Barclays has partnered with Scalable Capital to launch a new digital advice service for its current account customers. It will tackle the UK’s advice gap and give more people the confidence and support to invest their savings. The new service called Barclays Plan & Invest.
This device will create a personalized investment plan that’s tailored to a customer’s goals, with Barclays then managing the investments on their behalf – traditionally known as discretionary portfolio management. Their investments will be chosen and managed by the bank’s dedicated team of investment experts, previously only accessible to clients with considerable sums to invest.
Dirk Klee, CEO of Wealth Management and Investments at Barclays, said: “Over the last few months, we’ve seen a rise in the number of people wanting to invest for the first time and it feels more important than ever that we give people the right tools and advice to plan for their financial future.
“We launched Plan & Invest after listening to our customers, who said they wanted an investment service that gave them the convenience and affordability of Robo-advice, but with more of the personalization of Wealth Management.”
“I firmly believe that everyone should have access to affordable advice and Plan & Invest is just the first step in our plans to open up the tools we use with our Wealth clients to more people.”
Unlike many Robo-advice providers, Barclays will adapt the investment plan to any changes in the market or the customer’s circumstances and check-in with them at least once a year, to make sure that the investments are still right for the customer and that they’re making the most of their tax allowances. If anything needs to change, for example, if they would benefit from moving their investments into an ISA account, Barclays will take care of it.
