Opinions on transferring S&S ISA

Turtle

My husband and I have got S&S ISAs with Halifax Share Dealing. Every time I try and alter the monthly amount, it fails. I'm certain it's not me making an error, I triple check and the system just seems unfit for purpose. So, we're looking at transferring them.

One of them is worth around £63,000 and the other around £70,000. Currently we're just paying in £200 a month to each, into the Lifestrategy 80% acc. We don't do any other trading, just the monthly subs to the S&S ISAs. We're 48 and 51 years old.

I'm looking at AJ Bell. Has anyone got any personal views?

I'm also thinking about us changing fund - when we first plumped for the Vanguard fund it seemed to be a very popular one for monthly subs and just leave it to do it's thing (which we still want to do).  Recently I've read a few times about it being too UK focussed and that a more global fund would be a better choice instead. Any suggestions here?

Finally, I'm not sure what happens when you transfer. We have done it before, but it was years ago now. Do they sell the units and transfer the money, then they buy back into the same fund for you? Or do they sell and transfer the money and you have to tell them which fund to buy into? Or something else?

So in summary:

1. Any personal views on AJ Bell? Or any other provider suggestions?

2. Should I be considering a more global fund? Any suggestions?

3. What happens to the units when you transfer?

Thanks so much for any help in advance. If I have missed some info, please just ask.

Albermarle

I'm not sure what happens when you transfer. We have done it before, but it was years ago now. Do they sell the units and transfer the money, then they buy back into the same fund for you? Or do they sell and transfer the money and you have to tell them which fund to buy into? Or something else?

You have a choice. 
You can request the transfer in cash. Your existing provider will sell the funds to cash before the transfer takes place. Then of course you have you new investments with the new provider
Or you can request the transfer 'in specie' which means the investment is transferred. This assumes that the new provider offers the relevant investment on their platform. 

However you do it the transfer should always be organised via the new/receiving provider.

Nothing wrong with A J Bell, but HL and Fidelity are offering cashback on ISA transfers ( £500 each for ISA for you) . Their platform charges are higher though.
Aj Bell 0.25%
Fidelity 0.35%
HL  0.45%

VLS 80 has a larger UK % ( 25%) than the UK % of the global financial market ( 4 %), and this has held back its performance in recent times. However the future is unknowable.

If you want to look at similar ( and slightly cheaper ) multi asset funds without the UK 'bias' you could look at the HSBC Global strategy Dynamic or Adventurous
Or Fidelity multi asset allocator Adventurous
Or Blackrock Mymap 5 or 6

For a half way house you could stick with VLS80 for one ISA, and change to one of the others for the other one.

Turtle

Thanks very much - that's really helpful and gives me things to look into. I've heard of the HSBC fund but assumed it would only be available through an HSBC platform.

Beddie

Halifax is a good but quite basic platform, with pretty low charges. Why not simply call them up and they'll fix the issue you're having? That's way less hassle than transferring to a new provider, all of whom have quirks in their systems that may or may not be troublesome to you.

Turtle

The charges are certainly low and I've been wondering if I'm being too hasty. I've looked at some of the world platforms and their performance doesn't seem that different to the one I have. Assuming I'm looking at it correctly. I'm waiting to see if my amended Feb payment goes through OK, if it does then I'm going to leave it for a bit I think, as I don't envisage needing to change the amounts again for the foreseeable.

I operate my husband's account as well as my own - he hates dealing with financial stuff so avoiding a call would be preferable!