General Investment Account (GIA)
The freedom to invest on your terms.
✓ Invest as much as you like with no upper limit and low management fees.
✓ Access the same expertly managed investment Plans as our Stocks & Shares ISA.
With investing, your capital is at risk. Tax on investments depends on your individual circumstances and can change. Minimum initial deposit of £1,000 required.
How to open a General Investment Account
Setting up a Wealthify GIA is easy. In fact, all it takes is three simple steps:
You choose
From Cautious to Adventurous, Original or Ethical; start by telling us what type of investor you want to be.
We invest
Once we’ve established your investment style, our experts will build your General Investment Account Plan with just the right mix of investments.
We optimise
Then we do all the work for you — monitoring, adjusting, and keeping your Plan on track, so you don't have to.
Our awards
Why choose Wealthify's GIA?
✓ Cost-effective: Our experts use a blend of active and passive investment funds — including stocks, bonds and property — to build your Plan and keep costs low.
✓ Managed by experts: Our investment team manages your portfolio, so you can spend more time on what really matters.
✓ Flexible account: Whether you’re making a one-off deposit or setting up regular payments, a Wealthify GIA lets you invest on your terms.
✓ Free deposits and withdrawals: Unlike traditional providers, we don’t charge for deposits, withdrawals, transfers or closing your GIA.
✓ Unlimited investing: There’s no cap on how much you can invest, so a GIA is a good option if you’ve used your annual £20,000 ISA allowance but still want to invest more.
Choose from 5 investment styles
From Cautious to Adventurous, all of our Plans are expertly managed as part of your Wealthify fee.
Level 1: Cautious
The focus is on preserving money rather than making large gains.
This Plan aims to have approximately 90% in cash and cash-like assets, with the remainder in low-risk assets such as Corporate Bonds. Small movements up and down in Plan value are to be expected.
Level 2: Tentative
The focus is on limiting losses rather than making high returns.
This Plan aims to have approximately 55% in lower risk assets, with the remainder in higher risk funds made up of global companies. Moderate movements up and down in value are to be expected.
Level 3: Confident
Making gains and controlling potential losses are equally important.
This Plan aims to have approximately 65% invested in higher risk funds made up of global companies, with the remainder in lower risk assets. This Plan sees movements up and down in value, with the aim of getting good returns.
Level 4: Ambitious
Making gains is a priority.
This Plan aims to have approximately 75% invested in higher risk funds made up of global companies, with the remainder in lower risk assets. In order to try and achieve high returns, this Plan could see large movements up and down in value.
Level 5: Adventurous
Maximising gains is a priority.
This Plan aims to have approximately 95% invested in higher risk funds made up of global companies, with the remainder in lower risk assets. In order to try and achieve high returns, this Plan could see substantial movements up and down in value.
How your money's invested
We invest your money using passive and active investments called mutual funds.
These funds contain a collection of investments – including shares, bonds, and property – and provide the following benefits:
- A convenient, cost-effective way to invest.
- Diversification, meaning your risk is spread.
- Your money tracks entire markets, like the FTSE 100.
Even though the mix of funds will change over time, our team of experts optimise your Plan regularly, keeping it in line with your chosen investment style.
See how our Plans have performed
The graph below shows how each of our investment styles - from Cautious to Adventurous - have performed between 29th February 2016 and 31st December 2025, after all fees have been taken (based on 0.60% p.a. Wealthify management fee). These figures are based on the performance of Plans worth more than £100, figures will be different for Plans below that amount.
Original
Ethical
Of course, we experienced the ups and downs of the market along the way and you could get back less than you put in. Although we cannot rely on past performance to predict future results investing for the long-term (5 years or more) typically delivers positive returns. These figures are after all fees have been taken (based on 0.60% p.a Wealthify management charge), and are based on the performance of Plans worth more than £100 and will be different for Plans below that amount.
Plan performance by year
This table shows by how much each of our investment styles have grown each year
| Investment Style | 31/12/2019 - 31/12/2020 | 31/12/2020 - 31/12/2021 | 31/12/2021 - 31/12/2022 | 30/12/2022 - 30/12/2023 | 29/12/2023 - 29/12/2024 | 30/12/2024 - 30/12/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cautious | 2.70% | 0.47% | -11.19% | 4.65% | 1.05% | 6.08% |
| Tentative | 3.88% | 3.72% | -10.82% | 6.21% | 3.36% | 8.02% |
| Confident | 4.87% | 6.66% | -10.33% | 7.76% | 6.09% | 9.93% |
| Ambitious | 5.11% | 9.66% | -9.39% | 9.46% | 9.10% | 11.58% |
| Adventurous | 5.06% | 12.75% | -9.14% | 11.35% | 12.27% | 12.95% |
See how our Plans have performed
The graph below shows how each of our investment styles - from Cautious to Adventurous - have performed between 28th February 2018 and 31st December 2025, after all fees have been taken (based on 0.60% p.a. Wealthify management fee). These figures are based on the performance of Plans worth more than £100, figures will be different for Plans below that amount.
Original
Ethical
Of course, we experienced the ups and downs of the market along the way and you could get back less than you put in. Although we cannot rely on past performance to predict future results investing for the long-term (5 years or more) typically delivers positive returns. These figures are after all fees have been taken (based on 0.60% p.a Wealthify management charge), and are based on the performance of Plans worth more than £100 and will be different for Plans below that amount.
Plan performance by year
This table shows by how much each of our investment styles have grown each year
| Investment Style | 31/12/2019 - 31/12/2020 | 31/12/2020 - 31/12/2021 | 31/12/2021 - 31/12/2022 | 30/12/2022 - 30/12/2023 | 29/12/2023 - 29/12/2024 | 30/12/2024 - 30/12/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cautious | 4.14% | 0.73% | -14.93% | 4.80% | 0.70% | 5.22% |
| Tentative | 6.45% | 4.11% | -15.65% | 6.85% | 2.77% | 5.75% |
| Confident | 9.04% | 7.63% | -16.51% | 8.81% | 5.01% | 6.12% |
| Ambitious | 11.16% | 11.18% | -17.42% | 11.08% | 7.34% | 5.64% |
| Adventurous | 13.43% | 14.65% | -18.72% | 13.63% | 9.98% | 5.63% |
Understanding tax on your GIA
Like any investment account outside of a Stocks and Shares ISA or personal pension, a GIA may have some tax considerations. But for many investors, the impact is smaller than you might expect.
Any income from your investments may be subject to Income Tax, and profits made when you sell investments could be liable for Capital Gains Tax (CGT), but only on gains above your annual CGT allowance of £3,000. Depending on your circumstances, you may find you have little to no tax to pay at all.
Tax on investments depends on your individual circumstances and can change.
Customer reviews
Month in the Markets
Month in the Markets: February 2026
Month in the Markets: January 2026
Month in the Markets: December 2025
Month in the Markets: November 2025
Month in the Markets: October 2025
Month in the Markets: September 2025
Month in the Markets: August 2025
Month in the Markets: July 2025
Month in the Markets: June 2025
Month in the Markets: May 2025
Month in the Markets: April 2025
Month in the Markets: March 2025
Month in the Markets: February 2025
Month in the Markets: January 2025
General Investment Account FAQs
A General Investment Account (also known as a GIA) is a simple, flexible way to grow your money using a wide range of investments, including shares, bonds, and property.
Even though there’s no limit on how much you can invest with a General Investment Account, one of the most important things to understand is that it doesn’t come with any tax benefits (unlike a Stocks and Shares ISA or Self-Invested Personal Pension).
This means you’ll have to pay income tax on any profits you generate from the investments held in your General Investment Account; the amount you have to pay will depend on your individual circumstances and may change in the future.
As is the case with a Stocks and Shares ISA, you should consider keeping your money in a General Investment Account for at least five years, as this gives it enough time to ride out the market's ups and downs.
Our experts use a range of passive investment funds (like Mutual Funds) to build your Plan. An investment fund is a bundle of lots of individual assets (like stocks, bonds, or property) which you buy all in one go, making funds a cost-effective way to invest.
The mix of funds and investments in your Plan will depend on your attitude to risk. Low-risk Plans will contain a higher percentage of low-risk investments like bonds. Higher-risk Plans will include more shares. Since financial markets are always changing, we’ll make adjustments to the mix of investments in your Plan from time to time.
We’ve created five investment Plans – from Cautious to Adventurous – so you can choose a level of risk that’s right for you. Find out more about what’s in each of these Plans by downloading the Plan Factsheets below.
Original Plan Factsheets
Adventurous Plan [download pdf]
Ethical Plan Factsheets
Cautious Ethical Plan [download pdf]
Tentative Ethical Plan [download pdf]
Confident Ethical Plan [download pdf]
Why invest in one company, when you can invest in them all? That’s the essence of passive investing. Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket and relying on one particular company to perform well, you spread your money across all of them, so that you benefit from their collective strength. To do this, you need funds like Mutual Funds, which are known as passive investment vehicles. These let your money track an index like the FTSE 100, which is composed of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Passive investing is generally accepted as a more effective long-term strategy than the alternative, active investing, where fund managers try to pick the stocks they think will do best. The Dow S&P Indices show that as few as 14% of active fund managers actually manage to beat the market each year, when looked at over a long time period.
It is important to remember that with investing, returns are not guaranteed. There is risk associated with investing and you could get back less than you initially invest. To provide you with a sense of what you might expect from Wealthify’s risk-based investment styles, we do provide you with a prediction of performance when creating your Plan. Moody’s Analytics is an independent data provider, who assist in predicting what your Plan values could be in different market conditions over the period of time you plan to invest. It is of course impossible to predict the future, so the projections should only be taken as a guide, not a guarantee. Our investment team have provided factsheets for each investment style which outline their aims for each risk category and will give you an overview of what they are trying to achieve for you in each style. If you have any queries or concerns about the risks involved with investing it is best to seek advice from a financial advisor.
We publish our benchmarks in the valuations we send to all customers, to give you something to compare the performance of your plan against.
We use ARC Private Client Indices as the benchmarks for the majority of our Plans, rather than an index such as the FTSE 100, because we feel it more closely matches the type of diversified investment plans that Wealthify offers. The ARC Private Client Indices are a peer group benchmark which show how other companies’ investment styles have performed. The Indices are based on real performance numbers from hundreds of other Plans. Learn more about ARC Indices.
For our Cautious Plan, we use SONIA (Sterling Overnight Index Average). Rather than investing in stocks, this tracks the average interest rates banks use when lending to each other overnight, providing a lower-risk option for cautious investors.
It’s important to remember that benchmarks and predictions are never perfect and past performance is not an indicator of future growth.
Here are the benchmarks we use for each of our five Investment Styles
| Wealthify Cautious | SONIA (Sterling Overnight Index Average) |
| Wealthify Tentative | ARC Sterling Cautious PCI |
| Wealthify Confident | ARC Balanced Asset PCI |
| Wealthify Ambitious | ARC Sterling Steady Growth PCI |
| Wealthify Adventurous | ARC Sterling Equity Risk PCI |
Yes, we will always let you know if we make a rebalance or substantial changes to your plan, as this can have a significant impact.
We don’t want to bombard you with emails, so it wouldn’t be practical to let you know each time we buy and sell shares in your plan. That said, every transaction appears in your Wealthify dashboard so you can monitor it there if you wish.
There is currently no facility for this, but there may be in future. You can access and withdraw your money 24/7 (Pensions and Junior ISAs can only be accessed upon maturity), although it’s worth remembering that making regular withdrawals will affect how quickly you reach the investment goals you set when you created your Plan.
We typically invest your money within two working days of receiving it. However, it may take a couple of extra days for the investments to show on your dashboard, due to the investing process.
Your money is looked after by a team of qualified investment managers with experience in established firms all over the world. Our experts have developed an investment system that uses algorithms and industry experience to pick the best funds available to you, then builds you an investment plan that suits your goals and attitude to risk. And because things are always changing in the financial markets, our team monitors and adjusts your plan regularly, to make sure your money works as hard as you do.
We’ll show your returns for each Plan as a percentage and actual monetary value, so you always know exactly how your investments are performing.
We calculate your returns using the ‘Time-Weighted Rate of Return’ (TWRR) method, which is widely used within the investment management industry. This is the most transparent way to show you your actual return (i.e. how much your money has grown) because it ignores any cash deposits or withdrawals you might have made in the meantime. In other words, it only tells you how much you’ve gained or lost from your investments, not what you’ve put in or taken out yourself.
The following initial minimum deposits apply to each of our investment products.
Junior ISA: £500
Stocks and Shares ISA: £1,000
Personal Pension: £1,000
General Investment Account: £1,000
After opening your account, you can top-up (via one-off or regular monthly payments) a Junior ISA, Stocks and Shares ISA, and General Investment Account with £1 or more; Personal Pension payments need to be at least £50.