Simply Ethical is the UK halal investment firm people find second and often should have found first. It is an FCA-authorised Islamic wealth manager (FCA 511220) offering discretionary portfolios behind a simplified advice layer, with the strongest firm-level Shariah governance in British retail investing and a service almost nobody else operationalises: annual zakah and purification calculations done for you. Figures verified against the firm's published pages on August 6, 2026.
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How the service works
You complete an online risk questionnaire and Simply Ethical allocates you to one of seven Sharia-compliant model portfolios, from Defensive to Progressive Growth, held on the Fundment platform inside an ISA, general account or Junior ISA. A SIPP version with a pensions consolidation review is covered in our halal SIPP guide. The allocation logic is transparent: the Defensive portfolio held 67% Franklin Global Sukuk Fund, 20% equities and 12.5% Royal Mint physical gold at our verification, while Progressive Growth ran 77% Schroder Islamic Global Equity Fund, 10% sukuk and 12.5% gold. A reassessment every 180 days keeps the risk allocation current. Minimum entry is GBP 1,000; clients with roughly GBP 50,000 to GBP 100,000 or more can step up to full personal advice.
Fees and performance
| Balance band | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| First GBP 50,999 | 0.75% |
| GBP 51,000 to 100,999 | 0.70% |
| GBP 101,000 to 250,999 | 0.65% |
| GBP 251,000 to 1,000,000 | 0.40% |
| Above GBP 1 million | 0.25% |
There are no set-up, dealing, transfer, withdrawal or exit fees. Underlying fund costs run roughly 0.37% to 0.39% a year, so an entry-level client pays about 1.1% all-in, which slightly undercuts Wahed's 1% plus fund costs while adding an advice layer. Published performance: five-year average annual returns across the seven portfolios ranged from 4.2% to 13.3% for the period July 2021 to June 2026, with the spread reflecting risk tier rather than manager heroics.
The governance that sets it apart
Most halal products carry fund-level certification only. Simply Ethical is certified at firm level: Shariyah Review Bureau assigned a two-scholar Sharia Committee, Mufti Faraz Adam and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad, whose pronouncements are binding on the firm, with annual SRB audits. The certificates covering the ethical policy, the zakah and purification methodology and the investment platforms are published with verification codes checkable on SRB's registry. For direct equity mandates the firm applies screening tighter than the AAOIFI baseline. Then there is the religious accounting: zakah and purification amounts calculated for clients every year. Competitors tell you purification is your responsibility; Simply Ethical does the sums.
The honest limits
- The GBP 1,000 minimum is twenty times Wahed's entry point, which matters for first-time savers.
- Simplified advice assesses your risk profile, not your whole situation: it will not tell you whether an ISA or a pension is the right wrapper, or whether to pay debt first.
- Portfolio construction leans on three funds plus gold. Below the growth tiers, equity exposure relies substantially on a single Europe-focused Islamic ESG ETF, which is concentrated for the label 'diversified'.
- The brand is small, and public performance disclosure is thinner than the fund giants it allocates to.
Simply Ethical versus Wahed
The short version: Wahed for GBP 50 and app convenience, Simply Ethical for governance depth, fee tiering and religious accounting. At GBP 100,000, Simply Ethical charges a blended rate meaningfully below Wahed's 1%, and the gap widens with balance. At GBP 500 of starting capital, the comparison is moot because Simply Ethical will not take the account. The full head-to-head covers portfolio construction, wrappers and service differences.
The seven portfolios, mapped
The tiers move along one axis: how much Franklin Global Sukuk Fund versus Schroder Islamic Global Equity Fund you hold, with the Royal Mint gold allocation near 12.5% throughout and a small cash buffer. Defensive at one end ran 67% sukuk, 20% equities and 12.5% gold at our verification; Progressive Growth at the other ran 77% equities, 10% sukuk and 12.5% gold. Between them sit five intermediate blends, and the published five-year outcomes trace the axis faithfully: 4.2% annualised at the cautious end to 13.3% at the aggressive end for July 2021 to June 2026. The honest reading of those numbers is that risk tier, not manager brilliance, produced the spread, which is exactly what a well-built model portfolio range should show. The equity engine below the Growth tiers leans on the HSBC MSCI Europe Islamic ESG ETF, a Europe-focused instrument, so the middle tiers carry a regional tilt worth knowing about.
The advice layer, precisely described
What the online service provides is simplified advice: it assesses your risk profile through the questionnaire, allocates you accordingly, and reassesses every 180 days. What it deliberately does not do is whole-of-life planning: it will not judge whether an ISA beats a pension for you, whether existing arrangements should move, or how your mortgage interacts with your investing. Those questions belong to the full personal advice tier, which Simply Ethical offers for larger sums, generally from around GBP 50,000 to GBP 100,000. The distinction matters because 'advice' on a website usually means marketing; here it means a regulated service with defined scope, and knowing the scope prevents both over-reliance and under-use.
Frequently asked questions
Is Simply Ethical regulated?
Yes, Simply Ethical Financial Services Ltd holds FCA authorisation number 511220, and client portfolios sit on the Fundment platform. The advice it gives through the online route is regulated simplified advice, narrower in scope than full financial planning but carrying real regulatory protection.
What is in the portfolios?
Established third-party Islamic funds rather than in-house products: the Franklin Global Sukuk Fund, the Schroder Islamic Global Equity Fund, the HSBC MSCI Europe Islamic ESG UCITS ETF and The Royal Mint Physical Gold ETC, plus a small cash buffer. Using external funds removes the self-dealing incentive that colours some rivals' construction.
Does it handle zakat?
Yes, annually, for client portfolios, alongside purification of impure income. This is the firm's most underrated feature: the calculations are genuinely fiddly for multi-asset portfolios, and errors compound. Try our zakat tools for the rest of your wealth.
The verdict
Simply Ethical is the quiet professional of UK halal investing. It wins on exactly the dimensions that are hard to market: binding scholar governance, verifiable certificates, honest tiered pricing and done-for-you religious accounting. If you have GBP 1,000 to start and any appetite for a 20-minute questionnaire over an app store download, it deserves to be the default it never became. Compare all platforms on the investing page.
How does the zakah service actually work?
Annually, Simply Ethical calculates both the zakah due on client portfolios and the purification amounts arising from the up-to-5% impure income tolerance in screened holdings, using its published, SRB-certified methodology. Clients receive the figures rather than a vague reminder, which converts a fiddly religious obligation into a payment decision. No other UK retail platform we track operationalises both calculations at firm level.
Who is behind the firm?
Simply Ethical Financial Services Ltd, FCA number 511220, has operated in UK Islamic wealth management since the late 2000s, making it one of the sector's longest-running specialists. Client portfolios sit on the Fundment platform, and the firm's Sharia certificates, covering its ethical policy, zakah methodology and platforms, carry verification codes checkable directly against Shariyah Review Bureau's registry.
Compare providers in your state
See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
Can I transfer existing ISAs and pensions in?
Yes on both counts: ISA transfers move into the Fundment-held flexible ISA without consuming fresh allowance, and the pension service reviews existing pots before consolidating, an adviser-led process covered in our SIPP comparison. There are no transfer-in, exit or dealing fees at Simply Ethical's end, so the costs to check sit with the ceding provider.