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Discretionary wealth management describes a form of investment management where the client hands over the day to day investment decision making, such as when to trade and what to buy and sell, to a portfolio manager. With a Netwealth account, our experienced investment team manages each of your investment portfolios according to your chosen level of risk.
To open an account with Netwealth you first need to register, at which point you will be taken directly to our investment design page. You will then be able to set up a portfolio based on your investment goals, the level of risk you would like to take and your chosen account type. Once you have entered your personal details and read and confirmed our Terms and Conditions we will open the account for you. Once you have finished the account opening process, selecting “Dashboard” will allow you to view status of the account and the checks that we run on your identity. Once your account and checks are complete, selecting “Payments & Transfers” will provide instructions on making a payment into your account.
If you already have a Netwealth account and want to open a new account type, you should log in to your account and select the ‘New Portfolios’ option at the top of the page.
There is a minimum investment of £50,000 per client. Lower minimums are available through the Netwealth Network.
It should take you no more than 15 minutes to set up your account once you have finished the portfolio design process.
Netwealth offers all of the following account types: the relevant tax wrappers for ISA, JISA and Personal Pension, and a General Investment Account (GIA) including Junior GIA (Bare Trust), company and trust accounts, which are standalone investment accounts with no tax wrapper.
Netwealth manages pension investments in a Personal Pension operated by Quai Investment Services Ltd. They are a wholly owned subsidiary of Quai Administration Services Ltd who purchased Intelligent Money in May 2024. There is a separate annual fee for the Netwealth Personal Pension of £150 + VAT, which is deducted annually in advance from the pension account. The Terms & Conditions and Key Features of the Netwealth Personal Pension can be viewed here.
We charge an all-in annual fee on the total value of your portfolio, deducted from your account monthly. Our fee rates are:
| Total amount paid into your account | Annual fee rate |
|---|---|
| £50,000 – £249,999 | 0.75% |
| £250,000 – £999,999 | 0.60% |
| £1,000,000 - £4,999,999 | 0.45% |
| £5,000,000+ | 0.35% |
These fees include the investment management of your portfolio, the custody and administration of your assets, transaction fees and commissions, regular performance and transaction reports, annual tax reporting and any applicable VAT.
There are additional fees payable if you elect to receive advice from one of our regulated investment advisers. There are also other charges associated with payments, transfers and personal pension accounts. Full information on Netwealth’s fees and charges can be found here.
We have seven portfolios across different levels of risk, constructed and managed by our investment team. The portfolios are predominantly made up of investments in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), open-ended investment companies (OEICs) and Unit Trusts, and direct holdings in Gilts (UK Government bonds). We choose investments that allow us to diversify your portfolio across a range of asset classes and regions in a cost-efficient way. We are fully independent and therefore not tied to any specific provider.
You are free to withdraw your money from your Netwealth ISA or General Investment Account (GIA) at any time. Please note that the Netwealth ISA is not a flexible ISA therefore if you are withdrawing money deposited in this tax year then your ISA allowance will remain used.
Due to HMRC restrictions, there are limitations on withdrawing from a Personal Pension account before the age of 55 and from a JISA before the child is 18 years old.
Once we receive an instruction to withdraw then the sales will be instructed at the next daily trading point. Most transactions take 2-4 days to settle and payments will be instructed by Faster Payment following settlement. For larger payments above £250,000 we will offer you the choice of BACS (which takes 2-3 days) or same day CHAPS at an £25 additional charge. Please therefore allow 5-6 business days from the date of instruction for the money to arrive in your nominated bank account.
Please note that we will only make payments to a nominated bank account held in your name (or joint names).
With a number of our management team coming from an investment banking or asset management background, we are well versed in the personal account dealing rules applicable for certain professions and have constructed Netwealth’s service to ensure that it meets the criteria required for discretionary investment accounts. Given the restrictive nature of the personal account dealing rules, opting for a discretionary wealth management service such as Netwealth can greatly simplify investing, as the decisions regarding which underlying securities to hold are made by the discretionary investment manager and not by the individual. However, all employers are different and we are happy to provide a confirmation letter to your employer’s compliance or HR department regarding the nature of Netwealth’s discretionary wealth management service and to fulfil ongoing transaction and position reporting requirements.
Our standard discretionary investment management service does not provide you with financial advice. However, you can opt to receive advice from one of our qualified advisers for an additional fee.
If you opt to receive financial advice, the advice we will provide is restricted, in that it will not consider products or services from any provider other than Netwealth. Please note that Netwealth does not provide tax or legal advice, and does not advise on pension transfers including safeguarded benefits. If you would like tax, legal or estate planning advice or are unsure about anything relating to our service, you should seek independent advice.
More information on Netwealth's financial advice service can be found on the Financial Planning page.
We provide an option to transfer money automatically from your General Investment Account (GIA) into your ISA at the beginning of each tax year. We also offer an automated realisation of capital gains prior to the end of each tax year in order to make sure you use your capital gains tax allowance if possible. After the end of each tax year, we provide you with annual reporting for income and capital gains tax purposes.
Security is a vital aspect of our service and we ensure a high level of security for our website, data centres and online access to your account. We use two-factor authentication in order to log in to your account and all personal data is encrypted both at rest and when transmitted.
Our data centres are certified for Information Security Management Standards (ISO/IEC 27001:2013) and operate with multiple layers of security, virtualised environments and secure encryption. Microsoft, our network host, actively mitigates DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, and performs regular
penetration testing.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZA164243) and we will obtain, process, store, use and retain your personal data in accordance with the applicable Data Protection legislation.
We are not authorised by the FCA to hold client assets or client money. We arrange for SEI Investments (Europe) Limited ("SEI") to provide safe custody, administration and other associated services to you. As a result, there is a direct relationship between you and SEI. SEI is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 191713.
All investment assets are held on your behalf by a nominee company, SEI Global Nominee Limited, a non-trading subsidiary of SEI. Keeping investment assets entirely separate within a nominee company ensures that, in the unusual event of default of either Netwealth or SEI, your investment assets would not be available to an administrator or liquidator of Netwealth or SEI. SEI may use a number of third party custodians (also known as sub-custodians) to administer and hold some of your assets. For unit trust and OEIC fund investments in Netwealth portfolios, SEI uses CoFunds Limited and Allfunds Bank S.A. London Branch; for securities, including ETFs and UK government bonds (gilts), SEI uses HSBC Bank PLC.
Any uninvested cash is kept in "client money" bank accounts which are established with trust status, meaning that money held within the accounts is recognised by the bank as belonging to Netwealth’s clients rather than to Netwealth or SEI.
Your investment assets and uninvested cash are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (“FSCS”) up to a current compensation limit of £85,000, per firm, per eligible claimant, for businesses that fail after 1 April 2019.
