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Cash interest explained |
You will receive interest on balances in your platform cash account at the prevailing rate.
Embark Investment Services Limited acts as the custodian for investments on the Willis Owen platform and is one of our strategic partners that provides our Willis Owen ISA, GIA, Junior ISA and SIPP.
Embark places cash with a number of banking partners for safekeeping and to provide the potential for you to earn interest on money in your platform cash account. By managing cash in this way, it aims to provide better protection and a higher overall level of interest than if all funds were placed with a single bank.
The rates of interest paid by banks will vary. Embark retains a portion of the interest earned to cover its costs in managing platform cash.
Current Interest Rate
The table below shows the current customer interest rate payable on cash balances along with the amount of interest retained by Embark. The customer interest rate shown is that after accounting for interest retained by Embark:
| Date From | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 25th March 2024 | 2.46% | 1.75% - 2.00% |
Embark can change the rate of interest at any time and it reviews the position at least quarterly. Interest is calculated and accrued daily and is credited to your account on the first of each month. If you transfer out, accrued interest is applied at the point of transfer. We will inform you if and when the interest rate changes as soon as is practicable.
Interest retained
The table below shows the yearly equivalent rates of interest Embark expects to pay based on a range of possible yearly interest rates it may earn.
| Interest Embark expects to earn | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1% | 0 – 0.46% | 0 – 0.54% |
| 1-2% | 0.46% – 0.94% | 0.54% – 1.06% |
| 2-3% | 0.94% – 1.46% | 1.06% – 1.54% |
| 3-4% | 1.46% – 2.02% | 1.54% – 1.98% |
| 4-5% | 2.02% – 2.61% | 1.98% – 2.39% |
| 5%+ | 2.61%+ | 2.39%+ |
Historic Interest Rates
To see details of historic customer interest rates, along with the amount of interest retained by Embark, click here.
By transferring your Funds, Shares, Investments Trusts or ETFs to us, you'll be able to access, review and tweak all of your investments in one place.
As you may know, accessing multiple investments with different providers using several usernames and passwords is a lot of hassle. By moving it all into the Willis Owen Platform, you can use just one account to keep on top of everything.
If required, we'll also help you convert your Funds to the new 'Commission-excluded' share classes. So you'll only pay our transparent reduced rate.
Remember, our charges go down as your balance goes up. So the more you transfer, the more you save.
Once you've registered, open an ISA, SIPP or GIA or go to your existing account and select 'Transfer in'. Then all you need to do is download the form, print and sign it and send it back to us. You can also call us on 0800 597 2525 to order a pre-filled form listing all your Funds held under Willis Owen.
Keep in mind, transferring an ISA from a previous tax year won't have any effect on your current ISA allowance.
The length of time taken to transfer investments to the Willis Owen Platform will depend on whether it is a cash transfer (where your Funds are sold and transferred as cash) or a stock transfer (where your existing investment units/shares are brought across like for like).
Transfers usually complete within 30 days, but it can vary depending on the type of transfer, type of stock, provider and/or platform involved. The good news is more and more providers work via an electronic system which can cut your transfer time down to a matter of days, rather than weeks, in a lot of cases.
Cash transfers can take 2-3 weeks, in which time you will be out of the market for the duration of the transfer. During this period, your investments will be sold and await settlement. Dependent on the provider, a cheque may be raised and sent to us. We will bank the cheque and await clearance; once cleared your monies will be available to you for investment.
Stock transfers can take 4-6 weeks. As this is purely an administration change, you will not be out of the market at anytime, this is just platforms and providers exchanging data to amend their records.
Whichever type of transfer you make, once you get it started we'll handle everything, so you can focus on planning your investments.
While your transfer is in progress you will not be able to trade with the units/shares that you are transferring, however, your investments will remain within your product wrapper.
Find out about our accounts and understand how you can reduce your fees by moving to the Willis Owen Platform.
Find out about our accounts
