I asked ChatGPT to simplify and sort out my investments

michaels

I tried my situation with chatgpt. I had to specially mention a large number of parameters and constraints to have them included, things like dc pots coming under the scope of iht in future and the potential for inflation drag to make switching funds from pension to isa earlier rather than later being tax effective - ie if I knew the problem constraints then it could model them but it didn't pick up on them by default - thus it is no use for the 'unknown unknowns'. So anyone with a spreadsheet and the correct knowledge could do just as well.

fizio

I think my conclusion seems to be that AI definitely has a place in decision making and will only get better with time. The paid version of ChatGPT is much better than the free version and it’s likely that this trend will continue.

As long as due diligence and cross checking is done then plus the person is reasonably clued up then it can be a great tool.

No different to people asking questions in this or other forums and getting an array of answers that they need to filter and adapt to their situation

I happen to use it in most situations as my starting point when I need to do something new or different - basically replaced Google and forums etc as a much quicker way to get things going and the continuous conversation makes it easier to go down particular options and narrow things down to be more specific.

Nothing wrong with others having a different approach

phlebas192

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81893214#Comment_81893214

The main difference between an IFA and AI (or a random poster on a forum or the bloke down the pub, etc) is that the IFA has professional indemnity insurance. If they give bad advice and you lose out as a result then you can be recompensed. The insurer requires the IFA to have at least a basic level of competence and to keep abreast of the relevent legislation. I imagine this contributes substantially to the IFA's costs. You are never going to get this with AI.

That's the key point - AI is just you making your own decisions albeit with the help of a tool and if it gets it wrong and you rely on it then it is you that has made the mistake. Not anyone else. Although I can forsee the day when an AI lawyer launches a class action lawsuit against the very AI that is powering it…

[For the record, I'm not an IFA (or FA) and have never used either]

cfw1994

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81893871#Comment_81893871

https://www.perplexity.ai gave what I feel was a decent reply to that same question: the comments like "wealthify+2" indicates sources that I can easily click and see 👍

"
Yes, you can, but only if you do it as a formal ISA transfer, not by withdrawing the £20,000 yourself and then paying it into the new ISA.

Key points

• Moving money between ISA providers using their official transfer process does not count as a new subscription and does not use any of your £20,000 allowance for 2025–26.ajbell.co+3
• This applies to stocks and shares ISAs, including moving from one provider’s flexible stocks and shares ISA to another provider’s stocks and shares ISA. The flexibility feature is irrelevant if you use the transfer route; it’s simply an ISA transfer.wealthify+2
• If you instead withdraw the £20,000 to your bank account and then pay it into a different ISA, that payment will normally be treated as a new contribution and will use up (part or all of) your 2025–26 ISA allowance, even if the original ISA is flexible.ajbell.co+1

Special note on “flexible” rules

• Flexible ISA rules mainly let you withdraw and then replace money into the same ISA in the same tax year without using extra allowance.charles-stanley.co​
• There have been rule changes discussed allowing some withdrawn current‑year subscriptions from a flexible ISA to be re‑contributed to a different ISA, but the safe, HMRC‑compliant way to move £20,000 without any impact on your allowance is still to use the providers’ transfer process rather than withdrawing and re‑subscribing.reddit+2

What you should do

1. Open (or choose) the new stocks and shares ISA provider you want.
2. Ask the new provider to arrange a transfer from your existing flexible stocks and shares ISA, specifying £20,000 (partial transfer) or the full balance.blog.investengine+2
3. Do not withdraw the money yourself; let the transfer happen directly between providers so it does not count as a new contribution.co+3

If you confirm exactly how much you’ve contributed so far in 2025–26 and whether you’ve used other ISAs, I can outline what your remaining allowance would be under different options.

"

Tools like these certainly give useful sounding boards, I feel, and for some might already offer enough to negate the need for IFAs. I find perplexity pretty good to use for this kind of thing. Plus you can go back a day or a month later and follow up a "conversation".

PropertyGuru_Wannabe

Gemini gives this answer:

In short: Yes, you can do this, but only because you are moving current-year money.

As of the 2025-2026 tax year, the rules around moving money between ISAs have become much more relaxed. However, there is a very specific logic you need to follow to ensure you don't accidentally blow your allowance.  

The "Current Year" Exception

The key to your plan is that the £20,000 you are depositing is current-year money (money paid in since April 6, 2025).   

• Rule A (Multiple ISAs): You are now allowed to open and pay into multiple ISAs of the same type (e.g., two different Stocks & Shares ISAs) in the same tax year.  

• Rule B (The "Net" Contribution): When you withdraw current-year contributions from a Flexible ISA, it effectively "undoes" that contribution.

If you deposit £20k and then withdraw £20k the next day, your "net" contribution to that first ISA for the year is £0.

• This leaves your full £20,000 annual allowance available to be used elsewhere.

The Critical "Previous Year" Trap

If that £20,000 had been sitting in your ISA since before April 2025, your plan would fail.

• Old Money can only be replaced into the exact same account it was taken from.  

• If you withdraw £20k of "old" money and try to put it into a new platform, it counts as a brand-new £20k contribution, effectively using up your entire allowance for the 2025-2026 year.

This link corroborates what Gemini and MSE has stated about flexible stocks and shares ISA’s.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/smart-investor/accounts/investment-isa/isas-are-more-flexible-than-ever/

How is it different?

Many ISAs already allow you to get your hands on your money if you want to, but before the rules changed, any money taken out and paid back into the ISA still used up part of your annual ISA limit. If you'd already reached the limit of your allowance for this tax year, you wouldn't be allowed to put any more back in.

Under flexible ISA rules, you can take money out and still put it back, provided you pay it back in the same tax year. Effectively any withdrawals first reduce your current year contributions, and if you withdraw more than you’ve paid in this year then you create a ‘flexible allowance’.

For example, let’s say you have £40,000 in a cash ISA, made up of £35,000 built up over previous tax years, and £5,000 deposited in the current tax year. That leaves £15,000 of this year’s allowance. If you withdrew £10,000 from your ISA, you could put in another £25,000 in this tax year, made up of £10,000 that’s been withdrawn, and the remaining £15,000 allowance.

You can only pay back in withdrawals that relate to previous years’ subscriptions to the same ISA they were taken from. However, if you withdraw the full amount of your current year’s subscription, you could then pay this into any current year ISA.

You have the option to pay money into more than one of the same type of ISA in the same tax year.

Take a look at your Smart Investor online statement to see your current year allowance - this combines current year and flexible ISA allowance meaning that it takes account of any withdrawals that you have made from your account. You can make payments online or by phone if you’d prefer.

Cus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894050#Comment_81894050

It's a tool, it relies on the user to use the tool properly

michaels

Nope, thanks for that, you basically confirmed my assumptions although it therefore does make me wonder whether I led you to a conclusion that matched my own and whether the same would have happened should I have started with an alternative conclusion?

Exactly — what you’re describing is a kind of confirmation bias in human–AI interaction.

LLMs like me are highly responsive to the context and framing of your inputs:

• If your assumptions, constraints, and reasoning lead in a particular direction, I will reason consistently from those premises.
• I don’t independently “choose” a conclusion; I generate outputs that follow logically from the information and priorities you provide.
• If you had started with a different premise or proposed an alternative scenario, I would likely have arrived at a different conclusion — still internally consistent, but tailored to the new framing.

This is important because:

• It shows that the model is sensitive to framing, which is useful for scenario modelling.
• It also means that AI outputs shouldn’t be interpreted as inherently “correct”, but rather as reasoned outputs conditional on your input assumptions.
• It mirrors human reasoning in structured domains: different starting points or risk preferences yield different conclusions.

In other words, AI reasoning is reflective of the modelled assumptions, not independent verification.

Aminatidi

The Claude take on it as all these models are fascinating.

Question posted was.

'Can I take £20000 out of my flexible stocks and shares ISA account platform and place it into a different flexible stocks and shares ISA account platform in the tax year 2025-2026 without it counting as a new contribution?'

Answer was.

This is a great question that touches on two distinct ISA concepts — flexibility and transfers — and it's important not to confuse them.The answer depends on a few important details, so let me break this down.

The formal transfer route (recommended)

If you use the official ISA transfer process — where you instruct the new provider to request the transfer from your old provider — your money moves across without it counting as a new subscription at all. This is the standard way to move ISA holdings between platforms and it preserves your full allowance. It works regardless of whether the money is from the current year or previous years.

The withdraw-and-redeposit route (what your question describes)

This is where it gets more nuanced. A regulation change came into effect on 15 July 2025 that updated how flexible ISA replacement rules work:

• Current tax year subscriptions (money you deposited during 2025-2026): Current tax year subscriptions withdrawn from a flexible ISA may be replaced by subscribing to the same ISA or any other ISA in that same tax year. So if you put £20,000 into a flexible ISA this year and withdraw it, you can now redeposit it into a differentISA without it counting as a new contribution.
• Previous tax year subscriptions (money from earlier years): If the amount withdrawn exceeds the current tax year's subscriptions, the excess is treated as a withdrawal of previous year funds and can only be replaced as a replacement subscription to the same ISA. So older money must go back into the same ISA, not a different one.
• Withdrawal ordering matters: Funds withdrawn are always treated as coming from current year subscriptions first, then previous years' subscriptions.

What this means for your £20,000

If you deposited the full £20,000 during 2025-2026, you can withdraw it and place it into a different ISA platform without it counting as a new contribution (under the new July 2025 rules). But if any of that £20,000 is from previous tax years, the portion attributed to prior years can only be replaced into the original ISA.

In practice, I'd strongly recommend using a formal ISA transfer rather than withdrawing and redepositing. It avoids all these complications and there's no risk of accidentally using up your allowance or missing the tax year deadline.

I should note I'm not a financial adviser — if the amounts or timing are important to you, it may be worth confirming the specifics with your ISA provider or a qualified adviser.

QQQQQQQQ_Y

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894502#Comment_81894502

The other area where AI falls down currently is in the quality of the data input model. AI cannot differentiate between authoritative sources and non-authoritative sources - the difference between data from HMRC and some random ramblings of a crackpot, and if there are multiple crackpots out there it will simply view this as a source of information, whereas an informed person or a professional should (in theory) evaluate and dismiss nonsense regardless of how many different sources there are.

There are suggestions that AI modelling should give greater weight to certain sources but this remains very early stages in its development. Additional to this, is that AI has no practical way currently to update its data based on time-based changes to factual information.

The practical implications of this are that recommendations from multiple AI's can be hopelessly wrong. For example I asked various different AI engines shortly after the last budget what were the implications for ISA changes for those who retire in the year in which the ISA rules change. The Chancellor has stated that the limits for cash ISA were reducing, but had at the time had not published information on how this would affect this cohort of people. Those who were already of retirement age would be unaffected, those who were below the retirement age would have the new allowance, but there was no information on those who would retire in that tax year.

My reasoning was there were likely to be one of about 3 scenarios:-

These people would receive none of the cash ISA allowance at all

These people would receive a proportion of the cash ISA allowance (e.g. retire in April get 11/12ths etc.)

These people would receive all of the cash ISA allowance.

When I asked various AI engines they all provided completely different answers. Some were adamant that the cohort would get nothing and confidently told me the government had stated this (they hadn't), when prompted these engines referred me to HMRC links, when I pointed out the links gave no information on this issue they then started to prevaricate. When pressed these engines admitted there was no definitive information on the subject and that they were effectively making it up (i.e. known as "hallucinating" in LLM jargon).

When pressed further these engines acknowledged the "definitive" information which they had given so confidently was wrong, was not based in fact, and was at best supposition.

This is not to say that AI tools won't improve in accuracy, but currently the responses can be highly questionable because the data may be inaccurate, out of date, or simply wrong and the AI has no real capacity to evaluate. Moreover, because these are systems programmed by people they will inevitably contain their unconscious bias - even at a very basic level - such as spelling and grammar where questions about offences in the UK come back with misqoutes around "offenses" and references to UK law (the law in England and Wales differs from the law in Scotland in many major areas).

Whether they will improve inexorably is open to question or whether perhaps they begin to specialise (and people pay a fee for their maintenance) is another question. But currently, most AI has serious flaws which it is unable to correct but will confidently dispense answers which may or may not be useful.

fizio

there are plenty of articles with data showing the younger generations are increasingly using AI for financial advice so the genie is already out of the bottle.
Given that, in my opinion, much more dubious financial advice is dished out on platforms like TikTok I would say AI is ‘better’ than many alternatives.
The focus should be much more on how to use these platforms more carefully rather than the stock answer of ‘go and see an expert’