How to transfer a stocks and shares ISA

Ad_Astra

I have approx £200K in a stocks and shares ISA with Fidelity which is spread across six different funds. I am looking to change my investments and was thinking of putting £100K into a single Vanguard fund and transfer the reminder to a different Fidelity fund. I have not added any new funds to the ISA in this tax year.

Looking at this Government web site I believe I can do this:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transfer-an-isa-if-youre-an-isa-manager

"What amounts can be transferred

An Investor must either do one or both of the following:

• transfer all of the current year’s ISA subscriptions, the investments bought with those subscriptions, and any income arising on those investments
• transfer some or all of the previous years’ ISA subscriptions, the investments bought with those subscriptions, and any income arising on those investments"

My query is can I transfer just part of my Fidelity Stocks and Shares ISA to Vanguard? I think so but want to check. If yes and I ask Vanguard to open a new ISA by transferring £100K from Fidelity how would Fidelity sell my exisitng funds: would they take a pro rata amount from each of the six funds in my S&S ISA or would they sell all of one or two of the funds to make up the £100K?

Once Vanguard has done that transaction I think I can then ask Fidelity to move the remainder into the new Fidelity fund, that way the whole of the remainder can be transferred. Does this sound a good approach?

InvesterJones

Contact Fidelity support in the first instance for some information. They used to only allow full amount transfers, even for previous tax years, but their documentation is currently incomplete (following the transfers out link from their doing business guide takes you somewhere which doesn't cover transfers out).

masonic

If memory serves, it wasn't so long ago that someone reported being knocked back by Fidelity when trying a partial transfer out. Perhaps within the last year. If something has changed, then you'd be responsible for any buying and selling to achieve a suitable cash balance or split across suitable funds. It would be wise to do this before kicking off the transfer.

At the risk of stating the obvious, you could achieve what you propose without splitting the ISA itself, since Fidelity carries a good selection of Vanguard funds. There are also cheaper places to invest £100k in a Vanguard fund than Vanguard's own platform.