AJ Bell ISA Transfer Times

kuratowski

Probably 5-10 days based on my experience, I have done an ISA and a SIPP transfer this year and both times it was under a week out of the market.  With a long term investment horizon, that is nothing.

george4064

Starwarsb2b said:

george4064 said:

Are the managed funds/trackers you are transferring exchange traded funds or UTs/OEICs?

UT I believe.  Like this:
VANGUARD FTSE DEVELOPED EUROPE EX-UK EQUITY INDEX ACCUMULATION (GBP)

The reason I ask is because typically clients will experience varying transfer times dependant on what types of assets they are transferring. 

In summary:

• Cash will transfer the quickest, however in your case transferring as cash will expose you to out of-market risk.
• Exchanged traded securities take longer than cash but typically dont take as long as UTs/OEICs to transfer.
• Finally, UTs/OEICs take the longest and transferring these types of assets require the most amount of work and involve the most parties out of any other asset type, hence the longest transfer time.

DireEmblem

masonic said:

6 to 12 weeks sounds about right to me.

Sadly that is the government guidelines.  6 weeks for a cash transfer and up to 12 weeks for stock.

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa

I think it falls on the fact that there is no incentive for your exiting broker to transfer your cash/holdings any quicker.

Thrugelmir

DireEmblem said:

masonic said:

6 to 12 weeks sounds about right to me.

Sadly that is the government guidelines.  6 weeks for a cash transfer and up to 12 weeks for stock.

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa

I think it falls on the fact that there is no incentive for your exiting broker to transfer your cash/holdings any quicker.

Available resources are finite. As with many things these days everybody wants something for nothing. Longer term easy to envisage business models changing to recoup costs. 

eskbanker

DireEmblem said:

masonic said:

6 to 12 weeks sounds about right to me.

Sadly that is the government guidelines.  6 weeks for a cash transfer and up to 12 weeks for stock.

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa

???

That page clearly states:

ISA transfers should take no longer than:

• 15 working days for transfers between cash ISAs
• 30 calendar days for other types of transfer

Not saying that's realistic, but it's what's specified....

masonic

DireEmblem said:

masonic said:

6 to 12 weeks sounds about right to me.

Sadly that is the government guidelines.  6 weeks for a cash transfer and up to 12 weeks for stock.

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/transferring-your-isa

I think it falls on the fact that there is no incentive for your exiting broker to transfer your cash/holdings any quicker.

Please do not cut off my quote mid-sentence to change its meaning. What I posted was "6 to 12 weeks sounds about right to me, if not a little optimistic." As mentioned by eskbanker, that is significantly longer than the government guidance.

My own personal experience is that it varies by fund house. The last time I did an in specie transfer the first OEIC investments turned up in a little under 6 weeks, but the last one took about 14 weeks to show up. I've done several cash transfers from IF ISAs and these have generally completed within 2-3 weeks.

Starwarsb2b said:

I don't feel comfortable with those sorts of process times.

Unless you are a frequent trader it is likely there will be a 12+ week period where you leave your investments alone. New contributions can be made to the new ISA while the transfer is in progress provided it completes before the end of the current tax year or you have not subscribed to the old S&S ISA in the current tax year. The only inconvenience is not being able to log in and get an up to date valuation, but prices can be tracked if you keep a record of the units you hold.

Transferring in cash is an option, but as you say, you'll be out of the market, and will incur costs (albeit minor) repurchasing the investments at AJ Bell.

dunstonh

Starwarsb2b said:

kuratowski said:

Sell the investments, transfer in cash.

But then you are out of the market.  How many days would that be typically?

With most providers/platforms, out of market for about 3-5 days.  I have read posts over the last few months that HL have issues with transfers taking much longer than normal.  I don't know if that is still the case.

Starwarsb2b

Is this an option.
Sell part of the holds on the existing platform, transfer this cash to the new platform.  Once that is completed repeat the process for the remaining funds.
A bit of "Pound Cost Averaging" as an example.

Billycock

dunstonh said:

Starwarsb2b said:

kuratowski said:

Sell the investments, transfer in cash.

But then you are out of the market.  How many days would that be typically?

With most providers/platforms, out of market for about 3-5 days.  I have read posts over the last few months that HL have issues with transfers taking much longer than normal.  I don't know if that is still the case.

I don’t know about transfers to HL but my daughter has been waiting over 3 months for a transfer from HL 
Myself my transfer from Shawbrook to Vanguard took 7 weeks, showing as available cash for investments in my Vanguard ISA wrapper now, trouble is it won’t let me choose investments, sent them a secure message and was told by Remi that he’ll pass it on to his ISA team to see what the problem is, still waiting for a response on the issue.
As a matter of principle I might just transfer the ISA’s straight out of Vanguard without investing with them. Have to make sure I can take that action first. 

masonic

Starwarsb2b said:

Is this an option.
Sell part of the holds on the existing platform, transfer this cash to the new platform.  Once that is completed repeat the process for the remaining funds.
A bit of "Pound Cost Averaging" as an example.

There are a limited number of providers who will process partial transfers. I don't know what HL and AJ Bell's current position on this is, but HL was previously unwilling to process partial transfers. Pound cost averaging is typically employed to avoid sudden crashes adversely impacting an investor with a lump sum to invest. The risk in a cash transfer is a sudden upsurge of 10-20% in your investments over a few days. How likely is that? I suppose if there was a crash immediately after you submitted your transfer request then you could end up selling at a market low, but a recovery within a few days would be highly unusual.

Have you considered an in specie transfer?