A Company Bonus in Shares - how best to save ?

gwhroberts

My wife is about to receive £2,500 in her companies shares as a bonus, how best should these shares be saved ? Can we make or save money by putting these into a Share ISA (in her name) rather than just leaving them until we are ready to sell them at the right price ? If we put them into a Share ISA do we have to leave them in the ISA for a certain length of time before deciding to sell them ?
Our only other savings plan is a mini-cash ISA (in my name) into which we currently save £200 per month.
Thanks, G

Consumerist

I don't know too much about S&S ISAs but I think shares in an ISA have to be purchased by the ISA manager whereas, in your case, they have already been effectively "purchased" by you outside an ISA wrapper.

The implication is that you will have to sell the shares then re-purchase them through an ISA manager to get them into the ISA wrapper. This means selling costs (outside an ISA) plus purchase costs (inside an ISA).

Your wife might be better off to sell the shares and then put the proceeds into a cash ISA in her name, or just hold the shares outside any ISA. Much depends on her marginal tax rate; the higher her tax rate, the more cost effective theISA will be.