The stocks and shares ISA millionaires are buying

Legal & General is the most-held stock among all ISA millionaires using DIY investing service Hargreaves Lansdown, with fellow insurers Phoenix and Aviva joining the firm for the most popular shares.

Funds run by Legal & General also make up half of the top funds invested in by the 1,322 ISA millionaires using Hargreaves Lansdown, data from the firm revealed.

The number of HL millionaires rose 14 per cent over the last six months, and is up from just three in 2012 and 168 in 2018.

Introduced in 1999, the ISA initially only allowed £2,400 to be deposited annually, though this has been slowly increased over the years. The current limit is £20,000, up from £15,240 in 2017.

An ISA that had been maxed out since their existence would have only seen £330,760 deposited, meaning ISA millionaires have to have more than tripled their original investment.

Who wants to be an ISA millionaire?

Two thirds of Hargreaves Lansdown ISA millionaires have contributed to their ISA over the most recent tax year, and over half have maxed out their allowance.

John Lee, a stock picker and Financial Times columnist, became the first publicly declared ISA millionaire in 2003, reaching it on contributions of £126,200 made over a span of 16 years. His annualised returns during the period were 21 per cent.

Data from Hargreaves Lansdown revealed that the average age of an ISA millionaire on their site has fallen, dropping from 74 to 72 years old over the last six months.

However, one of the ISA millionaires is as young as 27, while another is aged 101 years old.

Just over two thirds of Hargreaves Lansdown ISA millionaires are men, the firm’s data also revealed, with the split unchanged over the last two years.

“The top ten shares bought by this group in 2024 were dominated by blue-chip companies, including those that traditionally pay strong dividends,” said Kate Marshall, lead investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“It means most of them aren’t speculating. They’re not in a hurry to trade them regularly either as, while most ISA millionaires traded in 2024, this has tended to be infrequent.”

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