Ready-made portfolio ISAs: how they work and what they cost

What is a ready-made portfolio ISA?

A ready-made portfolio ISA is a Stocks and Shares ISA where the provider picks and manages a mix of investments, usually funds, for a risk level the saver chooses. The ISA is the tax wrapper and the portfolio is what sits inside it. gov.uk says there is no tax on income or capital gains from investments in an ISA, and that a Stocks and Shares ISA can include investment funds. See what a Stocks and Shares ISA is.

Ready-made is not a regulatory term. The FCA’s term is model portfolio services. In a discussion paper in December 2025 it described them as pre-set diversified portfolios aimed at a person’s financial needs and risk appetite, and said it has no formal definition of a model portfolio in its rules. In 2019 it described model portfolios as typically a preselected, diversified basket of funds, offered at different target levels of risk. Robo is an informal label, covered under advice below.

Ready-made portfolios, at a glance

Platforms we track that offer ready-made portfolios

15 of 20

Data checked 29 September 2026. Not named here

ISA allowance, all your ISAs together

£20,000

A tax year, from 6 April to 5 April

Planned charge on interest from cash held in a Stocks and Shares ISA

22%

Planned for 6 April 2027, unconfirmed after the Budget

How does a ready-made portfolio work?

In outline, the saver picks a risk level and the provider supplies a diversified mix to match. The FCA’s published work covers these points.

• Risk levels. The FCA’s 2019 platforms study found that platforms tend to offer a range of portfolios at different target levels of risk. In December 2025 the FCA said model portfolio services use labels such as cautious or adventurous to explain risk. It said such labels do not allow direct comparison through a standardised risk score of the kind that applies to authorised funds. A firm providing a portfolio management service must tell the client the level of risk to be reflected in the manager’s exercise of discretion (COBS 6.1ZA.8R).
• A mix of assets. The FCA’s 2019 platforms study defined model portfolios, for its analysis, as risk-targeted, multi-asset portfolios. Its InvestSmart pages describe funds that hold a combination of shares, bonds and other assets across a range of countries, and say that diversification can smooth out returns but cannot totally eliminate risk.
• Managed or static. In the same December 2025 paper, the FCA sees two main types. Managed model portfolios involve discretionary management, for example rebalancing, and require full suitability assessments. Static model portfolios offer pre-set portfolios, and firms offering them must meet product governance rules because they are distributing financial instruments.
• Rebalancing. Guidance from the FCA’s predecessor, the FSA, in 2012 noted that over time the balance of assets in a portfolio is likely to move away from its intended allocation, because different assets return different amounts, and that periodic rebalancing can mitigate this.

In 2019 the FCA said a model portfolio can be structured as a fund (known as unitised) or as a discretionary service (non-unitised). In December 2025 it added that funds of funds, which consolidate a diversified portfolio of funds into a pre-selected option, are especially similar to model portfolios, but that model portfolios are not subject to comparable conduct, product or disclosure requirements as funds.

HMRC’s guidance for ISA managers recognises both non-discretionary ISAs, where the investor makes the investment decisions, and discretionary ISAs, where the manager can make purchases and sales.

How many platforms offer ready-made portfolios?

Of the 20 platforms we track, 15 offer ready-made portfolios, and 15 of those offer a Stocks and Shares ISA. The figures come from our platform data, checked on 29 September 2026.

The count records only whether a platform offers ready-made portfolios. It does not rate them or say what they hold. This guide does not name platforms: compare platform fees lists them with their charges, which is factual data, not advice.

What does a ready-made portfolio ISA cost?

Costs come in layers. The FCA’s cost rules treat the cost of the service and the cost of the product separately. A fee for running a portfolio and a fund manager’s fee for running a fund can both be called management fees, but the FCA says they are different costs and not duplicates.

An illustration. The table adds up three layers on a balance of £10,000 held for a year. The rates are examples to show how layers add up. They are not typical figures and are not the charges of any provider, platform or fund. The table assumes the balance stays the same all year and ignores growth, so it shows costs only.

For retail clients, FCA rules (COBS 6.1ZA.14BR) require a firm to disclose, in good time before the service is provided, a reasonable estimate of all costs and charges of the service and of any investment it has offered or sold. The firm must add the costs together, show the total as a cash amount and as a percentage, and give an illustration of the cumulative effect of costs on the return. Where a firm provides an ongoing service, it must also disclose the costs actually incurred, personalised, each year.

The FCA’s review of how platforms explain costs found that the main platform and fund charges could generally be identified, but that charges linked to particular activities, such as foreign exchange and interest on cash, were sometimes harder to find. The FCA’s InvestSmart pages say charges can drag on returns over time.

Is a ready-made portfolio ISA advice?

Not necessarily. The FCA separates several kinds of service, so a ready-made portfolio can sit in different regulatory categories:

• Advice. The FCA’s review of automated investment services covered retail investment advice given exclusively through automated channels, where customers do not interact with human advisers. That advice is given on a one-off basis when the customer first engages with the firm.
• Discretionary management. The client gives the firm responsibility to invest on the client’s behalf, within parameters agreed with the client, on an ongoing basis. The FCA calls the automated version automated online discretionary investment management.
• A pre-set portfolio. The FCA’s static model portfolios are pre-set portfolios. Firms offering them must meet product governance rules.

Firms offering discretionary or advisory services must carry out a suitability assessment to make sure that a personal recommendation or a decision to trade is suitable for each client. The FCA says that applies to automated services as it does to traditional ones. A suitability assessment involves a client’s knowledge and experience, financial situation and investment objectives, so a service that asks about them may be advising or managing on discretion. The questions alone do not show which. The provider’s documents say which, and the FCA’s rules require firms to describe their services clearly. The FCA’s review found that some firms did not make clear whether their service was advised, non-advised, discretionary or non-discretionary.

The FCA has also created a new form of support called targeted support, which lets firms give suggestions designed for groups of consumers with common characteristics. The FCA made its final rules on 26 February 2026 and set the regime to go live from 6 April 2026.

What are the risks?

With investments your capital is at risk: their value can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you put in.

• A mix does not remove risk. The FCA’s InvestSmart pages say diversification cannot totally eliminate risk.
• Labels are not standard. In 2019 the FCA found that similarly labelled model portfolios often have exposure to significantly different assets and so different volatility. In December 2025 it said risk labels do not allow direct comparison through a standardised risk score.
• Costs reduce returns. The FCA’s InvestSmart pages say charges can drag on returns over time, and each layer adds to them.
• Cash. A planned 22% charge on interest on cash held inside the ISA is unconfirmed after the Budget, as the next section explains.

What was planned for cash in 2027?

HMRC had planned a flat 22% charge from 6 April 2027 on interest paid on cash held inside a Stocks and Shares ISA, at every age, paid to HMRC by the ISA manager, and a rule that money market funds would be the only cash-like holdings. The Budget documents of 28 October 2026 do not mention these rules and press reports say they are not going ahead as planned, so they are unconfirmed.

Whether a particular ready-made portfolio holds cash or money market funds is set out in its documents. A firm providing a portfolio management service must give the client information on the types of financial instrument that may be included in the portfolio (COBS 6.1ZA.8R). See cash inside a Stocks and Shares ISA.

Ready-made portfolio or choosing your own investments?

Both sit inside the same wrapper and count towards the same £20,000 allowance. The table sets out how they differ.

This page does not say which suits anyone. You can compare platform fees on our platform page, which gives factual charge data, not advice.