What is the investing education service?
Ownvance's investing education service is a short series of one-to-one sessions, agreed in writing for a fixed fee, that explains how investing works before you commit any money. It covers the ideas every investor needs and the documents you'll be asked to read. It's general education: we don't recommend products or manage money.
What will you receive?
You receive the sessions themselves, written notes after each one, a checklist for reading a fund factsheet or a platform's terms, and a short list of questions to put to any provider or adviser. Everything is yours to keep, and none of it points you towards a particular product, platform or provider.
- One-to-one sessions on the topics agreed in your engagement letter.
- Written notes after each session, so you can listen rather than scribble.
- A checklist for reading a fund factsheet and a platform's terms and fee schedule.
- A worked illustration of how fees add up over time.
- A list of questions to ask any provider or adviser before you sign up.
Who are the sessions for?
The sessions suit people who are thinking about investing but don't yet feel able to judge an option for themselves. Typically that's someone with savings beyond their emergency fund, someone who has opened an investing account without really knowing what they're paying, or someone who has been pitched an investment and wants to understand it.
- You have an emergency fund in place and some money you won't need for five years or more.
- You hold an investing account, or a pension where you choose the investments, and the options make little sense to you.
- Friends, colleagues or social media keep talking about investing, and you want a calm, independent explanation.
- You've been offered something with a high return and want to understand the risk that usually comes with it. If you need the offer itself checked, that's our firm or offer check.
How long does investing education take?
Investing education is usually a few sessions spread over two to four weeks. The gap between sessions gives you time to read the notes, look at your own accounts and come back with questions. The number of sessions depends on how much you want to cover, and your engagement letter confirms it along with the dates.
How do the sessions work?
We start from where you are, not from a fixed syllabus. The first session finds out what you already know and what you want to be able to do. Later sessions move from the core ideas to the documents you'll actually face, and the last one turns it all into a checklist you can use on your own.
Where you're starting from
What you already know, any accounts you hold, and what made you want to learn about investing now.
The core ideas
Risk and return, diversification, fees and time horizon, explained with simple illustrative numbers rather than jargon.
Reading the paperwork
A fund factsheet and a platform's terms, line by line, so you know where the costs, risks and exit rules are written down.
Your own checklist
The questions you'll ask before putting money anywhere, written down so you can use them without us.
How are risk and return connected?
Higher potential returns come with a higher chance of losing money, at least for a while. Cash savings are steady but can lose value as prices rise. Shares have the potential to do better over long periods but can fall sharply and stay down for years. An offer of high returns with no risk describes something that doesn't exist.
Investing can lose money, and the value of any investment can fall as well as rise. In the sessions we look at what a fall of a third would mean in your own figures, because how you'd react matters as much as the theory. If a fall would make you sell in a panic, the investment was too risky for you, however good it looked on paper.
What does diversification mean in practice?
Diversification means not depending on any single share, sector, region or type of investment. If one does badly, the others may soften the blow. It doesn't remove risk, and it can't stop most things falling together in a crash, but it does protect you from one bad bet wiping out a large part of your savings.
We also look at concentration that's easy to miss: several funds holding the same large shares under different names, or your savings, pension and job all depending on the same employer or industry.
How much difference do fees make over time?
Fees are taken every year whether an investment does well or badly, so small percentages add up. A difference that looks tiny on a factsheet can become a large sum over twenty years. The sessions show you where each charge is listed, and how to add them together into a single yearly figure you can compare.
| Total yearly fees | Paid each year | Paid over 10 years | Paid over 20 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5% | $50 | $500 | $1,000 |
| 1.0% | $100 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| 1.5% | $150 | $1,500 | $3,000 |
Real balances move, so real fees move with them. If the investments rise, the fees taken in money terms rise too; if they fall, the fees are still charged. Either way, the money paid in fees is no longer invested.
An illustration with round numbers, not a forecast. It says nothing about how any investment will perform.
Why does your time horizon matter?
Your time horizon is how long the money can stay invested before you need it. Money you'll need within a few years shouldn't depend on markets, because a fall could arrive just when you have to sell. A longer horizon gives more time to ride out falls, though nothing guarantees that prices will recover in time.
For this reason the sessions begin with the questions a personal financial plan answers: whether your emergency fund is in place, and which of your goals fall due when. Investing is for money you can genuinely leave alone.
What should you look for in a platform's terms?
Before opening an account, find out who runs the platform and whether it's authorised, who holds your investments and in whose name, every fee you'll pay, how and when you can withdraw, and what happens to your money if the platform fails. If any of these isn't clearly written down, treat that as a warning sign.
- Who runs the platform, and whether the financial regulator in its country lists it for the service it offers.
- Who holds your investments and cash, and whether they're kept separate from the platform's own money.
- Every charge: account fees, fund charges, dealing costs, currency conversion and exit fees.
- How to withdraw, how long it takes, and whether there are minimums, lock-ins or penalties.
- What protection applies if the platform fails and what it covers, confirmed from official sources rather than the platform's own marketing.
If you'd like someone to look at a specific platform or offer for you, that's our check on a firm or offer.
What won't we do?
We won't tell you which fund, share, platform or product to buy, how much to put in, or when to buy or sell. That would be personal investment advice, and Ownvance isn't a regulated adviser. The sessions are general education. If you want a recommendation, we'll help you prepare to choose and question an authorised adviser.
We take nothing from any provider, so nothing in the sessions is steered towards a product. Our important information explains more.