Accounts and products for investors

Both are ways to hold your investments with DMA. The main differences are tax and limits. A Stocks and Shares ISA shelters your investments from tax: no Capital Gains Tax on growth, no tax on dividends or income, and nothing to report on a self-assessment return. You can pay in up to £20,000 across your ISAs in each tax year. A General Investment Account (GIA) has no limit on how much you can invest, which makes it the natural home for money once your ISA allowance is used up. A GIA can also be held in joint names and is available to companies and trusts. Because it sits outside the ISA wrapper, Capital Gains Tax and tax on dividends and income may apply above your allowances, and you may need to report it. Both let you invest in shares, funds, ETFs and bonds, both accept transfers in from another provider, and neither has a fixed term — you can withdraw at any time.

The Stocks and Shares ISA has an annual allowance of £20,000 per tax year, across all of your ISAs. The Junior ISA has its own separate £9,000 annual allowance, which sits outside your own ISA limit. The GIA has no contribution cap.

Inside a Stocks and Shares ISA or Junior ISA, your investments are free from Capital Gains Tax on growth and from tax on dividends and income, with no self-assessment reporting required. In a GIA, Capital Gains Tax and tax on dividends and income may apply above your available allowances, and self-assessment reporting may be required. How much, if anything, you pay depends on your own circumstances. This is general information, not tax advice.

A Junior ISA is opened by a parent or legal guardian to invest on behalf of a child, in a tax-free wrapper with its own £9,000 annual allowance. The child takes control of the account when they reach adulthood.

You can invest across the full range available through Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd, DMA's FCA-regulated custody and execution partner — more than 50,000 equities, ETFs, bonds, mutual funds and structured products, with full corporate actions handling. Derivatives are generally not available.

At launch, the DMA platform offers the Stocks and Shares ISA (up to £20,000 per tax year), the Junior ISA and the General Investment Account (available to individuals, companies and trusts). The Pathlines SIPP continues to operate separately through Pathlines and is not on the DMA platform at launch; it moves onto the platform at a later stage, under separate notice. Offshore and onshore bond administration is in development.