Compare Royal London ISAs

Please be aware we are not currently able to offer any ISA accounts from Royal London.

Who are Royal London?

Royal London are a mutual life, pensions and investments company based in the UK.

Although their history dates back further, they have been operating as a mutual life assurance society since 1908. They provide a range of life insurance policies, investment products and pensions to their customers.

Royal London are not currently offering ISA accounts to new customers; however, you can still contribute to your existing Royal London Investment ISA through their online platform.

What is an ISA?

ISAs are tax-free savings accounts, which means that any investments you hold in them are sheltered from the taxes you normally have to pay in a standard savings account:

1. Income tax on investment dividends
2. Income tax on interest earned
3. Capital gains tax on the growth of your investments

HMRC sets an annual limit for how much you can add to your ISAs each tax year, and the current year’s annual allowance is £20,000.

What are the different ISA account types?

The main two types of ISA accounts are Cash ISAs and Stocks and Shares ISAs.

Cash ISAs

Cash ISAs are usually offered by banks and building societies, and they provide you with fixed or variable interest rates on your savings.

You get fixed interest rates from Cash ISAs that have a fixed term, usually ranging from 1 to 5 years. The longer the term you commit to, the better rates you get.

However, if you withdraw from your fixed-term Cash ISA before the end of your term then you will either be charged or lose some of the interest you’ve earned.

Variable-rate Cash ISAs are more flexible with regard to withdrawals. You can sometimes withdraw as and when you please, or a have set number of withdrawals per year.

Generally, the more accessible your ISA, the lower the interest rates you get.

These interest rates are also variable so can fluctuate throughout your investment, but you aren’t charged for withdrawals as long as they’re within the account’s rules.

Cash ISAs are low-risk investments and you will always get back at least what you put in, provided that you only make withdrawals within the restrictions of your account.

Stocks and Shares ISAs

Stocks and Shares ISAs enable you to invest directly in the stock market while keeping your investments sheltered from tax.

There are two main types of Stocks and Shares ISA accounts: ready-made portfolios and self-select portfolios.

A ready-made portfolio ISA invests in the stock market, usually through a combination of funds, investment trusts and other investment vehicles. They are put together and managed by investment professionals, and are usually categorised by your risk level and savings goals, e.g., a balanced risk, growth portfolio.

Self-select portfolios give investors the freedom to make their own investment decisions, and there is a huge range of available assets you can hold in an ISA account.

Here are our top 4 investments for self-select Stocks and Shares ISAs:

Shares – shares in an individual company

Managed Funds (Unit Trusts and OEICs) – professional fund managers that invest in multiple companies within a specific sector or market

Investment Trusts – Like funds, they are investment companies that spread investor money across multiple companies

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) - tracker funds with low charges that aim to mirror the performance of a specific index or market

Self-select ISAs can be higher risk as you are required to make your investment decisions yourself; however, they avoid the higher costs you might pay for a ready-made portfolio.

ISA rules

Before investing in an ISA, you need to know the restrictions of the accounts. It can be fairly easy to accidentally break the rules without realising, so here are the essentials you need to know:

• Your annual ISA allowance is £20,000 for the current tax year.

You can have more than £20,000 in your ISA by adding money over multiple tax years, but you can’t add more than £20,000 of new money to ISAs in one year.

• Your ISA allowance can be split between both Cash ISAs and Stocks and Shares ISAs, and you can mix and match between the two.

For example, you can contribute £5,000 to a Stocks and Shares ISA and £15,000 to a Cash ISA in the same year to make up your full allowance.

• You’re not allowed to contribute to more than one Stocks and Shares ISA or more than one Cash ISA per year.

However, you can have more than one Cash ISA or Stocks and Shares ISAs open at once, as long as you don’t contribute to them both in the same tax year.

• ISA transfers allow you to transfer existing ISAs into one, without it counting as an ISA contribution.

This means you can consolidate all of your ISA accounts together and still have your ISA allowance of £20,000 to add new money.

• Your ISA allowance does not roll over.

If you don’t use your allowance it doesn’t stack up for the next year – it will reset to the standard allowance for that year.

• Your ISA allowance refreshes in line with the tax year on 6th April, not the calendar year.