Liontrust: funds, ISAs and how to invest

Liontrust is a UK fund manager. It sells investment funds and a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, and it does not offer a current account, a savings account or a cash ISA. Its funds can be bought in three ways: through a financial adviser, through a fund platform, or directly with Liontrust¹.

The distinction matters more than it sounds. Money in a Liontrust fund is invested in the stock market, so its value can fall as well as rise, and it is not covered by the deposit protection that applies to money in a bank or building society account. Investment trusts, the closest comparison in the wider market, are described by the Association of Investment Companies as more risky than bank savings accounts, though they offer the chance of a growing income and potentially capital growth too³.

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP states that it is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 518552⁴. That is a check on how the firm behaves, not a guarantee of the investments it sells.

What Liontrust offers: investment funds, not savings accounts

Liontrust's products are funds. A fund pools money from many investors and holds a spread of investments, which is how it spreads risk and reaches opportunities an individual would not find alone³. Funds come in several forms across the market, including investment trusts, unit trusts and exchange traded funds (ETFs)⁸.

The two funds named on Liontrust's own pages illustrate the range. The Liontrust UK Ethical Fund aims to deliver capital growth over the long term, which it defines as five years or more, using its Sustainable Future investment process, and it invests in companies incorporated, domiciled or conducting significant business in the United Kingdom⁴. It is managed by Peter Michaelis and Simon Clements, and its ISIN code is GB00B8HCSD36⁴. The Liontrust GF UK Growth Fund has the ISIN code IE00BP4KB298 and has been managed since launch in September 2014 by Anthony Cross, who was joined by Victoria Stevens and Matt Tonge in 2023⁵.

Both are long-term investments. Neither is a place to hold money you might need at short notice, and neither carries the capital certainty of a savings account. The AIC's own guidance for new investors lists common mistakes to avoid, and its guide covers risk versus reward, the different types of investment trust, costs, platforms and ISAs³.

Three ways to invest: adviser, platform or direct

Liontrust sets out three routes: invest via a financial adviser, via a fund platform, or directly with the firm¹. Whichever route you take, you can invest a lump sum or save monthly, and you can do both by investing directly in a fund or through an ISA¹.

The three routes differ in what they cost you in time and money, and in what you get back.

• Through a financial adviser. The adviser assesses your circumstances and can recommend products, but only where they clearly meet your needs, and you can still ask their advice even if you do not buy¹⁰. Advisers are regulated by the FCA¹¹. You pay for the advice, usually separately from the fund.
• Through a fund platform. You choose the funds yourself. Platforms are online services that let you buy, hold and sell investments, and many offer funds, shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds and bonds, though some offer only investment funds¹². A few platforms do not offer investment trusts¹³.
• Directly with Liontrust. You deal with the firm itself, using its online service My Liontrust, which it describes as an online service that enables you to manage your investments 24 hours a day².

Liontrust states that the manager has agreed to waive the minimum investment, redemption and holding amounts set out in the Prospectus for direct retail customers, including those invested directly through a Liontrust ISA or Junior ISA². Minimum investment amounts still differ between share classes, and Liontrust says these are detailed in the factsheet for each individual fund².

Buying Liontrust funds through a fund platform

Liontrust names AJ Bell, Fidelity and Interactive Investor as platforms where its funds can be bought¹. A platform is not a fund manager: it is the shop, and the fund is the product. That means two sets of charges can apply, the platform's own and the fund's, and the AIC's guide covers costs as one of its topics for new investors³.

Platforms vary in what they allow you to hold. Most offer funds, and many also offer shares, investment trusts, exchange-traded funds and bonds, while some offer only investment funds¹². If you want to hold investment trusts alongside funds, check before opening an account, because a few platforms do not offer investment trusts at all¹³.

For help choosing, Liontrust points to the Investment Association's website, which it says contains more information about investing via fund platforms and can help you find one¹. The AIC also publishes guidance on platforms and on ISAs, SIPPs and saving for children³.

Getting financial advice before you invest

You do not have to take advice to buy a Liontrust fund. Liontrust says: "We always recommend you speak to a financial adviser if you need advice on making an investment."² It points to unbiased.co.uk as a way to find a financial adviser near you¹.

Advice is a regulated activity. Financial advisers are regulated by the FCA¹¹, and an independent financial adviser can recommend financial products, but only if these clearly meet your needs¹⁰. Where advice goes wrong, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at complaints: it published a case study about a couple who complained about advice they received on an investment bond, where their independent financial adviser told them to give up their existing joint investment bond and each reinvest into separate new individual bonds within a trust¹⁵.

If you would rather not pay for advice, the alternative is to choose funds yourself, either directly or through a platform. That route puts the selection decision on you, and the AIC's guide to choosing an investment company and its page on performance figures and what they mean are written for exactly that reader¹⁶.

How to apply directly with Liontrust

Applying directly means dealing with Liontrust rather than a platform or an adviser. The firm says you can download the application form either from the relevant fund page or from its application forms page, and that details on how to submit the application can be found on the form itself². Before completing your application, Liontrust asks you to read the relevant Key Investor Information Document¹.

A Key Investor Information Document is the short, standardised document that summarises a fund. UCITS products, the category most funds fall into, were required to come with a key investor information document¹⁸. Investment trusts have had to produce Key Information Documents since 1 January 2018¹⁷, and PRIIPs providers must publish product information in a key information document for investors¹⁸. The names differ; the purpose is the same, which is to give you the essentials before you commit.

Once an account is open, My Liontrust is the online service for managing investments, which Liontrust says is available 24 hours a day².

Liontrust Junior ISA: money stays fully invested

The Liontrust Junior Stocks and Shares ISA is a tax-efficient way to invest in Liontrust's funds, and money invested in it is free of tax on any capital growth or dividends received⁶. A Junior ISA more generally is a long-term tax-free savings account that can be opened by a parent or legal guardian to invest in their child's future¹⁹.

Three features shape how it works in practice.

• It stays invested. Liontrust states that it does not have a cash holding facility for any of its products, so all monies deposited into the Junior ISA remain fully invested at all times, including income, which is automatically reinvested as soon as it becomes payable⁶.
• It is locked away. Monies deposited cannot be withdrawn or transferred until the nominated child attains 18 years of age⁶.
• It becomes the child's at 18. At that point the account becomes a general ISA and can be used by the named holder for anything they wish⁶.

The account can hold Liontrust funds, but not individual company shares or the funds of other asset managers⁶. To open one, you complete the JISA application form; to move an existing Junior Stocks and Shares ISA or Junior Cash ISA across, you also complete the Junior ISA Transfer Form⁶. Liontrust states that it does not accept transfers of Child Trust Funds to a Junior ISA⁶.

Where Liontrust does not fit: no cash ISA or Junior Cash ISA

Liontrust states plainly: "We do not offer a Junior Cash ISA."⁶ It also has no cash holding facility for any of its products⁶. If what you want is a cash ISA, or a Junior Cash ISA for a child, that is a different kind of provider.

Adult ISAs come in four main types: cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA, Innovative Finance ISA and Lifetime ISA²⁰. Cash ISAs are sold by banks, building societies and NS&I, among others; NS&I, for example, describes its Junior ISA as a cash Junior ISA and states that it does not offer a stocks and shares Junior ISA²¹. The two are mirror images of each other, and neither provider covers the other's ground.

One rule change is worth knowing if you hold a stocks and shares ISA elsewhere. From 6 April 2027, transfers from non-cash ISAs into cash ISAs will not be permitted²². That does not affect Liontrust's own products directly, but it does affect how flexible an ISA wrapper is if you were planning to move investments into cash later.

For the wider picture on tax-free saving, see ISAs: a complete guide, and for the investment side more broadly, Investing: a complete guide.

How Liontrust is regulated

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP states that it is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority, with firm reference number 518552⁴. You can check that number on the FCA Register. Being authorised means the firm must follow FCA rules on how it treats customers and how it describes its products.

Regulation shapes the documents you receive. The Liontrust UK Ethical Fund adopted the Sustainability Focus label under the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements from 1 April 2025, and it states that it invests at least 70% of its total assets in sustainable investments and may invest a small proportion, less than 10%, in unlisted securities⁴. Those are commitments the fund makes about itself, and they are the kind of statement the labelling regime exists to make checkable.

What regulation does not do is protect you from investment loss. There is no compensation scheme for a fund falling in value, because that is the risk you take on when you invest. If you have a complaint about how a firm has treated you, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at it; in the first quarter of 2026/27 it recorded 620 complaints about cash ISAs, including cash lifetime ISAs and help to buy ISAs, of which 40% were upheld²³. That figure is about cash ISAs rather than funds, but it shows the route exists and that complaints are not automatically rejected.

For how the wider system fits together, see Financial regulation in the UK and Consumer protection in UK financial services.

How to contact Liontrust and complain

Liontrust's own pages are the starting point for contact: the fund pages carry the details for each fund, and My Liontrust is the online service for managing an existing investment². Application forms, once downloaded, carry the submission details on the form itself².

If something goes wrong, the order is usually: raise it with Liontrust first, then take it further if you are not satisfied. The Financial Ombudsman Service is the independent body that looks at complaints about financial firms, and it publishes case studies showing the kind of complaints it decides, including one about investment bond advice¹⁵.

For free, impartial help with money decisions more generally, MoneyHelper is the government-backed service, and the AIC's consumer guides cover the investment basics without charge³.