Healthy Investment has been shortlisted for two awards in a scheme operated by a respected national financial services publisher. The Bury-headquartered friendly society has made it to the last four in the MoneyAge Awards 2021 in both the ISA Provider of the Year and Ethical Financial Services Provider of the Year categories.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on Thursday 7 October 2021 at the Waldorf Hilton in London.
Healthy Investment, which was founded in Salford in 1835, is a mutually owned provider of ISAs, Investment Bonds, Junior ISAs, Child Trust Funds and Savings Plans. With its current headquarters in Bury, it has been based in Greater Manchester throughout its history and, as a friendly society, it is owned by, and run for the benefit of, its more than 110,000 members.
Its shortlisted entry in the ISA Provider of the Year category highlighted the friendly society’s junior stocks and shares ISA, which guarantees that the child will receive, as a minimum, their capital plus any growth (in the form of guaranteed bonuses) on their 18th birthday, assuming they have held the ISA for at least five years.
The entry also focused on the success with which the friendly society has managed to convert Child Trust Fund holders into adult ISA investors since they began turning 18 in September 2021.
With its origins in the 19th-Century temperance movement, Healthy Investment was one of the early pioneers of ethical investment. Its shortlisted entry for the Ethical Financial Services Provider of the Year category focused on the steps the society has taken over the last 12 months to align its ethically invested funds with members’ values, and also emphasised that, as a mutual, it is not only a provider of ethical investments but also deals ethically with its members, staff and suppliers.
Peter Green, chief executive of Healthy Investment, said, “After the last 18 months I couldn’t be more pleased to have been shortlisted for not one but two awards. As a business we have weathered the pandemic well but it is still great to have our team’s dedication recognised after more than a year of working with great professionalism under unprecedented conditions.
“One of our great strengths through what has been a tumultuous time for investment markets has been the with-profits model that we operate, which holds back a proportion of returns in years of strong performance to help offset the effects of periods of weaker markets. This stood us in good stead, particularly in the earlier months of the pandemic, and our cautious approach to investment means we have been able consistently to provide returns that are much more attractive than current cash interest rates while also offering a range of capital guarantees.”
The MoneyAge Awards celebrate excellence, professionalism and innovation in the personal finance sector. The scheme is operated by City of London-based Perspective Publishing, which publishes www.moneyage.co.uk, Pensions Age, Charity Times and a range of respected industry magazines. The company has been running awards schemes linked to its stable of business-to-business publications since the late 1990s.
Entries to the MoneyAge Awards are judged by an independent panel that includes representatives of the Society of Later Life Advisers, the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, the Tax Incentivised Savings Association and the Association of Finance Brokers.