Witan Jump account and Hargreaves Lansdown (HL)... Bare status?

Andy_Yelland

I have recently contacted HL requesting information regarding the bare status (or not) of two Witan Jump accounts we used to save for our childrens' university support. The Witan Jump accounts were transferred to HL in 2019. We don't have the original Witan paperwork. They suggested I contact Witan. I contacted Witan who acknowledged this was an issue that had recently arisen and would get back to me. They didn't and a subsequent email to the Witan secretary was unanswered. HL's further response was that I am required to supply the status of the account to them as 'Witan have not provided us with it'. HL has sent a request today for me to supply the Bare trust status of the accounts. You couldn't make it up!
It is likely that it is a Bare trust since we were saving for the children but, for the life of me, how do I find out? How can Witan tranfer these accounts to HL without that information being held by either company? Any ideas much appreciated.

wmb194

Andy_Yelland said:

I have recently contacted HL requesting information regarding the bare status (or not) of two Witan Jump accounts we used to save for our childrens' university support. The Witan Jump accounts were transferred to HL in 2019. We don't have the original Witan paperwork. They suggested I contact Witan. I contacted Witan who acknowledged this was an issue that had recently arisen and would get back to me. They didn't and a subsequent email to the Witan secretary was unanswered. HL's further response was that I am required to supply the status of the account to them as 'Witan have not provided us with it'. HL has sent a request today for me to supply the Bare trust status of the accounts. You couldn't make it up!
It is likely that it is a Bare trust since we were saving for the children but, for the life of me, how do I find out? How can Witan tranfer these accounts to HL without that information being held by either company? Any ideas much appreciated.

Last year there was another thread about this: see link below. IIRC without the original documentation (and even with it...) it's difficult to know. What was your intention at the time of opening? If your explicit intention was to open a bare trust then perhaps this is what you did?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6383251/might-sound-like-a-stupid-question-but-how-do-i-know-if-an-account-is-a-trust/p1

wmb194

Particularly as it washed its hands of this scheme four years ago, Witan's just an Investment Trust so I wouldn't be surprised that it's unresponsive.

According to this CityWire article its savings schemes had 16,000 members so it wouldn't need too many people asking about their old accounts before it ground to a halt.

"Witan, the global multi-manager investment trust, is encouraging 16,000 of its investors to switch to Hargreaves Lansdown... The company said that due to rising regulatory costs it had decided to stop administering the schemes."

https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider/news/witan-withdraws-savings-schemes-in-hargreaves-switch/a1191393