transferring ISAs - joint plan

iso_2

Hi,

In our Halifax Home Plan we have two ISAs for me and my wife (which have a life cover element - 36k). I'm going to transfer these to one of the discount ISA jobbies.

I guess there are some options about transferring.

Apparently, I can firstly transfer one of the ISAs in to the other and then transfer this to a new ISA. I can also close and the re-open, but I think this isn't such a great idea as the 12k is greater than the one year limit for an ISA.

Perhaps I should transfer both the existing ISAs to two new ones as this should mean I won't lose any benefits and it will allow me to put more in to two ISAs in subsequent years.

Any thoughts?

iso.

RayWolfe

Some confusion here.
You cannot combine your and your wife's ISA.
Never close and reopen because you can only invest the annual limit and there is no benifit to be obtained by doing this.
You can transfer each existing ISA to a new provider regardless o the value it has reached.
Does thay make sense to you?

iso_2

RayWolfe wrote:

Some confusion here.
You cannot combine your and your wife's ISA.
Never close and reopen because you can only invest the annual limit and there is no benifit to be obtained by doing this.
You can transfer each existing ISA to a new provider regardless o the value it has reached.
Does thay make sense to you?

Hi RayWolfe,

The man at the Halifax did say that it was possible to transfer the money my ISA to my wife's ("because it's part of the same plan") - unless I mis-understood. I did think it was strange, but I will double check this to be sure.

Yes, irrespective of the point above about combining, I think two transfers is the way to go.

I just need to work out which fund to invest in. From what Dunstonh said, it looks like dart throwing at some of the popular funds on Hargreaves Landsdown would probably be better than the Halifax UK Growth B ones .

I'm thinking about a global growth fund.

Thanks!

iso

RayWolfe

iso wrote:

Hi RayWolfe,

The man at the Halifax did say that it was possible to transfer the money my ISA to my wife's ("because it's part of the same plan") - unless I mis-understood. I did think it was strange, but I will double check this to be sure.

Be very carefull. You can't combine two or more people's ISAs.

iso wrote:

I'm thinking about a global growth fund.
iso

Not a bad place to be for long term growth but be sure to chose a fund that is free to invest where the manager's skill wants to take him, rather than one that has to invest according to market size. In addition, if you want to get outside unit trusts, investment trust fees tend to be lower.

dunstonh

The man at the Halifax did say that it was possible to transfer the money my ISA to my wife's ("because it's part of the same plan") - unless I mis-understood. I did think it was strange, but I will double check this to be sure.

He is wrong (or you misunderstood). ISAs are a personal allowance and they cannot be transferred between people and are not joint.

I just need to work out which fund to invest in. From what Dunstonh said, it looks like dart throwing at some of the popular funds on Hargreaves Landsdown would probably be better than the Halifax UK Growth B ones .

Spread of funds across the sectors that average out to meet your attitude to investment risk. Remember all funds have different levels of risk. Even funds in the same sector.

I'm thinking about a global growth fund.

Out of the frying pan into the fire. Of course, you could pick one of the better global growth funds but where you are failing here is going with single fund investing. That is old fashioned and will result in lower returns over the term. You need to spread it round. HL allow £1000 per fund so spread it on that basis. The monthly may not allow much of a spread as £50pm tends to be the minimum amount per fund.