Compare Lifetime Stocks & Shares ISAs

The obvious benefit of a stocks & shares ISA is that it allows you to invest in a range of investments without paying capital gains tax (CGT) on the growth (which you might otherwise have to do, if you exceed your CGT allowance).

This can be particularly useful if you’ve made other capital gains elsewhere in that year, such as by selling a second property. Selling a large asset like this can wipe out your CGT allowance, so holding other investments in an ISA can protect that growth from tax.

Stocks & shares ISAs can be a great vehicle for saving for mid-term or longer-term goals. If you have money that you feel able to put away for several years without touching it, then a stocks & shares ISA will in most cases deliver better value than cash savings.

Stocks & shares ISAs are particularly popular for Junior ISAs, where saving can begin when the child is a baby and continue until they reach 18. Eighteen years is a very good length of time for stock market investment, and historical growth over similar periods period has almost invariably beaten inflation and cash savings.

To open a stocks and shares ISA, you’ll need to decide how much you want to invest. Remember that you can invest up to £20,000 of tax-free money into an ISA, so decide what proportion of that amount you’d be happy investing (or can invest).

You then need to select a platform or provider to open your ISA. You can choose for yourself what stocks and shares you want to invest in, delegate someone else to take care of the investing, or potentially pick from a pre-set ISA with a set number of investments.

Here’s a quick snapshot of ten of the most popular ETFs of 2022 so far, which could be invested in via a stocks and shares ISA.

• iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF
• Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ET
• Xtrackers FTSE 100 UCITS ETF
• iShares plc FTSE 250
• Vanguard Funds plc FTSE 250 UCITS ETF
• iShares UK Dividend UCITS ETF
• L&G FTSE 100 Super Short Strategy
• SPDR FTSE UK All Share ETF
• Lyxor Core Morningstar UK UCITS ETF
• SPDR S7P UK Dividend Aristocrats

However – and this is incredibly important to remember – you should not take past performance as an indicator of how an investment is going to perform in the future.