. However, this could be due to the very limited services provided. Whatever the reason, this is a really easy-to-navigate app with clear, concise functionality and access to live chat. There is a biometric ID and a pin for accessing your account.

More bad news for Wealthify here. Poor historical performance, with fees at the higher end of the passively managed spectrum, makes for a fairly grim combination. They aren’t the most expensive option for this kind of service; that accolade goes to Moneybox, but when you factor in the really high returns Moneybox has historically achieved when compared to other robo-advisors, it starts to look like it’s worth the additional cost.

Actual fees at Wealthify are calculated as a percentage of your holdings, as follows:

These fees are correct at time of publication, however I would always recommend that you check the Wealthify website for any changes.

This would usually be divided into two sections for a review, with education having its own space. However, in this instance, it seemed appropriate to combine this information, as it is all combined in the form of articles on Wealthify. Categories include:

• Investing
• Junior
• Future planning
• Retirement planning
• Ethical
• News and performance
• Budgeting and saving

While the information is decent, well presented, and constantly updated, it does lack anything interactive for those looking to improve their knowledge of investing. That being said, Wealthify is one of those apps that takes all the major decisions out of your hands and does the whole thing for you, so tools and research wouldn’t be as important here than at other platforms where you are picking and choosing your own assets.

I will touch on the regulations and safety measures in place, but the first thing to note when it comes to safety is that the majority shareholder is Aviva. Having the backing of a financial giant means that there is less concern that Wealthify could fail as a business.

In terms of regulation, Wealthify is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and in addition, all client funds are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to the value of £85,000.

Account security
Biometric ID on the app, as well as a pin and password for the web platform, ensure all your data remains secure.

Once you have navigated your way past the chatbot, the human advisors are helpful and prompt at answering queries. The chatbot will ask you all sorts of questions about your account details and try to answer your query before handing you over. If, like me, you prefer to speak to an actual human, this can be slightly irritating. Hence, Wealthify has lost a mark in its customer service score.

The other option is to contact Wealthify via telephone at 0800 802 1800, or alternatively, send a secure message via the app. Customer service is available weekdays from 8am to 6.30 pm and on Saturdays between 9am and 12.30 pm.

Wealthify has scored ‘Great’ with 4.0 from 2,286 reviews on Trustpilot.

Expect a quick and easy, fully digital account opening process.

** Note – It takes 3 business days for your funds to appear in your Wealthify account. There are other platforms that offer 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 Wealthify. 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.

Have a question about Wealthify 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 Wealthify 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.