Starter portfolios
Get up and running with our pre-built portfolios, built by us and managed by you.
Portfolios to kick-start your investing
Built by our expert team, our Starter portfolios are designed with investments already selected for you. While the funds that feature have been chosen by us, you’ll need to be comfortable managing the portfolio yourself.
With four portfolios to choose from, all you need to do is pick the one that’s right for you, decide how much you want to invest (the minimum is £1,000), and you’re ready to go.
- High-quality funds
Each portfolio is only made up of funds that we’ve carefully selected from our Favourite funds list. - Built by us, managed by you
Our experts look at the clarity of the investment manager’s philosophy and process, the success and consistency of past performance, and their approach to risk management. - Match your attitude to risk
If you’re more cautious, we have an option for you. If you’re happy riding the ups and downs of the market, we’ve got a portfolio for that, too.
Managing your portfolio
Each Starter portfolio is made up of five funds, which will appear in your account once you buy a portfolio. From that point on, it's up to you to manage them. You'll see the funds appear alongside any other investments you have, so it's easy to keep track.
If you're not confident in managing your own portfolio, you might prefer our AJ Bell funds instead. They let you leave the day-to-day investing decisions to our expert team.
We regularly review and update our Starter portfolios to keep them on track. This means the funds we include may change and your portfolio will not be updated automatically. If a fund you hold no longer appears in our updated portfolios, you’ll need to decide whether you want to remain invested in it.
If you'd like to align your portfolio with our latest adjustments, make sure you see the most recent updates.
Cautious
Balanced
Adventurous
Income
Learn more about our Starter portfolios
Join Paul Angell, Head of Investment Research, to learn more about how our Starter portfolios work and how we choose each investment.
Our most popular Starter portfolios questions
Having the right information is important when making investment decisions. Here are the most frequently asked questions we get about our Starter portfolios.
Each AJ Bell Starter portfolio is made up of five funds from the AJ Bell Favourite funds list. Three of these funds are actively managed, while two passively track their respective markets. To get started, select the Starter portfolio that best meets your needs. You have four to choose from, including:
- Cautious
- Balanced
- Adventurous
- One for those seeking income
After choosing your Starter portfolio, you…
Read moreAJ Bell Starter portfolios have the following charges:
- A £1.50 fee each time you buy or sell a fund
- A 0.25% custody charge (tiered down to zero) per year for holding your funds
- A charge made by each fund's manager – typically 0.6 to 0.8% per year – known as the ongoing charges figure (OCF)
For full details, please see our charges.
Once you buy an AJ Bell Starter portfolio, you are responsible for managing it. Though each portfolio is designed to be held over the long term (five years or more), we recommend that you review your portfolio from time to time.
You may wish to rebalance your portfolio if market movements have changed it significantly. To help you do this, you can visit the Starter portfolios webpage and look at…
Read moreSeptember 2024
We’ve taken steps to both simplify the Starter portfolios, and to reduce the cost for new investors.
To make things simpler, each portfolio is now invested in just two core asset classes (global equities and global fixed income). And the portfolios are made up of five funds, with equal 20% weightings.
To make things more affordable, dealing fees will be lower thanks to the reduced number of funds in the portfolios. We’ve also introduced low-cost, passive funds into each portfolio to further lower fees.
Cautious portfolio fund changes:
- New: HSBC FTSE All-World Index, Waverton Sterling Bond, Artemis Strategic Bond, HSBC Global Government Bond, TwentyFour Corporate Bond.
- Previous: Liontrust UK Growth, JPM Global Equity Income, JPM Emerging Markets Income, Artemis Strategic Bond, TwentyFour Corporate Bond, Royal London Corporate Bond, Trojan Fund and BlackRock ICS Sterling Liquidity.
Balanced portfolio fund changes:
- New: HSBC FTSE All-World Index, Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Growth, IFSL Evenlode Global Income, Artemis Strategic Bond, HSBC Global Aggregate Bond.
- Previous: Liontrust UK Growth, Man GLG Income, JPM Global Equity Income, JPM Emerging Markets Income, Royal London Corporate Bond, Invesco High Yield, Trojan Fund, BlackRock ICS Sterling Liquidity.
Adventurous portfolio fund changes:
- New: HSBC FTSE All-World Index, Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Growth, Schroder Global Recovery, abrdn Global Smaller Companies, Vanguard Global Corporate Bond.
- Previous: Liontrust UK Growth, Man GLG Income, JPM Global Equity Income, abrdn Global Smaller Companies, JPM Emerging Markets Income, Invesco High Yield, Trojan Fund.
Income portfolio fund changes:
- New: HSBC FTSE All-World Index, JPM Global Equity Income, Schroder Global Equity Income, Vanguard Global Corporate Bond, Invesco High Yield.
- Previous: Man GLG Income, BlackRock UK Income, JPM Global Equity Income, Schroder Global Equity Income, JPM Emerging Markets Income, Royal London Corporate Bond, Invesco High Yield, Trojan Fund, BlackRock ICS Sterling Liquidity.
Learn more about why we made these changes. Or, see why we chose the above funds.
April 2024
We have replaced the Jupiter UK Special Situations fund for the Man GLG Income fund within the Balanced and Adventurous Starter portfolios with the weightings remaining the same.
- The manager of the Jupiter UK Special Situations fund, Ben Whitmore, is due to leave the business at the end of July 2024, resulting in unavoidable changes to the way the fund is managed.
- The Man GLG Income fund is a high conviction alternative investing in UK equities with a similar bias towards undervalued companies. The fund is also already held within our Income Starter portfolio.
May 2023
We've updated the asset allocation of all four portfolios to align with the asset allocation on other products managed by the investment team at AJ Bell. As part of these changes, we are adding and removing a number of funds from the portfolios.
- In shares, we've introduced exposure to emerging markets.
- In fixed income, we've introduced exposure to high yield.
- Alternative exposure has broadly remained unchanged, although we have altered the asset class of our allocation with exposure coming from a multi asset strategy instead of a single alternative asset class.
- We've added a cash holding to three of the four portfolios.
January 2021
All four portfolios have had their asset allocation updated to bring the approach into line with the AJ Bell funds. In general terms, this has resulted in a reduction in UK shares and an increase in overseas shares.
- The Cautious portfolio has had a variety of weight changes but the funds used are unchanged.
- The Balanced portfolio has seen the Evenlode Income fund removed and the Ninety One UK Alpha fund added to provide a better blend of UK shares.
- The Adventurous portfolio has seen the Evenlode Income and Franklin UK Mid Cap funds removed and replaced with the Ninety One UK Alpha and ASI Global Smaller Companies funds.
- The Income portfolio has seen the addition of the Schroder Global Equity Income and JP Morgan US Equity Income funds to bring greater diversification in the global shares element.
March 2020
- The BNY Mellon Global Income fund has been removed from the Balanced, Adventurous and Income portfolios as the lead fund manager, Nick Clay, and his team, have confirmed their departure from the firm. Given the incoming manager is unknown to us, we believe it is prudent to remove the fund from the Starter portfolios.
- In the Balanced and Adventurous portfolios, the weighting from the BNY Mellon Global Income fund goes to the Trojan Global Income fund. The lead manager, James Harris, is highly experienced and we believe the more defensive style of the fund complements our existing exposure well.
- In the Income portfolio, the BNY Mellon Global Income fund has been replaced with the Evenlode Global Income fund which has a focus on high quality companies that they hope will be able to generate sustainable cash flow to pay dividends over the long term.
March 2019
- Janus Henderson UK Property removed from the Cautious, Balanced & Adventurous portfolios due to a change in the pricing approach from Janus Henderson on the property fund. The fund has been replaced by Janus Henderson UK Absolute Return across the three portfolios.
- Janus Henderson UK Property removed from the Income portfolio due to a change in the pricing approach from Janus Henderson on the property fund. The allocation has been added to the existing First State Global Listed Infrastructure holding.
Need more help?
Our customer support team are here to help when you need it. Here’s how to get in touch.
We're here to help you invest
We’ve been helping our customers put their money to work for over 30 years. And with over 593,000 customers, that’s a lot of people taking control of their financial futures.
We’re not just one of the UK’s largest and best regarded investment platforms, we’re listed on the FTSE 250, we’re regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), oh, and we’re a Which? Recommended provider seven years running, 2019-2025.
So, when you're ready to feel good, investing, we're here to help.