Growth on the market

HARGREAVES Lansdown Asset Management believes it has opened up the guaranteed growth plan market with a product that guarantees a minimum of 20 per cent growth over five years.

Investors are also given the option of locking into any higher gains if the stock market outperforms expectations early on.

Unlike traditional guaranteed growth plans, the Hargreaves Lansdown deal gives investors the option of redeeming their investment at other times than the end of the expected five-year term. Minimum investment is pounds 10,000.

Details on 0272 767767.

National & Provincial Building Society has an account that promises 133.33 per cent of the rise in the FT-SE share index over the five years from 1 March, to get a net return of 100 per cent of the growth for basic-rate taxpayers.

Minimum investment is pounds 1,000, and investors are guaranteed their capital back if the index falls.