We’re very excited to share the first set of annual performance figures across our full range of Wealthify Plans, from Cautious to Adventurous. This is a significant milestone and another step towards realising our mission to help 1 million UK savers make their money work harder through investing. We’re delighted with the positive growth we’ve achieved for customers over the past 12 months.
How Wealthify performed
The graph below illustrates the simulated performance of our five Investment Styles over a 12-month period (12 February 2016 – 11 February 2017) after all fees have been taken. The actual performance of an individual’s investment Plan will depend on the exact date they started investing, so their returns may not exactly match those shown here.
N.B. The past performance data shown in the graphs above and below is simulated, but it represents real transactions we’ve carried out for actual customer Plans across each of our five Investment Styles. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Source: FE Analytics and Asset Risk Consultants.
How Wealthify returns compare
Each of our Investment Styles has outperformed its benchmark average over the past 12 months (12 February 2016 – 11 February 2017). The comparison table below shows our performance compared to other UK providers*.
Source: FE Analytics and Asset Risk Consultants.
How we did it
Between Brexit and Trump, the past 12 months have certainly been eventful, shifting the political landscape and having a significant effect on global financial markets. The fact that most people never really thought either would happen, meant that their effect on investments was all the more dramatic.
The change in the value of currencies has been extreme this year and is something that our investment team has been monitoring closely. When we started investing customers’ money in February last year, one Pound would have purchased $1.45†, now it can only buy $1.25†. It means the Pound has weakened against the US Dollar, so holding US Dollars, as we have done, has benefited Plans.
Our investment team has also minimised potential losses by keeping a tight control on risk. Sometimes, investors make the mistake of focusing on just one company or country doing very well. At Wealthify, we know the best approach is to not put all our eggs in one basket, which is why the average Wealthify Plan holds over 8,000 global investments.
Summary
We’re delighted with our first year’s trading performance. The growth we’ve created for customers across our full range of Plans surpassed the returns achieved by many leading UK investment providers. Whilst global stock market returns have been somewhat exceptional over the past 12 months, our investment team aims to continue delivering consistent and competitive growth for customers. Here’s to many more happy returns in the years ahead!
As with all investing, your capital is at risk and you may not get back everything you put in. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
*We use ARC benchmark data to compare the performance of our Plans to that of hundreds of leading UK investment providers, including Barclays, UBS, HSBC, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Coutts and 64 other providers. Read more about our benchmarks in our FAQs [here]
† Market data sourced from Bloomberg 12 February 2016 and 13 February 2017.
