LISA Transfer Question

Alexland

Even if you only make contributions once a year you will still benefit from cost averaging over the very long term life of the account. Now the LISA bonuses are paid monthly (as cash requiring an investment trade...) a month or two after each contribution it might just make more sense to try and fill the accounts at the start of the tax year to get the bonuses earning investment returns (the overall market direction is upwards) earlier?

Alex.

toothdoctor

Just an update HL not accepting Lisa to Lisa transfers due to the complexity of the product. They said it was a business decision they made. Just another quick question can you hold different types of Lisa i.e hold a cash Lisa and a s&s Lisa like you can with normal Isa for example can I keep my skipton Lisa and open up a aj bell/hl Lisa for this years contribution?

Zorillo

No. Your Lifetime ISA is the only one you get in your lifetime.

eskbanker

toothdoctor wrote: »

Just another quick question can you hold different types of Lisa i.e hold a cash Lisa and a s&s Lisa like you can with normal Isa for example can I keep my skipton Lisa and open up a aj bell/hl Lisa for this years contribution?

Zorillo wrote: »

No. Your Lifetime ISA is the only one you get in your lifetime.

HMRC disagree, at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/lifetime-isas-for-isa-managers#investor:

Eligible individuals are able to open more than one Lifetime ISA during their lives, but are only able to contribute to one Lifetime ISA in each tax year

claire***_2

I posted a question on this yeasterday on another thread but just a watch out that i found today is that once you reach 40 you cannot currently open another LISA even if you already have one from previous tax years. Which means that post 40 you are stuck with the provider you have. I turned 40 shortly after the LISA was launched last year so was able to open one with skipton and have contacted both HL and aj bell today and both have said that once you reach 40 you cannot open a LISA, even just to do a transfer (which HL wont do anyway). Very annoying!

toothdoctor

Thanks for that. In Martins article on the main mse site it says that you can open a new Lisa after 40 just to transfer Lisa to get a better rate. I thought for example when I pass 40 I could open an aj bell account transfer my skipton into this and place further contributions into my aj bell account until I was 50. Why do the government have to make the rules so complicated?

claire***_2

Just to clairify I think its the providers that are unable to open the accounts rather than government rules. This is the email response I received from AJ Bell yesterday:-


Unfortunately our LISA application was set up to not allow over 40s to proceed with it. This has yet to be amended in the application so will still not allow anyone over 40 to open the account, and I'm afraid it's not due to be looked at for a few months, As such, you won't be able to open a LISA with us just yet.

As we've been receiving a few of these queries lately, we are pushing for the application to be amended sooner rather than later but I still wouldn't be able to confirm exactly when this will happen.

eskbanker

toothdoctor wrote: »

Thanks for that. In Martins article on the main mse site it says that you can open a new Lisa after 40 just to transfer Lisa to get a better rate. I thought for example when I pass 40 I could open an aj bell account transfer my skipton into this and place further contributions into my aj bell account until I was 50. Why do the government have to make the rules so complicated?

Yes, as claire*** says, it's (at least some) providers who have chosen not to implement this yet rather than a constraint within the government rules, which, as per the document linked a couple of posts back, do clearly state:

Lifetime ISAs may only be opened by an eligible individual either on or after their 18th birthday but not once the individual has reached 40 (other than an account opened to receive a transfer from another Lifetime ISA....

Has anyone checked the other S&S LISA providers yet to see if they'll accommodate over-40s opening accounts to transfer into? There are other S&S LISA providers beyond HL and AJ Bell, five being listed at https://www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-isas/isas/lifetime-isas-ac6mf6s7r9d5#headline_9

Alexland

eskbanker wrote: »

Has anyone checked the other S&S LISA providers yet to see if they'll accommodate over-40s opening accounts to transfer into? There are other S&S LISA providers beyond HL and AJ Bell, five being listed at https://www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-isas/isas/lifetime-isas-ac6mf6s7r9d5#headline_9

Share Center's transfer form seems to cover the scenarios nicely. You declare:

"Either: I am 18 years of age or over but under the age of 40, or, the account is being opened to receive investments from another lifetime ISA, a defaulted lifetime ISA subscription or a returned withdrawal after a failed first time residential purchase"

https://www.share.com/globalassets/assets/downloads/lisa_transfer.pdf

Alex.