Vanguard ISA transfer in times

Malchester

Had trouble with Vanguard customer services transferring general fund out elsewhere. They said they had not heard from HL despite HL responding with an acceptance on the day they received valuation from Vanguard. 3 weeks later they were still denying they had received anything, then changed to it had got lost, then was told by customer services thy didn't have access to transfer progress (so how could they say what they said). Raised a complaint and, hey presto, action taken and transfer has begun!!!

GeoffTF

spenderdave said:

For information my transfer HSBC to Vanguard finally completed yesterday after nearly three months. Maybe helped when I suggested they send the forms to my local HSBC branch. But now what to do with it with the market likely to nosedive after today's Ukraine developments, or should I just leave the (significant) amount in Vanguard's cash pot?

Can you afford to lose it? I expect that today's developments are mostly already in the price.

Notepad_Phil

spenderdave said:

...  But now what to do with it with the market likely to nosedive after today's Ukraine developments, or should I just leave the (significant) amount in Vanguard's cash pot?

Given you were previously just in cash and you're not completely sure on what course of action to take, maybe 50% right now, with the rest drip fed in over the coming months.

However, if the sum had previously been invested in the markets then personally I'd always get it back into the stock markets as soon as possible.

BlueMickey

Hi,

I'm having as similar issue but in reverse. I made a request to transfer my holdings from Charles Stanley to Vanguard. CS confirm the transfer occurred and funds sent to Vanguard on 28/02, and have closure reports to confirm.

Half of my transfer has gone through, but the remaining 50% shows as pending with Vanguard at their end. Despite numerous chasing and correspondence with the rep (who last week said she had given instruction to have the funds  credited to my account), I am still waiting. 

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

dunstonh

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

If it is a cash transfer then it is usually a matter of about 10 days if the existing holdings have yet to be sold.
If it is an in-specie transfer then it can take 3-6 months typically. Although I have had a couple that were input early last year and only completed a month ago.

What method of transfer did you use?

BlueMickey

dunstonh said:

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

If it is a cash transfer then it is usually a matter of about 10 days if the existing holdings have yet to be sold.
If it is an in-specie transfer then it can take 3-6 months typically. Although I have had a couple that were input early last year and only completed a month ago.

What method of transfer did you use?

I transferred them via Vanguards transfer service - I don't know if that answers the question?

GeoffTF

BlueMickey said:

dunstonh said:

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

If it is a cash transfer then it is usually a matter of about 10 days if the existing holdings have yet to be sold.
If it is an in-specie transfer then it can take 3-6 months typically. Although I have had a couple that were input early last year and only completed a month ago.

What method of transfer did you use?

I transferred them via Vanguards transfer service - I don't know if that answers the question?

No, it does not. Did you sell your investments and transfer cash, or did you transfer the investments themselves without selling them first?

sebtomato

BlueMickey said:

Hi,

I'm having as similar issue but in reverse. I made a request to transfer my holdings from Charles Stanley to Vanguard. CS confirm the transfer occurred and funds sent to Vanguard on 28/02, and have closure reports to confirm.

Half of my transfer has gone through, but the remaining 50% shows as pending with Vanguard at their end. Despite numerous chasing and correspondence with the rep (who last week said she had given instruction to have the funds  credited to my account), I am still waiting. 

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

If it has taken more than 30 days, yes, ask for compensation, as long as you can prove the loss you incurred.

You could take them to small claim court/moneyclaim by just completing a form online, if they don't want to give anything. 

dunstonh

sebtomato said:

BlueMickey said:

Hi,

I'm having as similar issue but in reverse. I made a request to transfer my holdings from Charles Stanley to Vanguard. CS confirm the transfer occurred and funds sent to Vanguard on 28/02, and have closure reports to confirm.

Half of my transfer has gone through, but the remaining 50% shows as pending with Vanguard at their end. Despite numerous chasing and correspondence with the rep (who last week said she had given instruction to have the funds  credited to my account), I am still waiting. 

What are my options here? I feel like I will have lost some fairly substantial growth in the portfolio whilst this nonsense has been going on. Is a complaint to the FCA my only option?

If it has taken more than 30 days, yes, ask for compensation, as long as you can prove the loss you incurred.

You could take them to small claim court/moneyclaim by just completing a form online, if they don't want to give anything. 

Bluemickey said that he has made a request to transfer his holdings.   This would indicate that it is an in-specie transfer rather than a cash transfer.    There is also the reference to pending against the holding which is how most in-specie transfers appear whilst they are waiting to be re-registered.

In-specie transfers can take up to 6 months (sometimes longer). 

So, if an in-specie transfer is being used, he is not out of the market at any point and hasn't suffered a loss and going through the courts for compensation would fail and see him liable for the costs of the other party as well as his own.

It is possible that Bluemickey hasn't done an in-specie transfer and it was just mixing up terminology.  This is why he was asked to clarify before someone jumped in and gave incorrect information. 

sebtomato

dunstonh said:

In-specie transfers can take up to 6 months (sometimes longer). 

So, if an in-specie transfer is being used, he is not out of the market at any point and hasn't suffered a loss and going through the courts for compensation would fail and see him liable for the costs of the other party as well as his own.

Hence my comment, "as long as he can prove he incurred a loss", which doesn't seem to be possible with "in-specie" transfers, although there is possibly an extra cost on fees.
For instance, if I was transferring from HL to Vanguard, I could claim to have paid a 0.45% platform fee for longer than necessary, even though the same funds/investments were transferred.
 
For a cash transfer, if it takes months, and funds were left in cash for a long time, it would be easy to prove a loss (as long as the market moved in the right direction during that time). I don't think there would be any reasonable justifications to take more than 30 days in that scenario, since selling all existing investments shouldn't take more than a few days.

I have an existing transfer from HL to Vanguard currently in flight, and I would be sure to ask questions if it starts taking a long time. Selling all my HL investment and settling won't take more than a week.