Maturing Stocks & Share Mortgage ISA Legal & General (ReAssure) Help

DontCountChickins

Hi 

I am new to this so sorry in advance.

The wife and I took out a flexible mortgage (FM)ISA  Stocks & Shares some 20 odd years ago to pay off the mortgage loan this was with a Legal & General product package. It was initially held by the life insurance company its now almost at maturity where my wife and myself can cash in the FMISA. we have been given one of two options, we can transfer the money out into a nominated bank account in the policy holders name or do nothing and the FMISA stocks & shares remain with a well known Fidellity as L&G moved it on a few years ago. we have not had a stocks and shares ISA before. We had paid off the mortgage but had kept the FMISA payments going, the product held with ReAssure also provide some insurance cover (life/illness).

The money transfer option is not fortunately required at the moment, so we had considered just letting the transfer go ahead and leaving it to hopefully grow. I rang up the Fidelity where the stocks and shares would be held in my name and my wife as one is in my name, there are effectively the same value. I don't intend to fund the S&S ISA once the transfer is made. There is a £90 annual fee per annum for the maintenance of the account.

This is where i would like some help. I was wondering how resilient these type of S&S products that were effectively put in place to support Interest Only Mortgages, as I was worried that if say hundreds of people had taken out the same product FMISA at the same time as we did all those years ago and that they were maturing as well as ours and if the other hundreds of people were to sell thought the first option i.e. opt for the money assuming that  the product FMISA S&S would it drop in monetary terms?

Is there anyone who kept the FMISA S&S or a similar product in a similar scenario that wouldn't mind sharing their experience. 
 
we only have a couple of weeks to submit our option.

Thanks you in advance and sorry for any wrong terminology.

dunstonh

. we have not had a stocks and shares ISA before

You have had one of the last 20 years.     You have had the ability to switch providers and funds in that period as well.  The life assurance element and the S&S ISA element were both standalone and not directly tied to each other.

I was wondering how resilient these type of S&S products that were effectively put in place to support Interest Only Mortgages, as I was worried that if say hundreds of people had taken out the same product FMISA at the same time as we did all those years ago and that they were maturing as well as ours and if the other hundreds of people were to sell thought the first option i.e. opt for the money assuming that  the product FMISA S&S would it drop in monetary terms?

The fund you are in is not just used by people with interest only mortgages.     Its also not the only fund.    Don't think of it as a product.   Its not.

Is there anyone who kept the FMISA S&S or a similar product in a similar scenario that wouldn't mind sharing their experience. 

I've encountered a fair few over the years, and we transferred the ISAs out before maturity as they were not great value (the bsoc share classes were more expensive than the clean retail share class).

Albermarle

The FMISA, like all stocks and shares ISA, will have some investments within it ( maybe just one, maybe more).
These investments are where any growth has been generated in the past, and going forwards. So you should look into what these investments are.
The ISA is just somewhere to hold investments in a tax friendly environment. 
The Fidelity fee is just for them to hold your investments. The investments themselves will have their own fee, which you will have been paying for the last 20 years.

Stocks & shares ISAs: find the best platform - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com)

DontCountChickins

Hi 
Thanks so much dunstonh & Albermarie for your time in helping me by sharing your Knowledge and the great information you have both explained it is much appreciated. I was maybe just going to leave it with Fidelity although I will look at the link and try and learn a bit more about what options I may have. The wife and I have put money into a cash ISA for each of us this year so that’s why I believe that I cannot fund it ?. 

Thank you

Albermarle

It depends how much money you put in the cash ISA this tax year. If you have put in less than £20k, then you can add to the S&S ISA, up to a total limit of £20K for all ISA's. You and your wife can both add £20K as this is an individual limit.

The part I do not know is that ISA stands for Individual savings account, so not sure what the situation is for a joint one, as normally joint ones are not allowed. You will probably have to call Fidelity, although the person you speak to is not guaranteed to know the answer.

Hopefully another poster can enlighten us both !

DontCountChickins

Hi
Thank you Albermarie, we have both put in 20k each to a cash isa in individual names. The FMISA will be kept in each of our name so not a joint account its matured at about 21k each in just over a week and that's over the 20 old years. 

DontCountChickins

Hi 

I was wondered if anyone could help with this question in relation to my first post 25th July,

Can these S&S FMISA held by Fidelity one in my name and one in my wife's name, possibly be sold and transfer them into Cash ISAs, I did ask Fidelity if they did cash ISAs products but it became a bit confusing and I was left with the impression that they don't do cash ISAs.

Does anyone know of any Banks /Building Societies that offer just an account that the wife and I, can each open a separate account so we can just transfer an FMISA S&S monetary value out of Fidelity to a Cash ISA. we have already funded a 2 year fixed rate term cash ISAs for this year. It would purely be a transfer of existing funds.

I didn't know if we would have to just leave the the above transaction till next April 6th 2025 ish. 

I know if ReAssure was to do the sales transaction, selling the S&S FMISAs it will loose its tax free status as they state that they cannot make payments in ISA accounts.

I have done a few searchers on the internet and i am confused, although it doesn't take allot to confuse me

Again sorry for the naiveté in this subject. and thanks in advance.

badger09

DontCountChickins said:

Hi 

I was wondered if anyone could help with this question in relation to my first post 25th July,

Can these S&S FMISA held by Fidelity one in my name and one in my wife's name, possibly be sold and transfer them into Cash ISAs, I did ask Fidelity if they did cash ISAs products but it became a bit confusing and I was left with the impression that they don't do cash ISAs.

Does anyone know of any Banks /Building Societies that offer just an account that the wife and I, can each open a separate account so we can just transfer an FMISA S&S monetary value out of Fidelity to a Cash ISA. we have already funded a 2 year fixed rate term cash ISAs for this year. It would purely be a transfer of existing funds.

I didn't know if we would have to just leave the the above transaction till next April 6th 2025 ish. 

I know if ReAssure was to do the sales transaction, selling the S&S FMISAs it will loose its tax free status as they state that they cannot make payments in ISA accounts.

I have done a few searchers on the internet and i am confused, although it doesn't take allot to confuse me

Again sorry for the naiveté in this subject. and thanks in advance.

@dunstonh explained earlier that what you have held for many years is an S&S ISA plus a (separate) life insurance policy. 

An S&S ISA is simply a tax wrapper, inside which you can hold various assets, funds, shares etc. I assume the assets in yours were chosen by ReAssure or their predecessors. It may be that those funds are specific to ReAssure so it’s not possible to transfer them as they are (called an in specie transfer) as no other S&S provider offers them. So, in order to transfer, they would have to be sold to cash. This would still be within the S&S ISA wrapper, so keep the tax free status. 

I don’t know exactly what ReAssure said, but I think you’ve misunderstood.

If the funds are sold & you withdraw the proceeds to your bank accounts, the tax free status is lost. 

However if you want to transfer to a different S&S provider, you choose your provider, open a new S&S ISA with them and complete their transfer form where there will be an option to transfer as cash. 

If you want to transfer to cash ISAs, again, you choose your provider, open a cash ISA and complete their transfer form. 

If you do this, you will keep the tax free status. 

Apologies for the essay & hope I haven’t confused you further. 

Albermarle

Apologies for the essay & hope I haven’t confused you further. 

Possibly as the S&S ISA's were an L&G product that were transferred to Fidelity as part of their deal a couple of years ago,

I think Reassure were only involved with the life assurance element ?

Albermarle

DontCountChickins said:

Hi 

I was wondered if anyone could help with this question in relation to my first post 25th July,

Can these S&S FMISA held by Fidelity one in my name and one in my wife's name, possibly be sold and transfer them into Cash ISAs, I did ask Fidelity if they did cash ISAs products but it became a bit confusing and I was left with the impression that they don't do cash ISAs. Fidelity are an investment platform, not a savings provider, so do not offer cash ISA's 

Does anyone know of any Banks /Building Societies that offer just an account that the wife and I, can each open a separate account so we can just transfer an FMISA S&S monetary value out of Fidelity to a Cash ISA. we have already funded a 2 year fixed rate term cash ISAs for this year. It would purely be a transfer of existing funds. There are numerous savings/cash ISA  providers who will accept transfers in from S&S ISA's . The ones that do not would be the exception.

I didn't know if we would have to just leave the the above transaction till next April 6th 2025 ish. No

I know if ReAssure was to do the sales transaction, selling the S&S FMISAs it will loose its tax free status as they state that they cannot make payments in ISA accounts.

I have done a few searchers on the internet and i am confused, although it doesn't take allot to confuse me

Again sorry for the naiveté in this subject. and thanks in advance.

What you want to do should be straightforward. Pick your preferred cash ISA provider. Open an account and request a transfer in. If they say we do not accept transfers from S&S ISA, try somewhere else.
You do not have to contact Fidelity, they will receive instructions from the cash ISA provider, cash in your investments and transfer the money.

My question is why do you want to transfer the S&S ISA's to cash ISA's ? Normally it is good to have a mix of cash and investments.

xylophone

Example

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/help/transfer-stocks-and-shares-isa/