Giving voice to the real experts on investment services – you

Holly Mackay

customer service. “They genuinely seem to care about their customers, providing exceptional service and nonjargon communication.”

Winner: AJ Bell Youinvest

The firm treads a careful line between competitive charges and good service. Investors want both and praised the “excellent service and great competitive prices.”

Runner-up: Wealthify

A relatively new player, this “robo- adviser” offers a new approach to investment, stripping out much of the gobbledegook and jargon. It scored particularly highly with female investors, who praised the clear, straightforward approach. Commended: Interactive Investor and True Potential Investor

I am on a personal crusade to challenge pension providers to stop sending out 20 pages of meaningless jargon, which largely end up in Britain’s bins.

For this category we supplemented readers’ votes with scores from four independent judges who really do read all the communications from providers: Romi Savova of PensionBee, Henry Tapper of Pension PlayPen, Sharon Sutton of Thornton Chartered Financial Planners and Richard Allum of The Paraplanners.

Interestingly, the larger and older the firm, generally the worse the scores. Big firms take note.

Winner: Hargreaves Lansdown

One dissenting judge found Hargreaves too technical, but it was popular with most and with consumers. Print, online and good oldfashioned phone support were singled out for praise.

‘Awards need to change: there is no better judge of quality than the customer’

Runner-up: True Potential Investor

This financial advice firm from Newcastle also offers direct services to consumers and has been active in engaging with newly auto-enrolled workplace pensions customers.

Winner: Investec Click & Invest

Many new brands are shaking up the industry with better digital services. But to succeed in an industry bereft of trust, new brands have to be recognised by consumers as well as offering something new and relevant.

On brand awareness with our voters, top scorers were Investec Click & Invest, NatWest Invest and Santander Investment Hub.

We judged Investec Click & Invest to be a deserving winner for its easy online journey, its use of social media and its innovative campaigns, which do not just copy the status quo.

The inaugural Consumer Investment Awards took place at Café de Paris in London