SVS Securities - shut down?

Sheris

eskbanker

The FCA and LC was after the highest bidder in terms of monies, with no respect to the clients of SVS.
No homework or detail into ITI past history, should have accepted a lower bidder with a history for the transfer.
Incompetent is a understatement for the FCA and LC with unprofessional common sense what was always going to be the outcome.            

eskbanker

Sheris said:

eskbanker

The FCA and LC was after the highest bidder in terms of monies, with no respect to the clients of SVS.
No homework or detail into ITI past history, should have accepted a lower bidder with a history for the transfer.
Incompetent is a understatement for the FCA and LC with unprofessional common sense what was always going to be the outcome.            

Out of curiosity, were the bid values published?

masonic

They wanted a provider who could take on all of the business of SVS, including the forex and CFD trading arm. This will have restricted choices considerably, and do I recall that the final selection was made after a second bidder withdrew from the process leaving ITI as the only remaining option?

It is a shame, as Interactive Investor were gobbling up every small broker they could get their hands on around that time, but wouldn't have been able to take on all of the clients of SVS.

Sheris

eskbanker said:

Sheris said:

eskbanker

The FCA and LC was after the highest bidder in terms of monies, with no respect to the clients of SVS.
No homework or detail into ITI past history, should have accepted a lower bidder with a history for the transfer.
Incompetent is a understatement for the FCA and LC with unprofessional common sense what was always going to be the outcome.            

Out of curiosity, were the bid values published?

No they where not published, but a member of staff at LC was very helpful to me in telephone conversations with the required info and maybe stated to much, but the person was honest and not the same as the rest, also I was the whistleblower to the FCA in November 2021 as to the situation, within a few weeks ITI was stopped from taking on any new clients.      

tonyb42

RasputinB said:

eskbanker said:
@tonyb42 is looking for a home for an ISA rather than a SIPP...
Oops! My mistake.
The link you provided goes on to say "You can transfer an ISA to another provider even if you are not resident in the UK".
If he can't find a provider then I guess that the assets simply need to come out of the ISA wrapper rather than be sold. As that isn't the fault of ITI it is doubtful that a claim could be made for the resultant inconvenience and / or tax problems?

"You can transfer an ISA to another provider even if you are not resident in the UK" - this is essentially what I'm looking for. I will hunt through the forums to see if this is a thread anywhere unless you know of one already started up?

tonyb42

"You can transfer an ISA to another provider even if you are not resident in the UK"

Which should also read "...if you had an another provider setup whilst still a UK resident" otherwise, good luck with that...

RasputinB

tonyb42 said:

"You can transfer an ISA to another provider even if you are not resident in the UK"

Which should also read "...if you had an another provider setup whilst still a UK resident" otherwise, good luck with that...

Yes, eskbanker highlighted the problem earlier – it is unlikely that a non UK resident can open a new ISA account and therefore unlikely that a transfer can be made.

I’ve never used them and they may be expensive but I see from https://www.redmayne.co.uk/faqs that they may open a stockbroking account for non-residents and that they also have ISAs. Maybe worth asking them if you can a) open an account b) transfer shares into a new ISA account with them. Their reply might confirm that it is impossible to do.

I must be missing something here because I can’t understand why a non UK resident would be very keen to hang on to an ISA as I assume that it makes no difference to the need, or otherwise, to report the income and any gains to the tax authority where you reside.

From the UK tax angle, I don’t think that a non UK resident has UK tax due on capital gains or income from share investments so there is little advantage in holding on to an ISA. There is a disadvantage if there are additional costs associated with an ISA.

Even if the plan is to return to the UK is it really worth holding on to an ISA? Hopefully it would have increased in value significantly so you’d have the advantage of a bigger ISA pot and then, as UK resident, the advantage of the tax-free environment is greater. But you lose any benefits from losses.

What I would plan to do on return to the UK (without an ISA) is to sell assets with gains before return (but after leaving the country where I am tax resident) so that there is no UK Capital Gains Tax to pay. After becoming UK tax resident I’d look at selling the loss-making shares (I have many!)  and use those losses to offset any future gains. I think that currently such losses can be carried forward indefinitely.

johnburman

Good advice from RasputinB but still in the short term for the non residents who have ISAs is there a recognised FSA regulated broker who takes on new accounts? 

tonyb42

johnburman said:

Good advice from RasputinB but still in the short term for the non residents who have ISAs is there a recognised FSA regulated broker who takes on new accounts? 

I've been a Barclays customer for over 30 years and since 2016 access my accounts from NZ, my last trip to the UK was 2019 and used my accounts as normal. They know my non UK resident status and I get a new bank card now and again at my NZ address. I thought there may be a chance they may look favorably on the ISA transfer, I'm a long standing customer and they have verified ID, AML checks etc and this is a historical ISA transfer so not a new ISA setup. I'm not a new 'customer' to Barclays so I will see if this gets me somewhere.

tonyb42

@RasputinBI must be missing something here because I can’t understand why a non UK resident would be very keen to hang on to an ISA as I assume that it makes no difference to the need, or otherwise, to report the income and any gains to the tax authority where you reside.

With the bit of tax I still have to pay, they work out better than anything in NZ as there is no tax free ISA equivalent, and dividends and most investment benefits in NZ are all taxed. One plus is there is no stamp duty/capital gains tax for shares and property sales here.