Investors love a good transfer. Anything to shave a couple of basis points from platform fees.
Regulators love a good transfer. It’s a sure sign of a healthy competitive market.
Platforms love a good transfer. At least they do when they’re on the receiving end – admittedly not so much when they’re losing assets to a competitor.
So if everyone loves a good transfer, why do so many go wrong? Why do some complete in an hour while others drag on for a year? And crucially — how can you tilt the odds in favour of a smooth ride?
Maybe get yourself a coffee. We’ll need to wade through some detail before we get to the answers.
(We’re focusing mainly on retail platform transfers, though much of this applies to adviser platforms, wealth managers and defined contribution pension providers. We’re steering clear of the defined benefit pension minefield.)
Know your rights
There are two types of platform transfers:
- Cash transfers – holdings are sold, and the resulting cash is moved.
- In-specie transfers – investments are transferred as-is.
Cash transfers are simpler but have an obvious disadvantage: you’re out of the market for the duration, with all the associated market timing risks, tax implications, and trading costs.
In the bad old days (before RDR came into effect at the end of 2012), many platforms were a metaphorical ‘lobster pot’: easy to start investing but hard to escape later. They refused in-specie transfers or made them prohibitively expensive, which meant it was effectively impossible to transfer out without selling.
Today, platforms have to offer in-specie transfers. And even though exit fees aren’t officially banned, they have almost disappeared, so there’s no reason to hold back.
Of course, your investments must be supported on the new platform for it to be transferable. That insured fund you’ve had since 1990? You’re going to need to sell that.
Also – it’s not necessarily all or nothing. Many platforms will allow partial transfers, so you can move some investments while leaving others behind.
How do transfers work?
Transfers are typically driven by the receiving platform. You ask your new platform to start the transfer and give them the details of your old account. They take it from there.
There are two electronic transfer systems that platforms may use behind-the-scenes:
- TISA Exchange (TeX) – supporting cash and in-specie transfers of pensions, ISAs, and General Investing Accounts (GIAs).
- Origo Options – handling cash pension transfers only. An older system, but still widely used.
There are also a million ways of doing transfers manually, with letters, forms, wet signatures, faxes (yes, really) and emails. All of them bad.
With TeX and Options, no physical signatures are needed. Everything can be done online.
If a platform asks you to sign forms, then start worrying.
All the established platforms support TeX, but if you’re flirting with a small player or new entrant, check before committing. It’s nice knowing you can leave painlessly if things don’t work out.
What does a good platform transfer look like?
A few years back, I was involved in a research exercise. We opened an account with Fidelity and added a holding in a Vanguard Lifestrategy fund. Then we opened an account at Hargreaves Lansdown and requested an in-specie transfer of the Fidelity account.
Just a couple of hours later, we checked the Hargreaves account and the transfer had already completed. There was our Lifestrategy holding ready to be traded.
Admittedly, this was a simple transfer involving only well-established and highly automated organisations. But it shows what is possible.
There is no precise definition of how long a good transfer should take. The FCA regulations demand that transfers be carried out ‘within a reasonable time’, whatever that means.
More practically, industry initiatives have generally concluded that between one and two weeks is a reasonable target for a good transfer.
What’s the worst that can happen?
Some recent research from Pension Bee found that 27 out of 163 advisers experienced pension transfers taking more than a year to complete.
Some reported waits of over 1000 days. That’s getting on for three years! I’d be on hunger strike in their head office before then.
My most recent workplace pension transfer took around two months to complete. Better than three years, but still desperately poor.
The problem? Basic communication. One party emailed the wrong address. The other waited for a reply that never came. Both sat waiting until I chased it all up.
Who knows, if I hadn’t chased maybe it would’ve taken three years…
What goes wrong?
Reasons for transfer delays are legion. Common problems include:
- Account detail mismatches – name or account number discrepancies
- Anti-scam checks – anything triggering red or amber scam warning flags
- Foreign holdings – non-UK shares and funds will often take longer
- AML/KYC issues – incomplete checks on the old account
- In-flight trades – transfers can’t proceed until settlement
But in many cases, problems are the result not of hard technical barriers like the above, but simple logistical hiccups. Think missed emails, misfiled instructions, or administrative overload.
Pension problems
When something goes very wrong, chances are it’s a pension transfer.
Pension transfers, for good reasons, are more tightly regulated. Unfortunately, some of the anti-scam regulations are clumsily drafted. This can cause unnecessary delays if applied with excessive zeal.
There are also some dark corners of the corporate pensions industry that still use quill pens and sealing wax, and with whom you’re always going to have a battle.
But for any reasonably modern personal pension with a competent administrator, there’s really no reason why a pension transfer should take any longer than an ISA or GIA.
A note on share classes
Share classes and conversions deserve an article of their own. (And one is in the pipeline. I can feel the thrill of excitement from here!)
For now I should at least highlight the platform transfer implications.
Say you own a fund on your existing platform, but your new platform only supports that fund in a different share class – perhaps one with discounted fees.
In this case, the holding will need to be converted as part of the transfer process.
The good news is that platforms are obliged to handle this for you so you can still transfer in-specie. It just might take a bit longer.
Are platform transfers getting easier?
At any given time there is at least one industry group aiming to solve the transfer problem. Trouble is, they often seem to resemble one of those public inquiries that deliberates and delays until everyone’s lost the will to live and the issue can safely be left to settle in the long grass.
Less cynically, there’s no doubt that transfers have improved considerably over the past decade or so.
But progress has been slow and has mostly been prompted by regulatory pressure. Don’t expect a step change anytime soon.
How to tip the odds in your favour
Some transfers will always be messy, but you can improve your chances of an easy life.
When choosing a new platform:
- Go electronic – make sure they support TeX
- Avoid exit fees – now very rare anyway
Before you initiate the transfer:
- Keep records – note holdings and balances
- Double check – account names and numbers
- Avoid March and April – tax-year-end congestion
During the transfer:
- Chase – early and often
The last one is crucial. If there’s the slightest problem then your transfer will likely get stuck in a queue until someone investigates. The loudest customer gets the attention.
So if you don’t hear anything for a couple of weeks, then chase it up. Chase both sides to be sure. Be polite and, most importantly, be persistent. Relentless even.
And finally…
Some transfers are quick. One day, maybe all transfers will be quick. But until that day, you’ll have to be vigilant, vocal, and dogged.
And please share your platform transfer tales in the comments. We can all learn from the experiences of others. And, of course, enjoy the horror stories!
Good luck – may your next transfer be closer to an hour than a year.
> Also – it’s not necessarily all or nothing. Many platforms will allow partial transfers, so you can move some investments while leaving others behind.
This hasn’t been my experience. It may only be relevant to ISAs that have been running for a while, but it would be nice once an ISA has gone way over the FSCS limit to dump some of it in specie to an unrelated provider.
In attempting to do this ‘twixt Vanguard and HL it ended up all including the residual cash, resulting in a email to Vanguard saying don’t actually close this empty account I want to use it next year. But I did fail on your recommendation not to do this March/April…
In theory HL does let you specify the stocks you want to transfer, and I can’t guarantee I wasn’t a muppet on filling the form in. I wanted to transfer all the Vanguard ETFs but not the residual cash, but it just didn’t happen that way. Vanguard’s cheaper to buy itty bits due to no transaction fees hence wanting the cash to stay.
There is another restriction in that any ISA you have contributed to in the current tax year is all or nothing (so the ISA 20k limit can be enforced)
#ermine, I did a partial transfer from II to iWeb a while back based on picking lines of stock – as you did. (I doubt trying to transfer part of a holding would go well.) But I don’t think I relied just on filling in the (rather vague) form – I had to talk to them as soon as I’d requested the transfer to make it really clear what should go and what should stay.
If the share class is changed as part of an in-specie transfer, does that trigger capital gains tax?
@ermine:
Re: “There is another restriction in that any ISA you have contributed to in the current tax year is all or nothing (so the ISA 20k limit can be enforced)”
Not so in my experience; and splitting the ISA annual limit across different providers of the same type of ISA became legal last year IIRC. I have heard that some providers may do as you suggest – but not all. I put a partial amount into an HL S&S ISA earlier this tax year and for some reason had to do the transaction on the phone. During that chat I clearly told them I had already made deposits (to the balance of the annual limit) elsewhere.
#Neil – No, HMRC says a conversion between two share classes of the same fund does not trigger a capital gain. Remember to look out for the share class article coming soon!
@ Al Cam
You may be at cross purposes. Perhaps what Ermine meant was that when you transfer an ISA to which you have already made a current tax year subscription, you must transfer it all.
I imagine that that implies that if your ISA has itself received a transfer involving a current tax year subscription, you must again transfer it all.
@TE #5 – if this pending share class article also covers ACC and INC units I will be forever in your debt!
Scottish widows (nee iweb) won’t convert from ACC to INC in situ, I’ve heard HL might, but hadn’t thought of the in-specie transfer variant of this question.
I was frustrated that my transfer out of a workplace SIPP with Aegon to Freetrade was blocked by Aegon for a red flag. This was because Freetrade offered a cashback scheme and Aegon think they are protecting me from being scammed. I’ve raised it with the ombudsman but they say there is an 11 month wait time!
Next time I won’t disclose the cashback scheme, but right now I think I’m better off transferring out to somewhere else like vanguard first…
@Alex I have just been successful in a partial Aegon -> Vanguard pension transfer for what that’s worth.
The longest I have experienced was almost 3 months when moving an S&S ISA in its entirety; never got any explanation why it took that long. The shortest one was last week, but in the US – moved my investment account from Fidelity to Schwab, containing a mix of domestic & international shares, mutual funds, ETPs, etc. Took 2-3 working days via ACAT with another couple of days required for the cost basis to also get updated.
@Rhino #5
I have converted from Acc to Inc units. I had to do it myself as a sale of the Acc and purchase of the INC, but as long as it is in exactly the same fund you should be OK, because that means the underlying assets are the same and you should be covered by the 30 day rule.
Also I was very careful to make sure I re-invested exactly the same amount as I realised, excluding both sets of transaction fees.
Selling one share class and buying another counts as an event that will trigger CGT. You have to find a broker who can do the conversion for you, or do a transfer where the units get converted.
I have found that shares and ETFs transfer quickly and that funds/OEICs etc are a lot slower.
@Jam – I think you probably crystallised a gain there from a CGT perspective and just didn’t report it on your SA?
Though I am intrigued by the 30 day rule in this instance. All the examples I can find on 30 day rule are around not being able to crystallise a loss, then buy back to lock that loss in.
I get what you’re saying about if it were symmetrical then you should be able to not lock in a gain in the opposite direction – but is that how it works? I can’t find any examples (other than yours)
I’ve done a few transfers over the years. Mainly between HL, ii and AJ Bell (to harvest cashback). No problems at all.
The one that required the most work however was moving from an IFA-managed SIPP (I transferred a workplace DB pension so was forced down the IFA route for my own ‘protection’. What a painful process that was. Less ‘advice’. More (much more) reassuring the IFA I was happy with the risks). I was perfectly happy with the portfolio the IFA had selected, but I wasn’t so keen on paying 1% on top of fund fees and platform fees (1.78% in total). The work was necessitated because the IFA had largely selected Dimensional Fund Advisor investments, which, for reasons I cannot understand (I assume this arrangement is used specifically to further deter people extricating themselved from an IFA), are unavailable to retail investors. I was quite a novice at the time (and was ploughing through Tim Hale’s Smarter Investing (as recommended by yourselves)) and so had to discover (thanks JustETF) similar ETFs (because they’re cheaper to hold on HL than funds). The existing funds obviously needed to be sold and the SIPP transferred in cash. It disappeared into the ether for about a week (which was quite concerning) before eventually appearing in HL. In the meantime the markets rose in value so I took a hit equivalent to a couple of years’ worth of fees. I’m glad I did it though because, as you know, these fees have a detrimental compounding effect.
My workplace pension is with Lifesight and IIRC the previous twice I have transferred from them to my SIPP I’ve had to complete a paper form and send to them.
In terms of “Today, platforms have to offer in-specie transfers”, Invest Engine don’t. There’s a thread entitled “in specie transfer out” on their community that started in March 2023 and is up to 113 posts now. I’ve stopped adding funds to my ISA with them as a result of this.
I recently completed 3 cash transfers INTO Fidelity, all DC pensions. All were initiated in a 15 minute window one after the other and was incredibly easy and painless.
Scottish Widows, old workplace pot, was sold to cash and fully transferred in a day.
Aviva, current live workplace pension, was partially transferred in cash one day later.
Vanguard, my SIPP, was also partially transferred in cash (wanted to switch from VAFTGAG to VWRP as Fidelity too expensive for funds), that took a couple of days longer. Felt like an age by comparison, but really was within a working week.
Zero complaints from this market participant.
@Rhino
It was quite a few years ago, but no I don’t think this crystalised a capital gain. I still used the original price I paid for the ACC units as the base price when I came to sell the INC units, so gained no advantage from doing this from a CGT perspective.
I tried to find the correspondence I had with my platform at the time, since they confirmed my understanding back then. Can’t find it, but this post confirming my understanding may be of so help I hope:
https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/99919/can-i-convert-fund-acc-units-to-inc-units-without-triggering-a-cgt-event
@Jam – that is a useful link thanks. I’m surprised a platform would give you tax advice, certainly if it was in writing. This is looking pretty hopeful in terms of being able to swap out ACC for INC without creating a disposal.
Try this link to the HMRC manuals:
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg57709
I’ve not followed up to fully understand the CGT implications of a reorganisation.
Reasons for delays – when transferring an ISA , one of the holdings carried out a capital reconstruction at short notice after I ‘d already started the process i.e. returning some capital & rebasing the number of shares. All other holdings went across fairly promptly, that one was delayed, for several weeks not listed at either end. In the end it all went through correctly & a small balancing cash amount caught up after a few months . I did some chasing-up of the status now and then, but nothing really went wrong (thankfully) . If I’d known beforehand , I would probably have sold the holding in advance to keep things more simple. Watch out for upcoming “corporate actions”.
I requested a partial SIPP transfer from an Aviva workplace pension to HL just before Christmas and it was completed in around a week.
Moved all the investments into a single money market fund first.
Note on partial transfers though, schemes like the Aviva one limit the number of times you can do this. I can only do it once more now.
Saving £1000/yr in fees though.
Three transfers:
Pension from Reassure to the DC part of USS – 3 months (cash). Given the pension was a very old fashioned one (5% bid-offer spread on purchase, 1.5% OCF*, taken out with General Portfolio in 1994, then transferred to GAN then Windsor Life and finally Reassure) and it was all done by post (another tip: always send stuff ‘signed for’) this was a pleasant surprise.
ISA. Fidelity to iweb (in specie) – about 4 months to complete (some funds transferred after 3 months but there was a delay for a few others). Postal forms and signature required.
ISA Fidelity to Vanguard (in specie and cash) – 1 or 2 months. I think this was all done electronically.
All of these were more than 5 years ago, so I thought that systems may have been improved since then (or perhaps not!).
* 1/8th of one percent fee taken per calendar month on a day determined by the management from time to time.
@Jam – did your platform maintain the original book cost when you did this ACC to INC switch? And subsequently was the gain reported by the platform unchanged?
I can imagine that even though the sale and purchase didn’t count as a disposal, the platform may not have been set up to reflect that. Maybe it showed a book cost of the new purchase price, and the gain reset to zero? In which case you would have to maintain a record yourself of the original, actual book cost, for working it the cgt on any future disposals?
Regarding ISA transfers timescales, Govt says ISA transfers should take no longer than:
15 working days for transfers between cash ISAs
30 calendar days for other types of transfer
This is here on Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa
Unfortunately when I’ve told some platforms this they say things like “yes if everything goes well but if not it can take quite a bit longer.” Unbelievable. I wonder if the govt. should add to that “that’s if things go well but if they don’t it may take a year or so.” Nothing like giving yourself plenty of leeway. How stupid.
I’ve found the worst platforms to be Vanguard – done a few transfers and seem to take forever, mess everything up, create problems that aren’t there, have to constantly chase and they just feed you a load of BS as to why it’s taking so long and also Moneyfarm – only did one transfer to them and took 4 months for an ISA. They sound good on the phone but tell you anything and aren’t good in practice.
Generally found AJB, HL, ii and Fidelity to be good/reasonable and to actually try to progress things/not hold them up. Done a fair few transfers with these. ii and Fidelity seem to keep you well informed with transfer updates. Just completed GIA transfer in-specie from HSBC GIC to ii and done in around 2 weeks and another one SIPP transfer from AJB to Fidelity in specie is just about complete – funds have transferred over, last one yesterday and just waiting on cash to transfer, all of 9p! Taken about a month for this transfer (as assume my huge cash transfer will happen today/tomorrow) which is not too bad I don’t think considering it’s a SIPP in-specie.
Just to add to comments about GIA accounts and switch of units in the same fund. I’ve done it with a few. For me it was always from ACC to INC and they were sold out and bought in new units and were not subject to CGT and here’s why.
I read a lot on it and I admit it does seem a grey area when you do that. There is much argument/debate and some say if sell out/buy back it is subject to CGT and then there are the HMRC CGT manuals to throw in some more confusion/doubt but I actually had a number of conversations with HMRC over phone about it.
Initially when you first get through to HMRC on their customer service lines – well they know nothing about CGT – frankly I knew more myself and so eventually they put me through to someone in CGT dept. who knew a bit more but still not enough unfortunately.
I had more than one call with this dept. as they initially said switching units via sale/buy back WOULD result in CGT but I read other things (including the CGT manual) and rang back to query what I had read with them.
Got someone else in CGT dept. and they looked into it and they weren’t at all sure. They don’t exactly give you confidence that they know what they are doing. So they then put me through to another level which they said was a “Higher Technical Officer.” After explaining the situation to him, he asked what reason I was switching the units for and I replied that I just wanted dividend income paid out to me instead of reinvesting back into my fund.
He wasn’t really sure either and said he would have to go off phone for few minutes. When he came back he said he had looked at the CGT manual etc. and had discussions with others and had made his “final decision.” He said just a switch of units (ACC/INC) was NOT classed as a disposal for CGT. I asked is that the case even if I sell them out and buy them back myself. He said yes, as long as there is no delay between selling out/buying back (done as soon as possible after cash arrives in account) and providing buy into exactly the same fund – just a switch of unit only – and the amount money when buying back is the same amount (value) not for a higher amount he said.
I said to him that due to there being so much confusion and the fact that he had needed to go away and speak with others and consider it – how do I know that if I do it, I can rely on it and later I’m not told the decision is wrong and I’m now liable. He said because I’m a Higher Technical Officer, I’ve made my final decision and it is noted on your HMRC account as it’s logged on the HMRC computer system what I’ve told you today regarding what you’ve rung about. I also wrote down the date/time I rang and the guys name and job title and what he had told me, for my future reference in case of problems.
Since then I have done a few switches of funds over the last few years and so I have submitted a few tax returns since. I have not had any comebacks from any of it – not that I expected any after what I was told. So all I can say is if you don’t want to risk it – try to get the decision from the highest level and if it’s on your tax record, like it is with mine, then that’s it in black & white and that’s all that matters at the end of the day for you.
Do I think that this is the absolute definitive decision on the matter? No, because unfortunately with HMRC they, or their staff, don’t know/interpret their own rules well enough. They should do but don’t. It’s not consistent. Even TA said (in an article I read which he wrote on Monevator – can’t remember which one it was now) that it’s a grey area in whether simply a switch of units would be liable to CGT or not – I think he said possibly not but no sure answer and need to check this for yourself. I can only agree with that as it’s what I did and I got an answer put on record. I think that’s what anybody thinking of switching in GIA account maybe needs to do. Okay so it is a pain anytime contacting HMRC – getting through, actually been able to get put through to CGT dept. (usually bamboozling them with CGT stuff is enough as they don’t have a clue) and then trying to get through that level and finally speak to a HTO who can make a “final decision” and then hope you get a favorable one as I’m sure it could actually go either way on any day and depending who you get – in my experience with them. It shouldn’t be like this but unfortunately it seems to be.
I have done a few transfers over the years.
My findings agree with @Ebenezer, specifically HL better than Vanguard. My transfers were years apart and I had sort of hoped/assumed that V would have improved in the interim?!?
I also “enjoyed” @E’s saga with HMRC – well done for taking the time to type this all up. I am afraid your story is far from an isolated example, and their ignorance/uselessness is definitely not confined to CGT!
@Alex #8 A cash incentive is one of the DWP red flags for pension transfers – Aegon is just following the rules. Most agree that some of the DWP rules are silly and there is at last a review in place – but obviously it’s moving at a glacial pace while lots of perfectly reasonable transfers get held up.
@Mark C #16 Looks like the problem at Invest Engine is that they hold fractional shares in ETFs which are a can of transfer worms. Don’t blame you for not wanting to invest any more with them.
@Alan S #23 That’s terrible – even 5 years ago!
Very interesting to hear everyone’s experiences. There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging; I’ve also done a few over the years – mostly in SIPPs. My personal experience is Vanguard and Aviva are poor (slow, poor comms, no proactive chasing), although Aberdeen (IFA platform) were notable for being fine for incoming but not so good on the way back out! AJB and HL are good but ii were the best. Actively chasing on my behalf without being asked, and regular comms updates. First class.
I had to do this on leaving my last job a few years ago. I opened up a new SIPP with Fidelity and did 2 transfers in, a small auto enrolment Now pension and an existing NFU Mutual personal pension. Both transfers proceeded very smoothly within a couple of weeks. From memory I did have to confirm a few things initially, but it was all much easier than I had feared.
@ Rhino # 24
>@Jam – did your platform maintain the original book cost when you did this ACC to INC switch? And subsequently was the gain reported by the platform unchanged?
No, it was a completely new and separate purchase from their perspective. So you need to keep your own records.
Has anyone had experience, or anecdotally heard, of bad actors effecting a transfer of assets from an investment platform fraudulently?
It’s a point I think about from time to time but don’t know whether it’s a real world concern. Any feedback would be hugely appreiated.
I’m in the middle of transferring an ISA into a personal pension, to harvest the 25% tax-free, pension-commencement lump sum, and that’s really slow going.
I suppose it’s not really what you’d call a platform transfer, though.
The tax-implications of the cash-based platform transfer of a GIA are hair-raising, and there’s probably a great horror story in there.
A useful article and comments. In February 2021 I found myself made redundant and accelerated my retirement plan. I was going to consolidate 6 pensions plans into 2 SIPPs while I lived off cash reserves and the redundancy payout.
I already had a SIPP with HL and wanted to use Vanguard as the second SIPP so I started transferring the smaller plans to them. Vanguard were incredibly slow to get the transfers going and I had to chase them, it was not helped by the pandemic timing. I had 2 Aviva plans I recently consolidated into an annuity.
All the ceding plans were personal pensions (some pre-2000) with non transferable funds so they were cash transfers. These are the transfer times I experienced between 2021 and 2025:
– Utmost (ex Equitable Life plan) to Vanguard: 81 days
– Big Blue Touch (AON) to Vanguard: 84 days
– Aegon to HL: 5 days
– Standard Life to HL: 12 days
– Aviva x2 pension plans to Scottish Widows Annuity: 8 days
I gave up on consolidating into Vanguard due to their slowness, they took a long time to initiate the transfers with the ceding providers. So I just have a small SIPP with them now. I got some decent cash-back from HL due to this at least.
On my experience I would make the following recommendations:
– Call the ceding provider to check they have the correct address for you, let them know you’re transferring out in case it raises flags, check if you’ll lose any pension benefits and for any forms you might need to fill out (all standard practice really). I think I did this for all of them. Utmust wanted forms filled which accounted for some of the delay.
– Go onto TrustPilot reviews for your providers and search for recent reviews complaining about transfers. It’ll give you a heads up how long you might be out of market if doing a cash transfer!
– Also for a cash transfer if it goes with Origo you can check their transfer index for performance of ceding providers here (head’s up, still black marks to Vanguard I think): https://origo.com/origo-services/origo-transfer-service/origo-transfer-index
– It is worth checking for cash-back offers and timing for that if you can. Helps to pay some platform fees for a while.
– Each time your employer switches providers do some research and consider if you want to consolidate with the new provider. With my last long-term employer I didn’t do this due to being busy with work / life and wanting to spend time investigating the new providers.
I transferred an ISA a couple of weeks ago from T212 to ii. T212 insisted on a cash transfer even though ii would have accepted the specie. I didn’t argue and the whole thing from start to finish including the asset sale, took just one week, which I thought was pretty good.
In contrast, an ISA transfer (all cash) from AJBell to ii also initiated a couple of weeks ago hasn’t started yet as AJBell have not responded.
My next job is a partial transfer of my SIPP from ii to Freetrade, to take advantage of the 1% cash back offer and also to action the many recommendations on this blog to use more than one platform. Wish me luck!
A word of caution on transfers out (or withdrawals) from AJBell that close the account – they immediately take that account from your profile so you lose access to your documents and history and can only get to them via help desk. The advice above to copy all documents etc before you transfer, was a lesson I learned the hard way, when I closed a SIPP and only discovered I had lost my P60 when doing my tax return.
In response to comments about transferring part of the current year’s ISA, I believe the rules changed last year and it is now allowed.
Here it is on the government website:
https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa
And with more padding:
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/blog/savings/understanding-the-new-ISA-rules
And FWIW, I’m not the same Alex as posted at #8 above. There appears to be two of us!
@Ebenzer #25
The issue is that the underlying legislation is drafted for larger corporate restructurings, not Mr Smith switching £1,000 himself.
By the letter of the legislation, receipt of cash (rather than cashless conversion of shares/units) is no longer a reorganisation but a disposal for cash. This is intentional to stop abuse.
Any deviation from this becomes HMRC discretion considering public interest, likelihood of success, time vs reward which sounds like your outcome with the Higher Technical Officer.
Ideally HMRC would issue guidance covering this scenario to avoid individual decisions each time. That sounds more straightforward than it probably is in practice to ensure that the guidance is not abused elsewhere (where much larger sums are at risk).
Unhelpfully, even using a fund platforms ‘switch’ service can still trigger this issue as most the time they are just selling for cash and rebuying on your behalf. It probably does make it much less likely HMRC would challenge though.
I’ve had no problems transferring pensions to Vanguard. I transferred from Aviva, Scottish Widows and Standard Life with all completed between 7-14 days. All be it, funds were converted to cash first. The only delay was with Standard Life when the pension value increased by 5% and they put an automatic block on the transfer as the valuation didn’t match that on the Vanguard application.
It’s a bit of a tangent, but does anyone have experience of a GIA in-specie transfer between a US and UK platform?
HMRC told me there is no CGT payable as its not a disposal of shares and stamp duty does not apply as its a ‘transfer in name’ only. All ETFs are Crest Depository Interests, have UK reporting status and zero excess reportable income.
Bit of HL specific detail on the ACC to INC shimmy:
“You can switch funds online via our online fund switching facility. You can instruct us to sell a particular fund(s) and place an instruction to reinvest in a new fund(s). If you do this like for like, i.e. from the income version of a fund into the accumulation version, this will not incur a disposal for capital gains purposes.
However, this would create a new holding within your account, therefore book costs would not carry over. However, you can still access contract notes for your old fund holding online. If you’d like further guidance on this please get back to me.
Please note that if instructing a fund switch for up to 90% of the fund’s value, the team are able to send the buy and sell orders at the same time. If the fund switch is for the full value of the fund, then the reinvestment will usually take place the next working day after the sale is made.
Furthermore, the purchase will be subject to the initial charge on the fund less any saving we are offering at the time, which of course varies from fund to fund.
To carry out a switch online, you need to log into your account and select the holding that you wish to sell. You should then press the green ‘Place deal now’ button on the right hand side adjacent to this line of stock in the ‘Actions’ column. This will generate a prompt screen where you will be asked whether you wish to ‘Buy’, ‘Sell’ or ‘Switch’. You need to select ‘Switch’ and then follow the prompts.”
My conclusions from a recent ISA transfer:
– best to sell it all manually and transfer only cash;
– document everything, you may need proof when your assets are lost;
– and avoid new and/or cheap providers, especially Interactive Brokers. You get the customer service you pay for.
I wanted to close my IB ISA and transfer into iWeb. They managed to transfer the cash and some US stocks within a few weeks, but the ETFs completely disappeared. These were three ordinary Blackrock ETFs that trade on the LSE. iWeb had previously confirmed that they can hold them. The positions were gone from the IB account, they didn’t appear in iWeb, and iWeb claimed the transfer was complete.
Cue frantic chasing of clueless customer services for 2 months.
Eventually the ETFs re-appeared in the old account. I sold them immediately, then more chasing to get the cash transferred, and more chasing to get the account closed. The whole thing took about half a year.
@Rhino #38 I’m surprised that they put their view on the tax in writing. As I think @Platformer #36 is saying, these opinions seem to rely on TCGA 1992 S103F, which was written to facilate corporate restructurings/the change to clean share classes with lower annual mangement charges. It requires that a participant “exchanges units”, not sells and buys. I also ‘think’ (but ask a grown up) it has the effect that the new units stand completely in the shoes of the old, so that one has to ignore equalisation shown for the new units. Or did they suggest that they actually amend the tax voucher for the new units?
I recently transfered my SIPP from Charles Stanley Direct to Interactive Investor. Looking back at my secure messages, I can see that my “transfer in journey” (that should have been the first warning sign) started on 6th July, and eventually concluded on 11th November. What a shambles it was.
Similar to @Alex #8, my transfer from a workplace DC scheme with Aviva to ii was held up last year by a red flag because ii offer cashback incentives. Cue much chasing of Aviva and the workplace pension trustees, with me pointing out that Aviva themselves offer incentives. The latter said they were sympathetic but their hands were tied by the Pensions Regulator red flag rules. Almost every big name SIPP provider offers incentives so I thought the only option would be to transfer to one of the few that don’t, eg Vanguard.
I told ii the transfer was off then left things drift for a month when unannounced by anyone the transfer to ii started going through. I asked Aviva what had changed and they said something vague about the rules changing. I could find no evidence of official rule changes at TPR, I just think enough people had been complaining and the workplace trustees had taken the risk of relaxing things at their end given there were no real signs of mis-selling. Best of all, ii honoured the more generous cashback offer from 4 months before when I started the process. As others have said, the service and persistence shown by ii was impressive throughout.
Good timing on this article!
With yesterday’s HL announcement that they are going to more than treble my account fees (now capped at £150 pa per account on SIPP, ISA, and GIA for shares and bonds which was formerly £200, £45 and £0) I’ve initiated switches to II for all my family’s accounts (1 SIPP, 2 ISA, 2 GIA, 2 JISA). We’ll see how long each of them take!
HL had recently been sold to private equity, right? I guess we didn’t have to wait long to see what the result of that would be.
Private equity making everything worse one leverage deal at a time.
I’ve only ever done one transfer, transferring my SIPP (all cash) from HL to Freetrade. It went fairly smoothly, maybe took about a month or so.
I may end up transferring back at some point as Freetrade doesn’t have the drawdown options which HL offers, unless this changes over the next couple of years.
Just wanted to share the timelines of an ISA transfer I just completed.
Full ISA in-specie transfer from HL to Fidelity. TBH, I don’t remember seeing a partial transfer option in the online form. Just three tracker ETFs; no cash.
26/01/2026 – Applied at Fidelity.
27/01/2026 – HL confirmed receipt of transfer out request.
28/01/2026 – HL confirmed receipt of asset list from Fidelity and that they initiated the transfer.
29/01/2026 – Assets disappeared from HL and showing up at Fidelity.
It took just under 3 days. Now I need to figure out how to update the book costs in Fidelity.
@WinterMute that’s great news. Can you confirm if HL left the accounts open but with zero balances? Will be a pain losing all my transaction history!
For info on transfer times – my wife got the email about Hargreaves Lansdown fee increases on Monday morning 26/01/26, so within ten minutes we set up a new GIA at ii and initiated an in specie stock transfer of her from HL. The shares have been transferred and are showing in her ii account today 30/01/26. There’s a little cash left with HL – apparently they will transfer that once ii confirm receipt of the shares. HL will then close her account so I have downloaded transaction history as it will disappear.
@Leigh: I’m sure I read in HL’s messages that the account will be closed once the new provider confirms receipt of the transferred assets. For now, the ISA is still open. I’d back up everything before starting the transfer out.
Another one here unhappy with HL’s fee cap hike for shares, ETFs, and ITs from (across ISA/SIPP/GIA) £245 pa to £450 pa; and also someone wanting to diversity away from over reliance on one predominant provider (~£1.5 mn across HL accounts v ~£22k with T212 and JPM/Nutmeg combined).
I’m looking at this possibility presently (given Fidelity April deadline for current cash back deal):
a). GIA to transfer from HL to CSD for £1k cashback (on ~£140k to transfer)
b). (an ETFs, ITs and shares only) ISA to transfer from HL to Fidelity for £1.8k cashback (on ~£700k to transfer)
c). Keep SIPP (~£675k, with a core holding in Winton Trend Enhanced Global Equity OEIC) with HL for time being (they only charge me 0.25% pa for OEICs, not the normal 0.45% pa, and this will remain the case after their reduction to 0.35% pa), but looking at moving from HL to AJB in the longer term (as 0.25% pa capped at £120 pa)
My queries:
1). Can Fidelity support an in specie transfer in from an HL ISA of IRL and LUX domiciled ETFs, and also transfers in of all foreign (e.g. US, Canada and Hong Kong) domiciled shares?
2). Are Fidelity’s and CSD’s respective customer service and website interfaces any good (by reference to HL’s as the comparator)?
3). Does CSD support holding individual Gilts in their GIA?
Basically, does anyone have experience of an HL to Fidelity and/or an HL to CSD transfer(s) involving foreign domiciled shares & ETFs and/or individual Gilts; and experience also of the Fidelity and/or CSD customer service teams and web interfaces?
With a withering sigh I note that I too have received the dreaded HL email. They want £150 per year to hold a load of gilts that they previously charged nothing for. That’s almost as much as I get from the coupon.
Looks like AJ Bell for me. Glad I read here that I need to save all documents first. What a faff.
Looking at the numbers, I’ll be surprised if they actually make any money doing this although I’m sure people more knowledgeable than me have modelled it all. I think there are better options out there for almost all scenarios, with the possible exception of regular fund purchases in a SIPP of a certain value. I guess they’re relying on inertia, like insurance companies. They’d be foolish if they think that many of their clients won’t notice that the fee reduction headline is a fiction though.
Re preserving history prior to a transfer:
These comments reminded me that almost exactly ten years ago I used a [at the time, pretty aged & rather clunky by todays standards] platform that had the facility to download all your transaction history into, IIRC, a CSV file. I know because I used it on a transfer away. I do not recall seeing that facility anywhere else since – which is a shame. Perhaps offering such a facility was a maintenance burden for that platform or perhaps others are just more cynical?
@Delta Hedge #50
I recently did an ISA transfer from II to Fidelity, because II increased their fees.
Fidelity won’t allow direct ownership of gilts, so it is not an option. My direct holdings of gilts are in the process of being transferred from II to AJBell as a result.
Fidelity told me to use their ‘investment finder’, you can see a link to it on their home page. The message from them was, if you can find your investment on their platform with the investment finder, then they should be able to transfer it in-specie.
My transfer itself was quick, but I have only a single global tracker ETF in the ISA, so would have been an easier one to do.
As for their platform, it is hard to tell. It does eveything it needs to do, but my experience is a little limited at the moment. Generally I am a little less impressed with it than other platforms, but that might just be due to familiarity. I think I will get used to it. It does have a lot of help and seems a little bit more aimed at novice investors.
Sorry, I can’t help with CSD, I have never used them.
Many thanks @Jam #53. That’s all really useful, and very much appreciated on Fidelity.