Vanguard LS80 v HL ISA?

Gin_and_Milk

Hi,
I have a S&S ISA with HL, which is nowhere near the 20k limit, and I also have a general account with Vanguard in their LS80 fund (acc).  I only have a few £100 in this, and contribute approx £100 p/m, which I intend to increase next year.  Even so, this will not take me over the ISA threshold.
The aim is to retire in approx 15 years time, and I would like to use the fund to pay for a few holidays, so I wouldn't be looking to change this to income.
I also pay into the LGPS scheme, as well as the workplace AVC, and I anticipate that by retirement at 60, I should have approx £18k from the LGPS alone.
HL fees are not the cheapest I know, but given that's who I have the ISA with, would it be better to pay into the Vanguard fund through HL and save on the tax even though we are currently only talking small amounts?
Thanks

Albermarle

Open a new S&S ISA with Vanguard ( as long as you have not opened another S&S ISA this tax year ) and transfer in the VLS 80 from their general account and then request Vanguard to transfer in the HL ISA and save yourself 0.3% pa 

Gin_and_Milk

Albermarle said:

Open a new S&S ISA with Vanguard ( as long as you have not opened another S&S ISA this tax year ) and transfer in the VLS 80 from their general account and then request Vanguard to transfer in the HL ISA and save yourself 0.3% pa 

I pay into my current S&S ISA every month.  Can I still open another one?  I didn't think that was allowed.

Albermarle

My post was not quite right .
You can open more than one S&S ISA in a tax year but you can not put new money into more than one .
So you could open a new S&S ISA with Vanguard and transfer the HL ISA into it . However the money in the general account with Vanguard could not be transferred into the Vanguard ISA as that would be new money.
I suppose you could withdraw the money from the Vanguard general account , invest it in the HL ISA and then transfer the HL ISA to Vanguard ISA.

Gin_and_Milk

Thanks Albermarle,
Given that I already have shares invested in my ISA, it would mean selling them and transferring to Vanguard, so it might make more sense if I drew the money from Vanguard and put that into my HL ISA if that makes sense.

squirrelpie

Gin_and_Milk said:

I have a S&S ISA with HL, which is nowhere near the 20k limit

You do understand that the £20k limit is only on the amount you are allowed to contribute each tax year? There's no limit on the total amount you can have in the ISA.

In general, if you have money with any firm in a general account and you have spare available in either an ISA (up to the £20k in a tax year) or a SIPP/pension (up to whatever you earn in the tax year) then it will pay you to move the money from the general account into either the ISA or the pension.

It is easiest to move money between accounts as cash money rather than trying to move actual shares ('in specie') as you already appreciate, and generally selling something and buying it back in a different account is not a problem.

It's worth noting that HL fees are not too bad as long as you only buy shares (I recommend investment trusts) or ETFs or other exchange-traded investments. It's only if you buy funds that they are expensive.

If you just want to invest in Vanguard funds, then moving everything to a Vanguard ISA is best. If you want a much broader choice of investments then moving everything to HL or some other provider is a better choice.

Gin_and_Milk

squirrelpie said:

Gin_and_Milk said:

I have a S&S ISA with HL, which is nowhere near the 20k limit

You do understand that the £20k limit is only on the amount you are allowed to contribute each tax year? There's no limit on the total amount you can have in the ISA.

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I don't earn enough to be able to hit the yearly limit for the ISA (wish I did!).  So the 20K limit isn't really an issue, as I'll never be able to put that away in one year.
I want to keep Vanguard LS as it's simple and straightforward and quite flexible.  What I'm not sure about is whether or not it would work out better to leave it in their general account, or move it to my HL ISA.