The most popular investments for ISAs

Boosting your investments may be top of your new year resolutions, we look at the most popular ISA investments made by DIY investors

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(Image credit: © Getty images)

The end of the tax year can come quickly so it is important that investors make the most of their annual ISA allowance.

High interest rates and concerns about inflation may have rattled market nerves last year.

That can make it hard to decide where to put your ISA money.

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But as most good investors know, market volatility is normal and investments can pay dividends over the long term.

Investment platforms are going to great effort to attract investors as the end of the tax year and ISA season approaches.

Some are even offering attractive cashback for new investors.

So where are investors putting their investments? We look at the most popular funds that investors put their cash into last year.

According to fund platform Fidelity, it was better for investors to have a global rather than UK focus last year.

The platform said returns from the US, Japan and Europe all surpassed UK gains.

Many investors also took a passive strategy, with index funds among the most popular.

It comes as research shows only 36% of active funds outperformed passive alternatives last year, highlighting the volatility in the market.

Index funds made up four of the top 10 best-selling funds on the Fidelity Personal Investing platform last year.

The best-selling fund was the Fidelity Index World fund, which the platform's Graham Smith says confirms that that "investors are sold on the idea of a diverse markets exposure at minimal cost."

The Fidelity Cash Fund was the third most popular overall after the Legal & General UK Index Trust.

Smith adds that money market funds like the Fidelity Cash Fund now offer an appealing combination of safety and income.

The best-selling active funds were the Fidelity Global Technology Fund and the Fundsmith Equity Fund, which is a regular favourite among investors.

"After a challenging year, the Fundsmith Equity Fund returned to Fidelity’s best seller lists in April 2023," adds Smith.

"The fund continued to pursue a strategy of emphasising consumer staples and healthcare companies, which now account for around 56% of the fund’s assets. Technology, on the other hand, takes up only around 11% of the portfolio."

  1. Fundsmith Equity
  2. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
  3. Fidelity Index World
  4. iShares Core FTSE 100 ETF
  5. Vanguard Life Strategy
  6. Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index
  7. Fidelity Global Special Situations
  8. iShares S&P 500 ETF
  9. UBS S&P 500 ETF
  10. Vanguard FTSE All World ETF
Kalpana Fitzpatrick

Kalpana is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience in financial journalism. She is also the author of Invest Now: The Simple Guide to Boosting Your Finances (Heligo) and children's money book Get to Know Money (DK Books). 

Her work includes writing for a number of media outlets, from national papers, magazines to books.

She has written for national papers and well-known women’s lifestyle and luxury titles. She was finance editor for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Red and Prima.

She started her career at the Financial Times group, covering pensions and investments.

As a money expert, Kalpana is a regular guest on TV and radio – appearances include BBC One’s Morning Live, ITV’s Eat Well, Save Well, Sky News and more. She was also the resident money expert for the BBC Money 101 podcast .

Kalpana writes a monthly money column for Ideal Home and a weekly one for Woman magazine, alongside a monthly 'Ask Kalpana' column for Woman magazine.

Kalpana also often speaks at events. She is passionate about helping people be better with their money; her particular passion is to educate more people about getting started with investing the right way and promoting financial education.