Investor FAQs

Wealthtime is an award-winning investment platform provider. Our investment platform is designed for financial advisers, helping them deliver the best investment outcomes for their clients. Through our platform, we provide access to an extensive range of products, investments and tools to support advisers and their clients at every stage of the investment lifecycle.

A platform is a secure, online service for managing your investments and savings. It’s convenient and makes things more efficient for you and your adviser. You’ll have an account on the platform, which contains various financial products, like an Individual Savings Account (ISA) or a pension, such as a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). These products often have different tax benefits. You can pay into your products, and you can transfer investments from elsewhere.
Your adviser will choose from our wide range of investments to select assets which best align with your financial goals and your attitude to risk. Our platform will show you your account balances, made up of cash and assets, and your transaction history. This means you can see what’s happened on the account like fees being taken, or income being paid to you.

Investing is a powerful way to make your money work for you, earning returns that can beat inflation and build your wealth. Whether you’re saving for your retirement, a home, or for a new business venture, investing can be a way to secure your financial future.

Your financial adviser will help you navigate this journey, supporting you with investment decisions that align with your goals and risk tolerance.

With any investment, there are risks. The value of your investments can fall, as well as rise, and you may get back less than your original investment. Past performance is not a guide to the returns you may receive in the future.

Any applicable taxes and charges will all have an impact on the value of your investment. Charges include those from us, the managers of the underlying investment, or your adviser. We make our charges clear from the outset. These charges may be subject to change.

Your adviser will be able to inform you about any investment that is not authorised or recognised by the FCA. Most investments made available through our platform are authorised or recognised.

Please refer to our Key Features Document and Terms and Conditions for more information and to make sure you understand our product services and risks. We recommend that you speak to your adviser about the risks that may affect you.

A wrapper (or product wrapper) is a financial product that holds your investments. There are different types with distinct features and advantages, including tax efficiencies.

Examples of wrappers include Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and General Investment Accounts (GIAs).

Your adviser will help you select the best combination of product wrappers for tax-efficient investing, depending on your individual circumstances.

We offer a wide range of wrappers to support long-term, effective financial planning, including:

• Flexible Stocks and Shares Individual Savings Account (ISA) – a flexible, tax-efficient investment account.
• Junior Individual Savings Account (JISA) – a tax-efficient investment account that helps you plan for the next generation.
• Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) – a simple and tax-efficient way to save and invest for retirement.
• Junior Self-Invested Personal Pension (JSIPP) – a tax-efficient account to save for a child’s future.
• General Investment Account (GIA) – a savings account for buying and selling investments.
• Offshore Bond – a tax-efficient investment wrapper provided by RL360.
• Third-party wrappers – wrappers from other leading providers whose products are available via our platform. Speak to your financial adviser to find out more.

Through our platform you can access:

• Over 6,000 lines of assets (something you own with the goal of increasing your wealth or generating returns for you over time)
• 3,500 investment funds from more than 300 fund managers
• Structured products (prepackaged investments that normally include assets linked to interest, plus one or more derivatives) from dozens of providers, including Investec, Morgan Stanley, Meteor and Walker Cripps
• Equities traded on the FTSE All-Share, AIM listed stocks, Gilts and corporate bonds, and investment trusts
• More than 400 ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), including aggregated trading on providers like DB x-Trackers, UBS, Lyxor and State Street
• Smoothed Funds (With Profit) – an investment product designed to provide a steadier, less volatile investment experience by evening out the ups and downs of market performance
• Guaranteed Income (Secure Lifetime Income) – a retirement income solution that combines the flexibility of drawdown with the security of a guaranteed income for life

Speak to your adviser to understand the full range of investments available.

You’ll need a financial adviser to open an account and they’ll do this on your behalf. They can then set you up with online access so you can view your investments online.

We’re authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). As part of this, we must have certain safeguards in place. The money and assets belonging to investors is ring-fenced and kept separate from our company’s money. This means that in the unlikely event of our company failing, your money would be protected and safe from claims by creditors.

Any uninvested cash is held in client money accounts with our banking partners. We spread client money across several banking partners to further reduce risk.

With each of these banks, your money is protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to a maximum of £120,000 per bank. Learn more here: www.fscs.org.uk.

At Wealthtime, we keep our charges simple, making it easier to understand the cost of your investments. Visit our charges and pricing page to find details on our platform charges, your cash account fees and a helpful guide explaining how platform charges work for us and the wider platform market.

For existing users, head to Investor Zone and enter your Web User Account ID and password to log in.

If it’s your first time accessing your account online, your financial adviser will need to set up your access first. You’ll receive an email with an activation link within 24 hours after this has taken place.

If you’re having trouble logging into your account, visit our Investor Login Guidance page for support.

Please send them to our postal address at:

Wealthtime Client Services
PO Box 4328
Bath
BA1 0LR

If you need to speak to our team, please get in touch using the details on our contact page.

When you request a withdrawal and there isn’t enough cash available in your account, we may need to sell investments to raise the funds. Investment sales typically take five to seven working days to settle, depending on the investment type. This settlement timeframe is set by the market and cannot be changed by us.

For SIPP accounts, the standard settlement times apply. For GIA and ISAs, some funds may also be subject to additional settlement times set by the fund manager.

‘Pending trades’ may also appear if you’ve recently made a cash top‑up into your account and the money is being invested.

If you normally receive financial advice, your adviser will be best placed to explain why a trade has been placed or appears as pending. If you don’t have access to an adviser, please get in touch with our team. We can explain what the pending transaction relates to, but we cannot give advice on whether it’s suitable for you. To find an adviser, you could use Unbiased.

We receive your tax code directly from HMRC through a secure electronic feed that updates daily.

Our pensions team applies any updates to your SIPP within 24 hours of receiving them. Any income we pay you – regular or one‑off – is then taxed using the most recent tax code provided by HMRC.

If you believe your tax code is wrong or you’ve paid too much or too little tax, HMRC will need to review this for you. Due to data protection rules, we’re not able to contact HMRC on your behalf.

You can contact HMRC directly on 0300 200 3300 or via their online services.

Tax vouchers are included with your May quarterly statement each year. If you receive online statements, your voucher will be in the same location as your digital statement. You can sign up for online statements by…

Your P60 is issued once a year and is posted before 31 May each year. We’ll only send a P60 if taxable income is taken that year.

If you’ve recently removed your financial adviser or don’t have one, you can still manage your SIPP directly, but certain pension transactions will still require financial advice.

For example, we cannot process partial crystallisations or take tax free cash only unless you have a financial adviser in place. This is because these actions involve complex decisions that may affect your retirement benefits, and by law, we are unable to provide financial advice.

If you choose to proceed without an adviser, we will provide clear information about the options we’ll be able to support you with. When an adviser is removed from your account, you’ll receive a notification confirming this, along with details of how we’ll communicate with you going forward.

We always recommend seeking regulated financial advice before making pension decisions. You can find an adviser using services such as Unbiased.

Something you own with the goal of increasing your wealth or generating returns for you over time.

May also be known as an ‘investment manager’. An expert responsible for making investment decisions for an investment portfolio.

May also be known as ‘sustainable investing’ or ‘responsible investing’. This is an investment approach where, as well as financial returns, ethical, social and environmental factors are also considered.

As a brief example, this may include ‘negative screening’ (avoiding investment in companies that engage in unethical activities) or ‘positive screening’ (investment in companies that are chosen for their positive contributions to society e.g. renewable energy).

An exchange-traded fund is made up of different types of assets (like stocks, bonds etc.) that you can buy or sell on the stock exchange.

May also be known as a ‘financial planner’. A financial professional who gives guidance on managing money and investments, and provides financial planning advice to help their clients meet their financial goals.

An expert who decides how to invest money to grow a fund and generate returns for investors.

You purchase assets (e.g. stocks, bonds etc) with your money with the expectation that you will receive a return. Please remember the value of your investments can fall, as well as rise, and you may get back less than your original investment.

Drawdown allows you to take income flexibly from your pension. You can take an amount that suits you. You can leave the rest of your pension invested.

May also be known as an ‘investment portfolio’. This is the collection of investments you hold, which is put together to align with your specific financial goals.

From age 55 (Normal Minimum Pension Age), you can use some or all of your pension to provide a Guaranteed Income. It gives you the financial security of a set income for the rest of your life.

Please be aware that the Normal Minimum Pension Age (NMPA) is set to change to 57 from 6 April 2028.