APS ISAs - Any Point?

bigalxyz

fuzzzzy said:

I doubt any provider will have an APS ISA paying the equivalent of their top rate as it is a niche product.

Get your mum to open a legacy cash ISA with Skipton, like goodread did in the earlier post, (or any other provider who does APS ISAs). The Skipton one currently pays 3.3%. They will ask her to fill in a form saying where the APS allowance is coming from. They will contact Kent Reliance to confirm what her allowance is and then give her permission to pay that amount into the legacy cash ISA. Once all the money has been paid in begin a transfer out to a higher paying ISA.

Thank you. So to check my understanding - if Skipton BS are able to verify all the APS eligibility stuff with the previous bank (Kent Reliance), then the new Skipton Cash ISA would behave like a normal ISA from there on, and so afterwards my mum could transfer it to another provider (paying a better interest rate) in the normal ISA way without APS stuff ever coming into the equation?

That could be a good solution actually. My mum is a bit "old skool" with banking - she likes being able to go into a branch and talk to people (and there is a branch near her house). She's not a big fan of mobile phone banking, apps, internet stuff, etc. It's fair enough really - she's from a generation where face to face stuff was the norm, and my dad took care of all their money stuff anyway so she's struggling a bit now that he's not around.

Anyway I'll suggest this to her and see what she thinks.

Thank you.

spreadsheeterapple

bigalxyz said:

Kent Reliance said they don't have any APS products so they were just going to release the money to me (as the executor). The woman I spoke to on the phone said that I could use that money to open up new ISAs with a suitable provider (ie one that accepts APS stuff) and that the new provider could contact Kent Reliance to verify that the money came from my dead father's ISAs blah blah...it's all very clunky.

A note of caution here: just because a staff member has told you something, doesn't mean the information is reliable or accurate, plus it was by phone so there would be little proof if you needed it.

Staff can get it wrong, they can be well-meaning but may have not been well-trained, nor understand it properly.
What she said does NOT sound right, because ISAs & their transfers are subject to very strict rules.

I'm afraid I don't know the exact transfer processes for APS ISAs because they post-date when I'd already left work in the banking sector, but I would advise going into it further and getting it in writing if you want to proceed on the basis of what Kent Reliance are saying.

fuzzzzy

bigalxyz said:

fuzzzzy said:

I doubt any provider will have an APS ISA paying the equivalent of their top rate as it is a niche product.

Get your mum to open a legacy cash ISA with Skipton, like goodread did in the earlier post, (or any other provider who does APS ISAs). The Skipton one currently pays 3.3%. They will ask her to fill in a form saying where the APS allowance is coming from. They will contact Kent Reliance to confirm what her allowance is and then give her permission to pay that amount into the legacy cash ISA. Once all the money has been paid in begin a transfer out to a higher paying ISA.

Thank you. So to check my understanding - if Skipton BS are able to verify all the APS eligibility stuff with the previous bank (Kent Reliance), then the new Skipton Cash ISA would behave like a normal ISA from there on, and so afterwards my mum could transfer it to another provider (paying a better interest rate) in the normal ISA way without APS stuff ever coming into the equation?

That could be a good solution actually. My mum is a bit "old skool" with banking - she likes being able to go into a branch and talk to people (and there is a branch near her house). She's not a big fan of mobile phone banking, apps, internet stuff, etc. It's fair enough really - she's from a generation where face to face stuff was the norm, and my dad took care of all their money stuff anyway so she's struggling a bit now that he's not around.

Anyway I'll suggest this to her and see what she thinks.

Thank you.

Yes we did this for my mother a few years back with Skipton - you will be able to transfer it out like a normal cash ISA once all the money has been paid in.

Unfortunately you might find that the counter staff are not that clued up about APS ISAs though, so be prepared for them not to be able to answer all your questions, and ask to speak to someone in branch who is an expert if you encounter any problems. To be fair to Skipton though we found this was the case with most counter staff at every bank / building society where we enquired about the workings of APS ISAs. We also did get some duff advice from them from a telephone advisor which held us up a bit but they sorted everything out in the end and paid out more than reasonable compensation after a complaint, so overall I was happy with them.

fuzzzzy

spreadsheeterapple said:

bigalxyz said:

Kent Reliance said they don't have any APS products so they were just going to release the money to me (as the executor). The woman I spoke to on the phone said that I could use that money to open up new ISAs with a suitable provider (ie one that accepts APS stuff) and that the new provider could contact Kent Reliance to verify that the money came from my dead father's ISAs blah blah...it's all very clunky.

A note of caution here: just because a staff member has told you something, doesn't mean the information is reliable or accurate, plus it was by phone so there would be little proof if you needed it.

Staff can get it wrong, they can be well-meaning but may have not been well-trained, nor understand it properly.
What she said does NOT sound right, because ISAs & their transfers are subject to very strict rules.

I'm afraid I don't know the exact transfer processes for APS ISAs because they post-date when I'd already left work in the banking sector, but I would advise going into it further and getting it in writing if you want to proceed on the basis of what Kent Reliance are saying.

In this case I think the Kent Reliance advisor is correct. For APS ISAs you inherit an additional ISA allowance based on the value of your deceased spouse's ISAs. You don't have to do an actual transfer of the ISA - in fact the spouse gets the additional allowance even if the cash / shares in the ISA are left to someone else.

You are correct though that you should always be careful when taking advice from staff members. I always keep notes of the timing of a call and what was said, which is helpful when making a complaint for compensation, as I find calls are often recorded. It is also probably a good idea to check information through web chat as then you can keep a transcript of the advice given.

bigalxyz

fuzzzzy said:

bigalxyz said:

fuzzzzy said:

I doubt any provider will have an APS ISA paying the equivalent of their top rate as it is a niche product.

Get your mum to open a legacy cash ISA with Skipton, like goodread did in the earlier post, (or any other provider who does APS ISAs). The Skipton one currently pays 3.3%. They will ask her to fill in a form saying where the APS allowance is coming from. They will contact Kent Reliance to confirm what her allowance is and then give her permission to pay that amount into the legacy cash ISA. Once all the money has been paid in begin a transfer out to a higher paying ISA.

Thank you. So to check my understanding - if Skipton BS are able to verify all the APS eligibility stuff with the previous bank (Kent Reliance), then the new Skipton Cash ISA would behave like a normal ISA from there on, and so afterwards my mum could transfer it to another provider (paying a better interest rate) in the normal ISA way without APS stuff ever coming into the equation?

That could be a good solution actually. My mum is a bit "old skool" with banking - she likes being able to go into a branch and talk to people (and there is a branch near her house). She's not a big fan of mobile phone banking, apps, internet stuff, etc. It's fair enough really - she's from a generation where face to face stuff was the norm, and my dad took care of all their money stuff anyway so she's struggling a bit now that he's not around.

Anyway I'll suggest this to her and see what she thinks.

Thank you.

Yes we did this for my mother a few years back with Skipton - you will be able to transfer it out like a normal cash ISA once all the money has been paid in.

Unfortunately you might find that the counter staff are not that clued up about APS ISAs though, so be prepared for them not to be able to answer all your questions, and ask to speak to someone in branch who is an expert if you encounter any problems. To be fair to Skipton though we found this was the case with most counter staff at every bank / building society where we enquired about the workings of APS ISAs. We also did get some duff advice from them from a telephone advisor which held us up a bit but they sorted everything out in the end and paid out more than reasonable compensation after a complaint, so overall I was happy with them.

Thank you. I've given my mum all the info she needs to hopefully go to her local branch of Skipton BS on Thursday. Fingers crossed. She's had her current account with Santander for years, and it turns out they have a similar "Inheritance ISA" product as well (with a similarly disappointing interest rate) - had I twigged, I would probably have suggested she go to her Santander branch instead because she knows the staff in there and trusts them etc. Oh well. No matter - that can be Plan B. At any rate I don't expect the new ISA account will be open all that long because the next time I visit her I hope to get all the funds transferred to something more competitive. That'll probably involve doing everything online, which she won't fancy doing herself, but it won't need much attention and I can do that stuff for her very easily.