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'Never knowingly under-invested'. That could have been the phrase John Lewis adopted when it launched investment Isas to its customers this week.
It’s not the first High Street retailer to try and flog Isas to shoppers – the likes of Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have already been down that road. The department store chain is clearly trying to tap into the boom in savings that was kick-started by the pandemic and lockdown.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that households saved a quarter of their disposable income between April and July last year, the highest since records began in 1987.
That is a lot of cash to be squirrelled away, which is why John Lewis has linked with digital wealth manager Nutmeg to offer an Isa, aimed at kids as well as adults.
Is it a good idea to sell investments alongside electrical goods?
My view is that anything that encourages and makes it easier for people to save is a good idea. You may think John Lewis is not the right place to be taking important investment decisions, but if it is encouraging people to start building a portfolio, then that can only be a good thing.
“Our products allow people to put money aside and to take that first step into what is often perceived as the complicated world of investments,” said Amir Goshtai, financial services director at John Lewis.
If that first step happens on the High Street, so what?
Devon surprise
Talking of High Streets, I had a pleasant surprise while on holiday in Devon in July.
I was searching through one of those sleepy towns looking for two things, as I always do.
The first is charity shops. I love browsing stores outside London because I invariably pick up a couple of decent books by authors I love for 99p or so. That’s an absolute bargain, particularly when compared to most of my local shops in south London, which are now charging around £2.50 a book.
The second thing I always look for is pubs. That’s not so much to laze away an afternoon on a cloud of beer, but to try local draft ales.
Pubs still tend to serve a decent drop outside London, while in the capital you can only often get a fizzy craft IPA or lager – and at twice the price. So exploring a small town is always a joy for me.
There’s also the added attraction of locally run shops, which are a huge breath of fresh air after enduring the retail chains or highly-priced specialist shops you find in cities.
But it was while strolling on the High Street in Honiton in East Devon that one retail outlet made me stop and stare.
Rest assured, it wasn’t a John Lewis, or even one of its Waitrose supermarkets. It wasn’t a store at all, as the window adverts for ‘will writing’ and ‘pension help’ showed. It was a financial adviser, and a fine looking one.
I was surprised because I haven’t come across a High Street adviser for some years in London, which may simply be a reflection of the streets I walk down these days. But it was an extremely welcome reminder of the many thousands of financial advisers toiling round the country who are at the heart of their communities.
The financial advice community often gets a bad rep because of the occasional crook who rips off their clients’ savings. I’ve written many newspaper stories of unscrupulous individuals who lie and cheat their way to people’s cash.
It’s clear that such behaviour reflects badly on all in the industry. It also, of course, gives those who already view financial advisers as untrustworthy a chance to confirm their prejudice.
But it also helps blind us to the truth that financial advisers can make a really positive difference.
The worry of money
I interviewed an entrepreneur recently for an article and asked them about their adviser.
Despite making millions from their businesses, their attitude to their own finances was a little startling.
They told me they leave it to their adviser to say if any financial decisions need to be made.
That particular client really appreciated the adviser taking what they called “the worry of money” off their shoulders.
In short, that’s what financial advisers can do for their clients and sometimes we need to shout about that. So rather than complaining about High Street stores moving into the investment world, it is worth reaffirming that the High Street is where much of Britain’s financial advice actually takes place.
Let’s face it, those shoppers who casually pick up an investment leaflet in John Lewis or M&S or Sainsbury’s are much more likely to notice that discreet but stylish financial adviser’s office next door if they’ve already been prompted into thinking about their wealth.
Simon Read is a freelance journalist
