Editorial methodology
How IMZA Invest researches, reviews and ranks UK investment platforms. This is the page we point to whenever a reader wants to understand why a product appears where it does — or how we stay honest about affiliate commissions.
Who writes this site
IMZA Invest is written by a UK-based parent (also a UK healthcare professional) alongside his 15-year-old daughter, Zo. Everything you read is filtered through two questions: would Zo understand this if she were reading it cold? And would we still say this if nobody paid us a commission?
We are not financial advisers. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Nothing on this site is a personal recommendation. If your decision involves large sums, tax planning, retirement planning, or any other complex circumstances, please speak to a regulated UK financial adviser — you can find one via Unbiased or the FCA's find an adviser directory.
Our sources
Every rules-based claim on the site (allowances, limits, tax bands, deadlines, withdrawal rules, eligibility) is cross-checked against official UK government and regulator sources. We cite them inline wherever possible.
- ISA and Junior ISA rules, allowances, limits: gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts
- Junior ISA rules: gov.uk/junior-individual-savings-accounts
- Lifetime ISA rules: gov.uk/lifetime-isa
- SIPP and pension rules: gov.uk/personal-pensions-your-rights
- Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances: gov.uk/capital-gains-tax
- Dividend tax thresholds: gov.uk/tax-on-dividends
- Regulated firm checks (FCA Register): register.fca.org.uk
- FSCS compensation scheme: fscs.org.uk
- Impartial money guidance: MoneyHelper
How we score platforms
When we rank or review a UK investment platform, we score it across six weighted dimensions. The same rubric is used whether we earn a commission on the platform or not.
| Dimension | Weight | What we look at |
|---|---|---|
| Total cost of ownership | 30% | Platform fee, dealing fees, FX charges, fund OCFs, worked examples at £1k / £10k / £50k / £100k portfolio sizes over 10 years. |
| Account coverage | 20% | Stocks & Shares ISA, Junior ISA, SIPP, LISA, General Investment Account — and whether switching in is easy. |
| Investment range | 15% | How many funds, ETFs and individual shares are available, and whether the range fits a beginner's needs (low-cost global index funds). |
| Beginner usability | 15% | Onboarding friction, educational material, mobile app quality, clarity of fee disclosure. |
| Safety and regulation | 10% | FCA authorisation (verified on the Register), FSCS coverage of cash and investments, client money handling. |
| Transparency | 10% | How clearly fees are disclosed on the platform's own site, and whether there are hidden costs we only find by reading the fine print. |
How we handle affiliate commissions
IMZA Invest earns commission on some platform sign-ups and on some Amazon UK book links (Amazon Associate tag: imzainvest-21). This is how we pay for the site, the data, and the time to write it. Our rules:
- We disclose. Every page that contains a monetised link contains an affiliate disclosure. Every commercial link carries a
rel="sponsored nofollow"attribute as required by Google's spam policy guidance. - We rank on merit, not commission. If the cheapest platform for a specific reader does not pay us, it still goes at the top.
- We include platforms that don't pay us. Vanguard UK, for example, does not operate a consumer affiliate programme. They still appear in our rankings where they are relevant.
- We accept no paid sponsorships. No platform can pay to appear, pay to rank higher, or pay to remove a criticism.
- We don't recommend based on bonuses. Referral cash or free-share bonuses are a nice extra but they never change our ranking order.
How often we update
Every platform fee schedule, ISA allowance, tax band and deadline on the site is checked at least quarterly. We also do a full refresh:
- Before every UK tax year end (5 April)
- Immediately after any UK Budget or Autumn Statement affecting ISAs, pensions or capital gains
- Whenever a platform we review announces a material fee change
- Whenever we spot an out-of-date number ourselves
Every review and guide carries a visible "last updated" date. If you spot anything that looks out of date, please email hello@imzainvest.com and we will fix it within five working days.
How we handle corrections
If we get something wrong, we want to know. We will update the article, note the correction at the bottom of the page with the date, and — if the mistake is material — publish a retraction notice. Email hello@imzainvest.com.
What we don't publish
There are topics where our authorship credentials (parent + teenage daughter learning in public, not regulated financial advisers) mean we will not publish guidance:
- Personal recommendations on whether to buy, hold or sell an individual share
- Pension transfer advice
- Defined benefit pension decisions
- Inheritance tax planning for specific estates
- Cryptocurrency, CFDs, spread betting, FX margin trading
- Any "guaranteed return" claim
Where these topics come up, we signpost to the FCA, MoneyHelper, or a regulated adviser.
Our personal portfolio
We publish our own family portfolio (see /portfolio/) for transparency. It holds individual shares and carries materially higher risk than the diversified, low-cost index-fund approach we recommend to beginners in our guides. Our personal portfolio is not a recommendation. It is a learning log. Please do not copy it.