FAQs

We are an Independent Financial Adviser, regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. We arrange investments at low cost for investors who do not require personalised financial advice.

There are no upfront costs for using our service and we make a small ongoing annual charge.  Full details of our charges can be found in the charges section of the website.

Although we don't provide advice, we do offer a range of information and research to help the investor make their own decisions.  In our Fund Hub you can research all of the funds available as well as gain access to our First Class Funds and ISA Choices fund lists.  All clients are automatically eligible, at no cost, for our Premier Club which offers initial and six monthly updates on your portfolio.

We also provide a full post sale support service including online access to your portfolio.

Aegon is what’s called an ‘investment platform’. They make it easier for people to buy investments from different fund managers through intermediaries like FDD. They provide administration services and the technology and tools to help clients to manage their investments in one place.

They administer over £214bn of investments.

Clients have access to over 3000 funds from over 200 fund groups.

We offer clients the opportunity to invest at the lowest possible cost. We do not offer personalised advice but can offer support and information on a whole range of financial products. If you wish to invest but need advice you should see an independent financial adviser. If you know what you wish to purchase, however, you can almost always get a better deal by investing through us rather than going to the provider direct. We pride ourselves on our friendly and efficient service both at the initial investment stage and with our post sale delivery, especially our Premier Club.

We selected Aegon as our fund supermarket partner as we believe they offer the most efficient administration and the best range of services for our clients. Indeed, the vast majority of stocks, shares and ISA investments are now made through fund supermarkets.

Visit the Aegon website where you can find full details of our chosen administrative partner.

Investing direct with the fund manager will generally be more expensive than using our services.

There is usually an initial cost to investing direct, whereas we are able to offer all of our funds at no initial cost. In addition, the annual management charge for direct investments is typically higher than it is through us. Although you also have to pay our service charge and the platform charge, this still works out at less than the annual management charge for direct investments.

Cofunds was the original investment platform partner used by Financial Discounts Direct. In May 2018, all clients with Cofunds accounts are migrated onto the Aegon investment platform, following the purchase of Cofunds by Aegon in 2016.

ISAs allow people to save their money in a combination of cash and stocks and shares. Unlike investing directly in these products, investing through an ISA provides certain benefits. An ISA is often referred to as a tax wrapper which goes around your savings, protecting them from paying certain taxes.

The Aegon ISA is now a flexible ISA, meaning you can make the most of your annual ISA allowance. You can now withdraw and replace funds in the same tax year without affecting your annual allowance – giving your more control over your savings. Flexible ISA rules cover dividend payments as well as cash withdrawals.

A couple of examples:

• You withdraw £50,000 from your ISA in June 2024. You can pay up to £50,000  back into your ISA by the end of the tax year, on 5th April 2025, and you are free to use your annual ISA allowance and pay in an additional £20,000 if you want to 

• You pay £20,000 into your ISA on 6th April 2024, using all of the current year’s allowance. In November you withdraw £10,000, but under the flexible ISA rules you can repay this £10,000 back into your ISA by the end of the tax year, 5th April 2025 without incurring any financial or tax penalty 

Flexible ISA rules

You must return the money you withdrew to the same ISA account you took it from.

If you decide to transfer all of your ISA to another provider, you won’t be able to repay the funds that you have withdrawn. Any payments you make must come from any remaining ISA allowance you may have.

ISA tax rules can change due to new policies being introduced, and the effect of a flexible ISA will vary according to individual circumstances.

You can invest in an ISA at any time. There are limits on the total amount you can invest in any one tax year.

This is the process through which you move your ISA investment from one company to another - for example from Invesco Perpetual to Artemis. It involves selling the units in your existing plan, moving the cash to the new company and purchasing units in your chosen fund(s). This does mean that your money is out of the market while the transfer is taking place. You may also have to pay a small initial charge to purchase your new units. Not to be confused with a fund switch. If you are transferring your investment from a fund group to Aegon, this can usually be done through a process called re-registration

Unit trusts are one of the most popular types of investment fund in the UK, and involve large numbers of investors pooling their money and entrusting it to a unit manager. This manager will be a specialist investor, using their expertise to invest these pooled funds in financial markets, looking for attractive investment opportunities. The structure of a unit trust works by dividing up the pooled money into units. The number of units is not fixed and will fluctuate according to demand, as will the price of each unit. The unit price is calculated by taking a valuation of all the individual companies that the pooled funds are invested in; the value is then divided by the number of units held in the fund at that time to give the unit price.

OEIC stands for open-ended investment company and is a collective investment vehicle where many investors’ money is combined by a fund manager to purchase investments. An OEIC has a company structure so that when you invest you will hold shares as opposed to units. An OEIC is open-ended which means that the fund can get larger or smaller depending on the number of investors who wish to buy or sell shares. OEICs are a relatively new form of investment vehicle which are increasingly replacing unit trusts, which are more complex in legal terms. An OEIC has a single price, for both buying and selling shares, directly linked to the value of the fund’s underlying investments. This contrasts with unit trusts, which have different buying and selling prices.

A Junior ISA is a tax free savings accounts for children. It has replaced the old Child Trust Fund and is used for saving up a lump sum of money for your child when they become an adult (18 years old). The annual Junior ISA allowance is £9,000 for the current tax year, 2026/27.

PEPs are tax efficient savings and investment plans which were replaced by ISAs in April 1999. PEPs taken out before that date remain valid, although you can no longer place any new money in them. From 6th April 2008 all PEPs have been converted to ISAs.

A Fund Manager places the money you pay in a variety of investments in order to produce the best possible returns. The term can be used to describe the company (e.g. Fidelity, Invesco Perpetual) as well as the individuals who manage funds for that company

An ISA Plan Manager looks after the administration of the plan to ensure that it meets regulatory requirements and to ensure that you receive the documentation to which you are entitled, both initially and throughout the life of the plan. Not to be confused with a Fund Manager. Aegon fulfils the role of a Plan Manager for your investments

A fund supermarket, sometimes known as an investment platform, is a company, which holds and administers your ISA, PEP and Unit Trust/OEIC plans. A supermarket offers access to a range of funds from different investment management groups within one plan. This combined with re-registration can give you great flexibility in managing your total portfolio. The vast majority of new ISA investments are now made through fund supermarkets such as Aegon.

This is the process by which you move your money from one fund to another. On a fund supermarket, such as Aegon, you can switch between funds from different fund groups, for example between Artemis and Jupiter funds. These switches are free of charge. If you hold your ISA directly with a fund group, you can only switch between funds from that group.

If you are unsure which fund(s) to invest your ISA money into, but want to ensure you secure your ISA allowance for the tax year, you can use the ISA Cash Facility. This allows you to hold cash temporarily within your ISA while you decide which fund(s) suit your investment objectives. When you have decided, you simply switch from the ISA Cash Facility into your chosen funds. You can also switch into this facility when markets are uncertain and simply switch back when you are more confident. This is not a cash component of an ISA and the money in the ISA Cash Facility must be destined for eventual investment into one or more of the funds available on Aegon platform. Nominal interest is payable on money held in the ISA Cash Facility. The gross rate of interest paid on cash held within the cash facility of any product wrapper is linked to the Bank of England Base Rate but on a tiered basis. Current rate information can be found on Aegon's website. 

Re-registration is the process by which you transfer the administration of your plan to a fund supermarket. It allows you to move investments from your existing fund manager to the supermarket without having to sell and re-purchase the units. For example you can re-register your holding in the Invesco Perpetual Income fund to Aegon. This will mean that Invesco Perpetual continue to manage your money in their Income fund but Aegon will take over the administration of your plan and provide all your paperwork and documentation. There are no charges for re-registration.

Always get in contact with us in the first instance if you have a question regarding your account. If you can't answer your question right away we will contact Aegon or the relevant Fund Manager on your behalf and keep you up to date with the progress of your query.

We can be contacted by calling FREE on 08085 498 477, emailing info@financialdiscounts.com or writing to us at Financial Discounts Direct, PO Box 85, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1XS.

We endeavour to ensure our services operate smoothly but occasionally we may not be able to meet client expectations and you may feel the need to make a formal complaint.

Any complaint should be made, in the first instance, to the firm either by telephone, in writing or by email.

We always handle any complaints both positively and efficiently seeking to arrive at a suitable outcome and where appropriate will review our systems to ensure the complaint is not repeated.

Atticus Holdings Ltd is a subscriber to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) who are an independent third party to which customers can refer complaints to if they cannot be resolved amicably with the firm. Complaints should however to be referred to the firm in the first instance.

One of the major advantages of investing through a fund supermarket such as Aegon is the ability to keep track of your investments online at any time of the night or day. You will need to register on our website and, once this has been set up, you will have password protected access to all of your investments at any time. Additionally, you can join our Premier Club, a free, added-value service provided by FDD. We will send you, initially and then twice-yearly, an information pack including a current valuation, an analysis of the constituent parts of your portfolio and factsheets for the funds you hold. For full details of the Premier Club please contact our Customer Services team on 08085 498 477 or email info@financialdiscounts.com 

If you have invested through Aegon, all the income received from your portfolio during a month is collected together and paid to you as one payment in the following month. If your investment is through another provider, the income due on each fund should be paid out to you as and when it is due.

All applications should be sent to Financial Discounts Direct, PO Box 85, Alton, GU34 1XS

If you have online access to your account, the easiest way to do fund switches is online through the Aegon microsite. If you are unsure of how to do this please contact us on 08085 498 477 and we can talk you through the process.  If you wish to complete a paper form you can request one from us or download it here. Please send your form direct to us at Financial Discounts Direct, PO Box 85, Alton, GU34 1XS.

If your investment is with another provider, you must obtain a form for that provider and then send the request direct to them.

All cheques should be made payable to the product provider. For investments through Aegon cheques should be made payable to Aegon.

Under no circumstances should an investment cheque be made payable to Financial Discounts Direct.

If you have online access to your account, the easiest way to make a withdrawal is through the Aegon micosite. If you are unsure of how to do this please contact us on 08085 498 477 and we can talk you through the process.  If you wish to complete a paper form you can request one from us or download it here. Please send your form direct to us at Financial Discounts Direct, PO Box 85, Alton, GU34 1XS.

All withdrawal payments will be sent to your nominated bank account. Please note that if your bank details are not verified you will need to supply Aegon with a certified copy of a recent (less than 3 months) bank statement before the process can be completed. If you are unsure if your bank details have been verified please contact our Customer Services team on 08085 498 477. 

If your investment is with another provider, please contact our Customer Services team as procedures vary from company to company.