An interesting new ISA concept
Wellesley’s new stocks and shares ISA is set to combine competitive returns and simplicity. Managing director Luke Madden explains how…
WELLESLEY HAS BEEN teasing a major new investment product for the past few months, but it is finally time for the big reveal. The platform’s first ever stocks and shares ISA will be released to new and existing customers in the very near future, and it truly offers something different.
Unlike many other stocks and shares ISAs, the Wellesley offering will hold just one type of product – Wellesley listed bonds. This means that the ISA will effectively allow Wellesley investors to benefit from competitive rates from bond products, but via a tax-free wrapper. “
We worked really hard to develop an ISA offering from Wellesley which is simple and straightforward, focusing on what our customers really want,” says Luke Madden, managing director of Wellesley.
“Our stocks and shares ISA will only hold our regulated, listed bonds, with all the fixed interest element of the bond set in advance. You can hold the investment in a tax-efficient wrapper and you can do it all on our own platform.”
Wellesley’s stocks and shares ISA was created purely in response to customer demand. According to Madden, the platform’s investors asked for a tax-efficient product that would offer above average returns, while still allowing them to benefit from Wellesley’s diverse property portfolio.
Earlier this year, Wellesley received new regulatory permissions that allow the platform to distribute its own investments and arrange to hold them in ISA wrappers, and a new investment concept was born.
At the time of writing, the fixed interest rates were still to be confirmed, but Madden says that they will certainly be “the competitive rates which our customers are used to”.
“Our ISA product will be offered on a fixed rate, fixed term basis and we will share these benefits with our existing customers as well as our new customers,” says Madden.
“Stocks and shares ISAs can often be seen as quite complicated, but it depends on the underlying product and the investments that are held within them,” he adds. “What we are offering is very simple.”
Wellesley plans to roll out its stocks and shares ISA within the coming weeks and shortly thereafter all of its existing mini-bond customers will have the opportunity to switch like-for-like into the regulated, listed bond products.
“We feel that our ISA offers the best of both worlds as it has the simplicity associated with a cash ISA, but the added value associated with stocks and shares or an Innovative Finance ISA,” says Madden.
“It offers less volatility than most stocks and shares ISAs as the product itself will only hold our regulated, listed bonds. These new authorisations enable us to put this all in one place on our platform to make it really straightforward and a wonderful experience for the customer.”
Pre-launch demand is already high, and the Wellesley ISA is sure to be greeted with plenty of interest from alternative finance fans of all stripes.
This article featured in the June issue of Peer2Peer Finance News, now available to read online.