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Some investors now have ISAs worth in excess of £4m
Karl MatchettFriday 21 November 2025 14:12 GMTComments
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The number of ISA millionaires in the UK has surged to a record high, surpassing 5,000 for the first time.
A freedom of information (FOI) request from money platform Plum showed that HMRC recorded 5,070 ISA millionaires at the end of the 2022-23 period – the latest figures available – which represents a 5 per cent gain on the year before, meaning there are likely to be even more now.
Each person in the UK gets a maximum £20,000 annual tax-free savings allowance to put into ISAs.
While it’s possible to become an ISA millionaire simply by saving cash and trying to get a good interest rate, it would take a long time, and the real value of any interest would likely be eroded by inflation. But those who invest their cash – such as in stocks and shares ISAs, which typically yield higher interest – have typically seen far better returns over the long term.
The latest HMRC figures show that 50 investors who did just that now have ISA pots exceeding £4m.
For most people, maxing out the £20,000 limit every year simply won’t be possible – but this doesn’t mean that accumulating hugely significant sums is off the table.
open image in galleryRachel Reeves wants more people to invest their money instead of using traditional savings accounts (Getty/iStock)Thanks to how compound interest works, it should be possible to hit the £1m mark before retirement if you start early enough, simply by being consistent in putting money into savings and achieving average returns over a long period of time.
For example, if a person saved £300 every month in a stocks and shares ISA that attained a 7 per cent annual growth rate, they would, after 40 years, have a pot of £750,000.
Put another way, if a 30-year-old started saving £300 a month but increased their contribution by 10 per cent each year (so £300 a month the first year, £330 a month the second year and so on), then they’d have more than £1.2m in their investment account by the age of 60, again assuming a 7 per cent annual return.
The MSCI World Index, a typical investing baseline that tracks the performance of 1,500 companies across the globe, has returned more than 7 per cent annually over the past quarter of a century.
As such, the number of ISA millionaires could be expected to grow at a faster rate in the coming years, as those who don’t max out their allowance but are consistent about contributing to it see their gains speed up the longer into their journey they go.
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open image in galleryRachel Reeves is expected to cut the annual tax-free ISA savings allowance to £12,000 at the forthcoming Budget (Getty/iStock)“Looking at the picture more broadly since ISA millionaire numbers were first tracked in 2016, there’s only been a single annual dip recorded during that time, which was in 2020, when markets initially went into a major downturn at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Plum’s Rajan Lakhani.
“Against that backdrop, the long-term trajectory for stocks has typically been one of continued elevation.”
It is thought that Rachel Reeves might cut the cash ISA allowance at the forthcoming Budget, from £20,000 down to £12,000, as part of an attempt to get more Britons to invest their money instead.
While that may not be enough to affect many people’s habits, it does at least revitalise the argument that some people could be better served by putting money into longer-term investment plans, once they are cleared of high-interest debt and have a cash savings buffer available.
With changes to pension contributions also likely to feature in the Budget, ISAs could take on even more importance as one of the few remaining ways in which people can maximise their wealth without facing a tax penalty.
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