Investment charges

This video is for educational purposes only. This should not be viewed as advice or a recommendation to invest.

Ever felt overwhelmed by investment fees, platform charges, fund costs, dealing fees? It can feel like decoding a secret language. But what if I told you it doesn't have to be that way?

The Investing Master Plan

Episode 4: Understanding investment fees

Hi, I'm Donato Boccardi, Head of Investments for Consumer Wealth at Aviva. Today, I'm going to introduce you to where it all happens, your investment platform.

We'll also look at the fees involved in investing, and I'll finish by clearing up some of the most frequently asked questions about the two. So, by the end of this episode, you'll be able to See Investing in  a New Light.

Chapter 1: The Aviva Direct Wealth investment platform

We're over halfway through the series now, but we haven't yet touched upon how you actually invest, for example, into your SIPP or ISA.

So before we go any further, it's worth introducing the tool that makes all of this possible, your investment platform. In short, a direct investment platform is a place where you can start exploring investing at your own pace. It's a convenient way to manage your investments online without needing a financial adviser.

You can pick from things like funds or shares, monitor how they're performing, and make changes whenever you need it. Everything is in one place, with helpful tools and educational resources to support you along the way. The Aviva Direct Wealth Platform is a perfect example of this.

It offers transparent pricing and practical features to guide you through investing. Backed by the scale and experience of a company that manages £240 billion in assets for around 6 million customers, and with over 325 years of heritage.

Figures are as at March 31st 2025.

The value of an investment may go down as well as up and you could get back less than invested.

The platform is designed to be secure and reliable, giving you confidence as you explore your investment options.

Getting started is straightforward. Just open an account, choose the investments that suit your goals, and manage it all from the clear, easy-to-use dashboard. The link is in the description if you'd like to take a closer look.

Chapter 2: The impact of investment fees

You may have already realised that investments come with fees. These are simply the costs involved in running and managing your investments, the stuff that keeps everything ticking behind the scenes. But here is something that most people don't realise. Even a small difference, say 0.5% in annual fees, can cost you tens of thousands of pounds over 20 years.

That's money that should be growing for your future, not disappearing in charges. So before you invest, it's important to know what charges you might pay. These apply to our self-invested personal pension, also known as a SIPP, our Stocks and Shares ISA, and our investment account.

At Aviva, we show all costs upfront before you invest. We know people are often sceptical about investing, and that's understandable. If costs aren't clear, it's hard to feel confident about where your money's going.

The value of an investment may go down as well as up and you could get back less than invested.

So in this chapter, we're going to open the drawer on our platform fees, rather than keeping them tucked away.

Opening an Aviva account, whether it's an ISA, a SIPP, or an investment account, is completely free. Transferring investments to us is free too.

You should check whether your current provider charges any exit fee. Once your Aviva account is set up, you pay an annual platform fee of 0.35% on investments up to £500,000  across your SIPP, ISA, or investment account, or combined, if you have more than one. For anything over £500,000 Aviva don't charge a platform fee.

Your platform fee goes towards providing smooth, up-to-date technology and clear reporting that help keep your assets safe and secure, so you can feel confident and in control of your investments. It's calculated daily, taken monthly, and there are no wrapper fees or tiered pricing, meaning there's no extra charges hidden inside different products, and the cost doesn't change just because you have more or less invested.

If you're thinking of complementing your investments by trading shares, exchange-traded funds, or investment trusts, then each share trade costs you £4.99, taken directly from your cash account. A cash account is where your money is held within your Aviva SIPP, ISA, or investment account, where you're buying or selling investments. It's also used to cover your Aviva charge.

Trading mutual funds on our platform doesn't cost a thing. A mutual fund puts money from main investors to buy a mix of assets, such as bonds, shares, property, and cash. It's managed by professionals, so it's an easy way to invest in a range of assets without doing the research yourself. We'll cover this in more detail in the next episode.

So if you choose something like our ready-made multi-asset range, for example, the Universal Retirement Fund in our SIPP, there's no dealing charge at all on the Aviva platform. Not when you buy it, not when you top it up, and not when you eventually sell it. Reinvesting dividends is also free with Aviva, so your money keeps working without extra costs.

If you choose to invest in funds, each fund has its own management charge. This is built into the fund price. This fee pays the professionals who run the fund on a day to day, helping them research the markets, choose the right investments, and keep everything on track with the fund's objectives.

Aviva shows this cost upfront with no fine print. When you pick a fund, you'll see its ongoing charges figure, or OCF, straight away, and it's always in the Key Investor Information Document, also known as the KID. For most self-driven investors, the platform fee and fund management charge are the main ones to be aware of.

But there may be other charges or taxes, like the UK's share stamp duty, or a £1.50 takeover panel fee for trades over £10,000. You can find out more on the Aviva website. Remember, these charges might look small on paper, but over time, they can really add up.

Now, we've talked a lot about fees and charges, but before we wrap up, I want to share one last point on transparency. When selecting an investment fund, I encourage you to review the fund's track record. Transparency also means having a long enough history of investment performance, which shows whether the fund has met its own objectives.

A good rule of thumb is to check the fund's launch date and see if it has reached its five-year anniversary. It's not about predicting the future. We know that past performance never guarantees what's ahead, but it does mean you have enough data to judge consistency and resilience across different market environments.

Chapter 3: Answering your investment platform and fees FAQs

When you're new to investing, it's normal to have lots of questions. In this chapter, we're answering some of the most common ones we hear from beginners, the kind of questions that help you get started with confidence.

The value of an investment may go down as well as up and you could get back less than invested.

First up, is there a minimum amount I should invest? Well, most platforms set a minimum investment, but it's often lower than you might expect.

At Aviva, you can start with £500 as a one-off payment or £25 a month. After that, you can invest as you like.

Next, should I keep cash in my SIPP, ISA, or investment account? Simple answer, no.

Your investment account is not designed to hold cash for months or years. Any cash in your investment account is mainly for short-term needs, like buying or selling investments or covering platform charges. If there isn't enough cash for charges, the platform will automatically sell some investments to cover it.

So, for medium-term goals, you may want to explore other investment options or higher interest savings products for better growth potential. A good example would be our Aviva Save accounts. Keeping a small amount of cash for short-term needs is sensible, but holding large sums in your account may only result in your cash losing value due to rising inflation.

I'll give you an example of how inflation does impact the value of your money over time. If you had to leave £10,000 in cash for five years, with inflation levels at 3%, your money would be worth around £8,620. And after 10 years, the same £10,000, still at 3%, would be worth around £7,440.

That does really give you an idea of why investing can help you make your money work harder.

Next, a third one. Do you charge anything for holding cash? And if not, what interest would I get? No, we don't charge a separate fee for holding cash in your investment account.

When you keep money in your account as cash, basically money you've added but haven't invested yet, we keep a small portion of the interest that cash earns. The amount you get depends on the bank interest rate, which may vary over time, but you can always find out the latest rates and details on our website.

We've got time for one more.

How can I get an estimate of my investment fees? On our website, we explain fees and charges clearly, so you know exactly what to expect. You can also try our fees and charges calculator, a simple tool that shows how fees might affect your investments over time. You can also use it to see what your investments could be worth in the future.

It's a great way to stay on track with your plans or work out if you need to add more each month to reach your goals.

Today, we've learned how to actually start investing with Aviva, explored some of the investment fees, and seen why transparency matters.

If there's one key takeaway from this episode, it's this: fees matter a lot. Even small differences can have a big impact on your long-term returns. So make sure that whoever you invest with is transparent about fees, like Aviva, and that you understand how those fees will affect your returns over time.

Next time, in episode five, we'll dive into ready-made multi-asset funds, a simple option to invest. You don't want to miss it.

Thanks for watching.

This video is for educational purposes only. This should not be viewed as advice or recommendation to invest. Investing offers the potential for better returns than cash savings over the long term (5+ years).  But there are risks, the value of your investments may go down as well as up, and you may get back less than invested.  
If you want advice on investment choices, then we’d recommend speaking to a financial adviser. There may be a charge for advice.