Updated: 22nd January 2022
Moneyfarm Review
One of the best for the added features that come with your account. Growing quickly and winning new business, there’s much to like about this service.
What is Moneyfarm?
Moneyfarm is an online investment app and platform. They also offer digital advice all around the financial goals you want to achieve. Moneyfarm was set up out of Milan in 2012 and today (May 2022) has 80,000 active investors with £2.2bn invested on the Moneyfarm investment platform. The Moneyfarm vision is to help more people improve their financial wellbeing by making personal investing simple and accessible through technology. The way their platform works is a blend of technology and human input – they use both ‘black boxes’ and a team of real people to make investment decisions on behalf of Moneyfarm’s customers.
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What is Moneyfarm?
Our View
What accounts are available?
What kind of investments can I make?
What account features are available?
How can I access my account and get support?
How much does it cost?
Is Moneyfarm Legit?
Is Moneyfarm FCA Regulated?
Is Moneyfarm profitable?
How long does a Moneyfarm withdrawal take?
Overall Score 4
Overall Score
Our View
What accounts are available?
Moneyfarm offer much the same account range as players like Nutmeg and Wealthsimple, so score highly for that. As well as an unprotected General Investment Account (GIA), there’s the usual tax shelter options of the Individual Savings Account (ISA) and the Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). With the pension you can put money in and take it out, which is not always the case with other platforms. One minor difference is there’s no Junior ISA (no pun intended), meaning you can’t use Moneyfarm to invest for your kids.
Score 3.5
Score
What kind of investments can I make?
For the main offering there’s basically a single portfolio with seven different flavours depending on your attitude to risk, from low to high. To get started you fill out a profile including questions on risk and your goals. You then get matched to one of the seven. A plus is that you also get set up with a dedicated consultant to help you along the way. There is also a socially responsible investing option which also comes with different risk levels, although its not clear how many.
Score 2
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What account features are available?
All of the seven main (non-SRI) portfolios have been running since 2016, so there’s a reasonable amount of ‘past performance’ data so you can see exactly how the portfolios have done. On the website there’s a very helpful and clear tool showing this on an interactive chart and you can even see performance of the Moneyfarm portfolios against competitors. Also helpful is a tool on the homepage which gives you an idea of how your money might perform in the future based on a few simple inputs.
Score 4.5
Score
How can I access my account and get support?
Full marks for Moneyfarm in this section. A full complement of communications channels are available. It’s also worth saying we particularly liked the Moneyfarm website – it’s well laid out and isn’t simplified to the point of meaningless. There’s enough info to get to most of the key bits quickly in a few clicks. The ‘How it works’ section is particularly helpful for those new to the world of digital wealth management.
Score 5
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How much does it cost?
Moneyfarm scores full points for their fees as they come in under our ceiling for an imaginary £20,000 ISA.
Score 5
Score
Is Moneyfarm Legit?
Moneyfarm is backed by Allianz Global Investors, Cabot Square Capital, United Ventures, and Poste Italiane. That means that the Moneyfarm investment service is supported by some big hitters and some well known names in this space which means that for them to have invested, they would have done a lot work to decide if their investment had a reasonable chance of making a return. So from that perspective we can be sure the Moneyfarm investment service is legit.
Is Moneyfarm FCA Regulated?
Yes, as of 2022, Moneyfarm is regulated by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). There’s more good news too, as any investments, up to £85,000, are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Moneyfarm also say on their website that your money is kept separate from their own.
Is Moneyfarm profitable?
Moneyfarm is owned by a number of professional investors and according to news website Citywire, in its latest financial results for the 12 months to December 2019, the robo adviser, which had previously said it expected to be profitable by 2019, broadly matched the £13m loss it posted in the previous year. The latest figures take the company’s accumulative losses since 2016 to £47m.
Perhaps a more important question is whether or not you will make money using the Moneyfarm investment service. And the short answer to that is that, as with any investment service, there are no guarantees. That being said if you look at ‘Portfolio 7’ which is the riskiest of those available, between January 2016 and May 2022, your money would have grown by 85%.
How long does a Moneyfarm withdrawal take?
Good question – so to make sure we got it just right, we asked Moneyfarm themselves who said: ‘It will normally take up to seven working days to get your money back, from disinvestment through to having the money back in your nominated account. This is a two-step process; the disinvestment stage can take up to three working days, and the withdrawal won’t take longer than three working days. Disinvestment may be delayed by abnormal market circumstances beyond our control, in which case we will complete the transaction on your behalf as soon as we can. At Moneyfarm we believe investing for the long-term is one of the most effective ways to maximise your returns over time, and we manage our portfolios with a ten-year outlook. If you’ll need your money in less than 12 months, a cash savings product may be more appropriate.’