Today sees the launch of &me, a new digital investment service powered by M&G Wealth. &me is an investing app designed to help people feel more confident in their investing decisions. It provides the simplicity of a digital-first investing experience but doesn’t forget that real people sometimes want help from real people. With &me clients can call or chat right from the app or book a video meeting with a dedicated &me consultant. The app helps clients to identify how they feel about investing, their comfort with risk and their financial goals. Then &me will match them with one of the six &me portfolios to suit their needs and then the customer chooses the type of account that is needed, be that a stocks and shares ISA, JISA, pension or general investment account. The app also gives them the ability to check how their investments are doing, whenever they want.
David Montgomery, Managing Director of M&G Wealth comments: “We are focused on helping people to manage and grow their savings and investments, responsibly. We want to make investment choices and experiences accessible for everyone, no matter their circumstances. This is where the &me investing app comes in, it is designed to help people invest with a long-term view and approach, encouraging them and helping to educate through the app and the dedicated &me consultants.
“It is also really important that everyone has confidence when they save or invest but it can be quite daunting to know where to start. It is well documented that many people have money sitting in cash, despite receiving very little interest. So, we set out to help people and have worked with Moneyfarm, to create &me. This is an easy-to-use investment app that guides people through the process of investing, but more importantly, has real people to help answer real questions. Not everyone wants, or can afford, to take full advice and we want to enable more people to save and invest for the financial future they want and dream of.”
Clients can invest in the &me classic or targeted portfolios. The classic portfolios are made up of a diversified portfolio of exchange traded funds (ETFs), these tend to be lower cost investment options and will invest in equities and bonds across different regions such as US equities and UK corporate bonds.
The targeted portfolios invest in a blend of active and passive funds. These include actively managed funds from some of the world’s finest investment managers including Federated Hermes, First Sentier, iShares, M&G, Manulife, Pictet, PIMCO, Robeco and Wellington, investing in equities, bonds and alternatives. There is a maximum of 35% of the active funds that can be managed by any one firm.
Both the classic and targeted portfolios are actively managed which means clients can be reassured that M&G Wealth’s investment experts continually review a range of factors like the analysis, performance and global trends, make ongoing decisions about where to invest, and find new opportunities with the potential to deliver long-term returns.
M&G Wealth’s investment expertise is key to deciding which investments to use and how much to invest in each asset class on a client’s behalf.
The &me app gets to know the person, their circumstances, financial overview and risk appetite before recommending how to invest. There are a few simple questions about what they aim to achieve with the investment, &me considers the responses and creates a personalised portfolio recommendation. But If they would like help deciding what to do, or just want to feel reassured that they’re making a sound decision, that’s when the personal &me consultant comes in. And because the portfolios are benefitting from M&G Wealth’s investment expertise, there is the reassurance that world events and market changes are constantly monitored to help keep the investments on track. But it should be remembered that the value of investments can go down as well as up.
Shanti Kelemen, CIO, M&G Wealth said: “Unlike savings, investing involves an element of uncertainty. This is because when investing, your money is linked to the stock market and other assets which rise and fall in value. However, the longer you stay invested, the more likely your money will outgrow traditional savings accounts. So, once you have enough cash put away for a rainy day, considering investing the rest can be a smart move.
“There are two types of portfolios: the classic range of 6 risk rated portfolios which are all ETFs which helps to reduce costs and the 6 targeted risk rated portfolios which are designed to support a more sustainable future. We construct our portfolios by bringing together a collection of the world’s leading fund groups into each risk rated portfolio be that a mix of equities, bonds or alternative investments. These are all actively managed and the M&G Wealth investment team are constantly reviewing them to ensure the investments are on track.”
