My favourite pages
Loading GIF
Support topics

Need help in something? Take a look at our support area for your answer.

Find out more

Quick content survey

As your feedback helps us improve our content and services, we'd appreciate it if you can spare a few moments to respond to the following statements.

Cash interest explained

You will receive interest on balances in your platform cash account at the prevailing rate.

Embark Investment Services Limited acts as the custodian for investments on the Willis Owen platform and is one of our strategic partners that provides our Willis Owen ISA, GIA, Junior ISA and SIPP.

Embark places cash with a number of banking partners for safekeeping and to provide the potential for you to earn interest on money in your platform cash account. By managing cash in this way, it aims to provide better protection and a higher overall level of interest than if all funds were placed with a single bank.

The rates of interest paid by banks will vary. Embark retains a portion of the interest earned to cover its costs in managing platform cash.

Current Interest Rate

The table below shows the current customer interest rate payable on cash balances along with the amount of interest retained by Embark. The customer interest rate shown is that after accounting for interest retained by Embark:

Date From Customer Interest Rate Interest retained by Embark
25th March 2024 2.46% 1.75% - 2.00%

Embark can change the rate of interest at any time and it reviews the position at least quarterly. Interest is calculated and accrued daily and is credited to your account on the first of each month. If you transfer out, accrued interest is applied at the point of transfer. We will inform you if and when the interest rate changes as soon as is practicable.

Interest retained

The table below shows the yearly equivalent rates of interest Embark expects to pay based on a range of possible yearly interest rates it may earn.

Interest Embark expects to earn Customer Interest Rate Interest retained by Embark
0-1% 0 – 0.46% 0 – 0.54%
1-2% 0.46% – 0.94% 0.54% – 1.06%
2-3% 0.94% – 1.46% 1.06% – 1.54%
3-4% 1.46% – 2.02% 1.54% – 1.98%
4-5% 2.02% – 2.61% 1.98% – 2.39%
5%+ 2.61%+ 2.39%+

Historic Interest Rates

To see details of historic customer interest rates, along with the amount of interest retained by Embark, click here.

Introduction to funds

What is a fund?

Funds are the most popular collective investment vehicles for UK retail investors. They allow smaller investors to pool their contributions to invest in a range of different assets such as shares and bonds. Funds usually carry the name of the provider, such as Jupiter, and some indication what they invest in e.g. UK equity income or emerging markets.

Funds can be managed in different ways based on their objectives, some of these include:

  • Income funds - funds that aim to pay a regular income (in the form of dividends and/or interest)
  • Growth funds - funds that aim to grow the value of your capital
  • Actively managed funds- funds that are managed by professionals who use their judgement to decide where and how to invest, in line with the fund's objectives
  • Passive funds - funds that track or closely follow performance of a particular market index
  • Ethical funds - funds that are designed to be socially or environmentally conscious and that will only invest in things that fit with their ethical guidelines.
  • Multi-asset funds - these invest in a range of different types of assets within a single fund usually to a given risk level

How much does it cost to invest in a fund?

When investing in funds, you will pay investment charges. These are taken either from the capital or income generated by the fund. They cover things like the services of an expert fund manager, the running of the fund as well as dealing costs and taxes it incurs when buying or selling investments. Investment charges vary depending on the type of fund so it’s important to read the fund's Key Information Document where you will find full details. When investing in funds through the Willis Owen Platform, you will also pay service fees to us which cover the cost of running our platform and administering your account.

How do you trade in funds?

Funds are usually priced daily, and any buying or selling is carried out at the next dealing point. Because the price an investor gets is the value of all the underlying investments it is not possible to know the exact price until after you have made a purchase or sale.

Connecting...

Checking for available agents.