But bear in mind that you could be tying yourself into one provider’s Pep for up to 25 years if you link it to that company’s mortgage. By buying separate parts of the Pep mortgage package yourself, you can spread your cash around different fund managers, which should also help lessen the chance of backing the wrong company.It could be a good idea, for instance, to choose one of the guaranteed Peps offered periodically. While these may not grow as much as the best performers, they do guarantee that you won’t lose any of your capital, which is always a risk with any kind of equity investment. Investment over a long term, say the 25-year length of a mortgage, means changing your investment strategy as you get older.Long term capital growth is your ultimate aim but as you approach the mortgage pay-off date, you’ll have to start considering lower-risk investments, and monitor your fund regularly to ensure that it will achieve your aims. With a little bit of luck you could end up being able to afford to pay off your mortgage much earlier than planned, or use some of your capital to pay off part of the mortgage to reduce the eventual debt. The latter strategy will mean you’ll pay less interest on your loan but may also reduce the risk of your fund falling prey to a stockmarket crash just before you come to the end of the mortgage term. The other thing you’ll need to take into account when considering a Pep mortgage is the need to buy some kind of life insurance.

Nobody will lend you that sort of cash unless they have some guarantee that it will be paid off in the event of your death. With endowment mortgages, an element of life cover was included in the endowment. With Pep mortgages, as with repayment mortgages, you’ll need to buy separate life cover.If you want to take the easier route of a packaged Pep mortgage the provider should also include an insurance element. But check the flexibility of these deals and ask questions such as whether you can pay off the mortgage early, or in parts during the term of the loann. Fund management groups are hoping to score a “double whammy” with customers this year, boosting their traditional end-of-tax-year marketing campaigns by talking up the political risk of the general election. But it would be a mistake to see such marketing ploys as an invitation to invest in managed funds, particularly through PEPs, for short-term profit. Investment in equities is generally about long-time savings, trying to maximise gains over five, 10 or more years.

And despite what the salesmen say, the truth is that changes of government in the UK have historically had little long-term effect on stock market performance. The real issue for investors is not the end of the tax year, or the election, but to develop a strategy for long-term growth.
Few of us have the time, money or ability to assemble a portfolio of shares and other investments to provide good long-term growth prospects with a low risk. But this can readily be accomplished by investing in managed funds such as unit trusts. Many heavily advertised products concentrate on UK investments, particularly the tracker funds that follow the performance of the London stock market. But many City fund managers who look after big pension funds will tell you that the ideal portfolio is internationally diverse, to benefit from overseas gains. Various countries are at different stages of the economic cycle; not all stock markets go up at the same time.Picking a relatively low-risk fund with long-term growth prospects can be difficult, with a choice of more than 150 unit trusts.