Is it possible to gift Stocks & Shares to someone else?

Picard91

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help, I have around 75 Shares with IWeb Trading in a company, all valued at around £1500. It is in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

I want to gift these shares to someone else. Is that possible? Anyone any experience with doing this?

p00hsticks

I'm not an expert, but as they're in an ISA I think you'd have to sell them and then take them money out the ISA and then either gift the money or re-buy the shares in the name of the recipient (although you'd probably need to arrange this with the recipient to ensure they have a platform set up to hold them)

Tildaplum

You cannot transfer any ISA to someone else - it is an individual savings account

as above sell the shares and transfer the money although of course they would lose their tax-free status

cloud_dog

It is possible but, you will need to die first.... tricky.

george4064

p00hsticks said:

I'm not an expert, but as they're in an ISA I think you'd have to sell them and then take them money out the ISA and then either gift the money or re-buy the shares in the name of the recipient (although you'd probably need to arrange this with the recipient to ensure they have a platform set up to hold them)

I agree, can't think of any other way to transfer ISA holdings to someone else other than inheritance.

lindabea

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but can I ask - what if the money is invested in a general account not in an isa; can the funds be transferred to someone else without having to sell the units/shares?

port_of_spain

You can do it without selling the shares, but you will probably need to do it in 2 steps:

1) Transfer the shares out of the ISA, i.e. make them a non-tax-sheltered investment in your own name.

2) Transfer them from your name to the donee.

Step (1) could be done by the old-fashioned way, viz. by asking your ISA manager to rematerialize your shares, i.e. give you them as a physical share certificate. And then you would complete step (2) by sending the certificate to the company's registrar, with instructions (they may have a form for this) to reissue with a certificate in the donee's name (and explicitly telling them that it is a gift). Note there is some risk with sending share certificates through the post (which would be happening 3 times!).

Alternatively, you could do step (1) by asking your ISA manager to transfer the shares from your ISA to your GIA (unwrapped account). And then from your GIA to a GIA held by the donee. This would almost certainly require both you and the donee to hold GIAs with the same company who manages your ISA. And not all provider will necessarily support these kinds of transfers.

Note that the shares will come within the scope of capital gains tax for the (brief) period between steps (1) and (2), so you will have a taxable gain or loss, based on the change in the market value of the shares between those steps. Though this won't be an issue unless you have other chargeable gains, since the annual CGT allowance is £12,300.

george4064

lindabea said:

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but can I ask - what if the money is invested in a general account not in an isa; can the funds be transferred to someone else without having to sell the units/shares?

In theory, yes you can do this, but it depends on where you hold the funds currently. Hargreaves Lansdown allow it (see link below), but for other platforms you will need to check with them.

https://www.hl.co.uk/help/fund-and-share-account/fund-and-share-account/transferring-investments/can-i-transfer-shares-held-in-someone-elses-name-into-my-vantage-fund-and-share-account

JohnRo

CSD will reregister the assets if a signed written instruction is given.

dunstonh

Assets in an GIA can be stock transferred to a third party.   Most platforms will support this 
 Assets in an ISA would need to be sold first to cash and then paid to the third party as cash (or put in a GIA and then stock transferred - but that step is extra work and easier for the third party to pick the investments).