Stocks & Shares ISA Information

Tax efficient investments

You can open one Stocks & Shares ISA and one Cash ISA each tax year. If you only open a Stocks & Shares ISA, you can invest up to £7,200 - or up to £10,200 if you will be aged 50 or over on 5 April 2010 (effective from 6 October 2009).

Alternatively, you can save up to £3,600 in a Cash ISA – or £5,100 if you will be aged 50 or over on 5 April 2010 - and invest the remainder of your allowance in a Stocks & Shares ISA. For example, if you save £2,000 in a Cash ISA, you can invest up to £5,200 in a Stocks & Shares ISA in the same tax year – or up to £8,200 if you will be aged 50 or over on 5 April 2010.

Find out more about the changes to Stocks and Shares ISA limits.

A choice of funds

There are 5 M&S Unit Trust funds – Ethical Fund, High Income Fund, Worldwide Managed Fund, UK 100 Companies Fund or UK Selection Portfolio.

Finding the right Fund

To help find the right investment for you we’ve created a range of simple guides to investing – you’ll find them under Fund Information.

Spreading risk

With an M&S Stocks & Shares ISA your investment is spread across lots of companies. This reduces the risk associated with investing in one or a small number of stocks and shares.

Low minimum investment

You can invest as little as a £100 lump sum in an M&S Stocks & Shares ISA. If you want, you can also set up a direct debit for £25 a month or more per unit trust fund. You can make lump sum top up investments from £25.

Regular or one-off investments

Top up your M&S Stocks & Shares ISA with monthly payments (by direct debit). Or invest a lump sum anytime you like.

No exit fees

Our charges depend on the funds you invest in. And there's no exit fee when you sell your units and withdraw your money - however, you should consider the value of your investment and whether there are any other means of raising money before making any decisions.

No notice withdrawals

Investment in our unit trust funds should be considered a medium to long term investment of at least 5 to 10 years. If you need to sell your units you can do so at anytime and withdraw the proceeds. We’ll send you a cheque or transfer the money to your bank or building society account.

Important considerations

As with any investment where the underlying investments are shares and bonds, the price of units and the income from them can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than the amount originally invested. Investment in the Fund should be considered a medium to long term investment of 5 years or more. As some of our Funds are invested overseas the value of your investment may be affected by changes in currency exchange rates.

Switch between funds

You can move all or part of your money from one fund to another whenever you want. Any initial charge you have paid on the fund you are switching out of, will be discounted against any Initial Charge on the fund you are switching into.

Track performance

Call us anytime to check how your investment is performing. We’ll also send you a valuation statement every 6 months. And our fund prices are updated daily online.

Invest with the experts

We’ve been managing investments for more than 20 years and our High Income Fund has won a number of performance awards. However, this information relates to the past and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.