BestInvest Review - Is It Worth It? (2024)

Sammie Ellard-King

I’m Sammie, a money expert and business owner passionate about helping you take control of your wallet. My mission with Up the Gains is to create a safe space to help improve your finances, cut your costs and make you feel good while doing it.

Looking for an award-winning investment platform that has self-managed, robo-advisor and expert-managed options?

BestInvest might be just what you need!

Bestinvest has over 2.7 billion assets under management making it one of the biggest investment platforms in the UK.

They also have an army of qualified financial planners with over 300 readily available with helpful advice that’s regulated by FCA. They also pay 4.35% (at this current time) on uninvested cash balances.

I really enjoyed testing the app and setting up an account, especially for this Bestinvest review.

Having had a play around for a couple of months before writing this, I believe this is the perfect app for beginners and more seasoned investors.

However, for those trading more often and requiring more technical tools, you’re probably better off with apps like eToro or Interactive Investor.

See our full list of UK investing apps here.

When you invest with BestInvest your capital is at risk. Past performance is not a future indicator. Always do your own research before making an investment.

In this BestInvest review, we unpack why the app is growing from strength to strength and taking the investing scene by storm with its unique approach to investing.

I mean if you’ve been on a tube lately, they’re literally everywhere!

What I found from exploring the app is that BestInvest’s offering makes it unique by offering self-managed, robo-advisor services and expert-managed options.

There’s no other app in the UK currently with such a wide suite of low-cost investment services making it a very attractive option.

But, what sets it apart for me is the financial coaching. You can book in and get free advice from a qualified financial planner as part of the service which is just fantastic, giving new and seasoned investors some piece of mind.

BestInvest Rating

Useful Features
Customer Service
Suitable For Beginners
Customer Feedback
User Experience
Price / Fees

4.3

Final Rating

I’ve rated BestInvest 4.3 out of 5 using our six-pillar system which we use to assess financial apps in detail.

BestInvest scores best for customer service, suitability for beginners and useful features but could improve on its fees and for me, the user experience needs slight improvements.

When you compare the user experience of the app vs. some of it’s competitors they could do with investing more into the way it interconnects and bring in some wider, more accessible research tools.

If you’ve heard enough and want to check out BestInvest you can visit the BestInvest website here.

Main Features

Mobile app and web version available
Self-managed and expertly managed options available
ISA transfer is available and handled by their team
Self-invested personal pension available
Free financial coaching sessions
Over 3,000 insturments from stocks, funds, ETFs, investment trusts and VCTs

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Is BestInvest good for beginners?

Yes, BestInvest is an excellent choice for beginners. It has a wide suite of investment options, ISAs to allow tax benefits and free coaching.

Honestly, out of all the investing apps I review, BestInvest has really set itself apart with its services.

The only thing I would say is that there are some fees to contend with that other providers do not have but the coaching services, unique research tools plus simple, easy-to-use app means it’s right up there for me.

Check out the best investing apps for beginners here.

BestInvest review - Company Overview

BestInvest falls as part of Evelyn Partners (Formerly Tilney Group). It was founded in 1986 offering a range of DIY investor services by John Spiers which makes it one of the oldest investing companies in the UK.

In summer 2022, Tilney Group which has over 180 years of investing experience merged with Smith & Williamson to form Evelyn Partners.

During the rebrand and merger, both brands had a large roster of financial advisors which now operates as BestInvest.

Account Types

All BestInvest account types and services are regulated by the FCA and protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Below we unpack each of the account types:

BestInvest Stocks and Shares ISA Review

The stocks and shares ISA account with BestInvest allows you to invest up to £20,000 per tax year with profits free from capital gains tax.

You can either choose one of their ready-made portfolios or run the account yourself.

Check out our best stocks and shares ISAs here.

BestInvest Junior ISA Review

The BestInvest Junior ISA allows you to invest up to £9,000 per tax year (as of the 23/24 tax year) on top of your own ISA investments.

The amazing thing is the Junior ISA isn’t subject to capital gains either which means when your child’s portfolio reaches 18 they can withdraw the money tax-free.

BestInvest SIPP Review

The BestInvest SIPP offers pension transfers for you to pull all of your workplace pensions or self-invested personal pensions into one place. They also often run bonuses for you to switch so keep an eye out for these too.

Just like with an ISA you can either select a DIY portfolio or a ready-made portfolio. We touch more on the fees below but BestInvest does charge £120 a year for managing your pension.

You can also check out our Best Personal Pensions.

BestInvest General Investment Account Review

A general investment account allows you to manage your investment portfolio outside of an ISA and its tax benefits.

This means that profits, dividends or interest are subject to capital gains tax if you fall above the threshold.

You can still invest in funds, trusts, ETFs and stocks just like you can in an ISA so there aren’t any restrictions placed here but you do need to bear in mind the tax.

BestInvest Portfolios

I enjoyed playing around with the portfolio options. Although what I would say is they’re not the easiest to find on the app, it does take a bit of digging to locate them.

However, the range of options for investors is excellent.

BestInvest Ready Made Portfolios

BestInvest’s ready-made portfolios can be invested in any of the four account types. They have different charges associated with each fund, but the annual service charge for investing in this style of fund is 0.20%.

This fee is also tiered and decreases once you reach £500,000 to 0.10% and reduces to zero once you reach 1 million. Goals hey!

There are two types of ready-made portfolios which I’ve unpacked for you below.

BestInvest Smart Portfolios

Bestinvest smart portfolios have 5 different options which are categorised by risk.

These include:

Maximum Growth Portfolio – Charge of 0.32% p/a
Adventurous – Charge of 0.35% p/a
Growth – Charge of 0.35% p/a
Balanced – Charge of 0.33% p/a
Cautious – Charge of 0.33% p/a

Inside the app, you can unpack exactly what each portfolio holds. For example cautious is a mix of bonds and equities (stocks) with the weighting almost 50/50 to lower your risk.

The maximum growth portfolio is 92% equities with 6% in property and a further 2% in cash.

As you go up the risk chain these weightings will change to give you the right exposure for your own personal risk tolerance.

I really like that BestInvest offers these and gives beginner investors the opportunity to get an instantly diversified approach that helps them reach their investment goals.

BestInvest Expert Portfolios

BestInvest offers 10 different expert portfolios which are actively managed. There are ongoing charges to content with that range between 1.42-1.55%.

The portfolios they list are:

Income Clean – Charge of 1.42% p/a
Sustainable Adventurous Clean – Charge of 1.54% p/a
Sustainable Cautious Clean – Charge of 1.45% p/a
Maximum Growth Clean – Charge of 1.50% p/a
Adventurous Clean – Charge of 1.54% p/a
Growth Clean – Charge of 1.50% p/a
Balanced Clean – Charge of 1.53% p/a
Cautious Clean – Charge of 1.50% p/a
Conservative Clean – Charge of 1.53% p/a
Defensive Clean – Charge of 1.52% p/a

BestInvest DIY Option

For those looking to do it themselves, BestInvest offers you just that. If you’re not interested in the ready-made portfolios then you can just pick from a wide range of funds and stocks yourself.

For example, you can buy shares in Apple, Netflix, Tesla and all your favourite blue chip stocks.

Something I found was there was a lack of comprehensive investment research when comparing it to other apps. I’d like to see news, analyst reports and some more chart options as I find them useful.

However, I do really like their best funds lists, sector insights and spot the dog features which come up with investment ideas and discuss other investments you could potentially make.

The spot-the-dog feature basically identifies underperforming funds and helps you avoid them. You can also use the sector insights to help you come up with investment strategies and is great for novice investors.

These are features I’ve not found on any other online investment platform and certainly makes BestInvest unique.

BestInvest Fees

BestInvest ready-made portfolio annual management fees

Amount invested	BestInvest fee (per annum)
Up to £500,000	0.20%
£500,001 to £1m	0.10%
Over £1m	No charge

BestInvest anuual platform fee for other investments

Amount invested	BestInvest Fee (per annum)
Up to £250,000	0.40%
£250,001 to £500,000	0.20%
£500,001 to £1m	0.10%
Over £1m	No charge

BestInvests Trading Fees

The BestInvest trading fees vary depending on where are what you invest into.

Online share dealing for UK Stocks – £4.95
Online share dealing for Funds – No Charge
Online share dealing for US stock – No charges but there is a 0.95% currency conversion fee.

There is also the option to make trades via a phone call but they do charge you £30 to make this so I would make sure you really want to make that investment.

Opening an account

Opening a BestInvest account was very simple. I was signed up and had access to my account in under 5 minutes.

Make sure you have your details ready including your personal information, national insurance and bank information.

App Experience

The app experience is pretty pleasant. It’s easy-to-use and everything is clearly laid out which you’d expect from an investment firm.

I really don’t like how it transfers you to the web version on your phone when you press invest. Other apps have this built in and I just don’t see why they do this. It’s clunky and quite annoying to then have to click back into the app.

That being said, buying and selling stocks is very simple. There are nice-looking charts, and research tools. It’s also very easy to see your investment portfolio performance and you can track your performance right back.

There is also the option to refer a friend and you get £100 each!

BestInvest Financial Planning

BestInvest offers free coaching and financial planning with over 300 advisors all across the UK. It’s completely unlimited and is free for most of it.

There are optional upgrades you can do with investing goals advice costing £295 and a portfolio health check for £495.

Personally, having tested the free coaching with one of their advisors you can get most of what you would need out of this. I found their advisors to be very personable and helpful.

BestInvest Customer Reviews

BestInvest Trustpilot reviews rate the company as excellent with over 864 reviews and a rating of 4.4 out of 5.

There are 5-star reviews around top-level customer service, excellent financial coaching and app experience. Some of the bad reviews, however, do speak about long waits for customer service when calling and the lack of a stop loss when trading.

Personally though having looked in detail at over 100 of these reviews the company has a lot of happy customers and a 4.4 in the finance industry is high.

Alternatives to BestInvest

BestInvest vs Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown is currently slightly larger than BestInvest and does offer a wider suite of investments and products. It does however have higher share dealing fees and doesn’t offer the smart portfolios that BestInvest offers.

For me, they’re both on par with each other and there are lots of similarities between the two providers.

BestInvest vs Interactive Investor

Interactive Investor for me is a very similar investment company to BestInvest. II have slightly lower share dealing fees at £3.99 and also offers a wide suite of ISAs, SIPPs and GIAs.

Again, very difficult to call this one and I think you’d be happy with both options. Personally, if I was looking at this from an overall personal finance choice I would opt for BestInvest for the free coaching.

BestInvest vs Robo-advisor services

There are some fantastic robo-advisor services with similar offerings to BestInvest. These include the likes of Wealthify, Moneyfarm and Nutmeg.

I would also put Vanguard into this mix with their Lifestrategy funds.

FAQs

Is BestInvest any good?

Yes, BestInvest is a great platform. It’s unique because it provides DIY, ready made and expert managed options which no other providers currently offers.

This caters to a wide range of investors from beginners to more seasoned investors. They also offer ISAs, SIPPs and a General Investment Account.

The app is available on the Apple Store on IOS and on the Google Play Store on Android.

Is BestInvest safe?

Yes, BestInvest is safe. It has banking-level security including faceID when you log in. They are regulated by the FCA and the accounts are FSCS protected.

Do BestInvest charge exit fees?

No, it’s BestInvest do not charge exit fees. They also cover up to £500 of exit fees or transfer fees from your current provider when making a product transfer.

Does BestInvest have a minimum investment?

Yes, Bestinvest have a minimum investment of £50 which can go up to £100 for some funds. This is active across all account types.

What is the interest rate for BestInvest?

BestInvest pays 4.35% on uninvested cash at this current time. This is subject to change at any point.

Is BestInvest covered by FSCS?

Yes, BestInvest is covered by FSCS (financial services compensation scheme).

How do I withdraw money from BestInvest?

You can withdraw from BestInvest online with no charge. Funds are transferred via BACS and can take up to 5 working days.

To withdraw it’s very simple on the app and web version. Simply navigate to withdrawals and select the amount you want to withdraw. BestInvest then take care of the rest for you and pay the money into your nominated account.

BestInvest Review - Roundup

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Bestinvest review. I do believe it’s a great option for beginners and more seasoned investors who aren’t that bothered about the more technical aspects of investing.

It’s access to stocks, funds, investment trusts, exchange traded funds and the ready made portfolios really makes it unique.

Personally, I think the trading fees are high and if you’re investing small amounts into individual savings accounts then you might be suited with a lower cost provider as £4.95 isn’t cheap!

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Disclaimer: Content on this page is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making a financially related decision.