Barclays smart investor removed platform charge

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027778#Comment_82027778

They do not all make money. In the 12 months to March 2025, InvestEngine had a turnover of £715K and lost £10 Million.

That is not unusual for a typical Fintech company start up. They burn cash as they have to build systems and a customer base, with very little income. Eventually they probably hope to be bought when they have a big enough customer base.

It seems also they have withdrawn from actively managed portfolios, including their Retirement Glidepath. They did used to charge for these (0.25%) so now they will have no fees at all coming in.

I agree though that it does make you wonder about these zero/very low fee business models.

Even some of the 'big boys' have low caps on fees if you stick to exchange traded products ( as opposed to OEICs), and a generally better service, especially a fully flexible drawdown service.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82028590#Comment_82028590

Some of the "big boys" have low fee caps for OEICs too: Lloyds, Halifax, Scottish Widows, Barclays and Interactive Investor. Perhaps we can add Vanguard to that list, but they are not really competitive at any level nowadays.