Transferring a LISA?

LeadFarmer

I opened my sons first stocks and shares LISA with Vanguard via Hargreaves Lansdown last year and will do the same again this year but I might choose a different Vanguard fund with HL. We are planning to use it towards his pension.

Is it normal and sensible when opening a new one to transfer in an existing LISA so they are all together in one single fund and platform?

someone

LISA’s have a minimum age limit of 18 and as such your son needs to be involved in the decisions around it.

The wording here is slightly off, the son is at least 18. As an adult he should already be taking his own decisions about his personal finances. There could be reasons this isn’t the case but it wasn’t mentioned (nor was it mentioned when a past thread about bank accounts when he came to be 16).

LISAs have a partial downside for long term savings to pensions, they count towards your savings for benefits even though there are penalties for withdrawing. He needs to be aware of this.

LeadFarmer

yes, he’s 19 years old, but it’s my money that im giving him to invest to help him with his future finances as he’s on a low apprenticeship wage and isn’t able to fund the investments himself, hence why I'm doing some research as well as him.

I’d rather help him now whilst he’s young than him wait decades for an inheritance that isn’t guaranteed

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6664201/transferring-a-lisa

Why open a new LISA? Can't you / your son just add to the existing LISA?

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6664201/transferring-a-lisa

I think you are a bit confused with how it works.

HL is the Investment platform that offers a LISA, you can then pick any of the thousands of investments available on the HL platform to hold within the LISA ( including Vanguard ones amongst many others)

So I think what you mean is that ' I opened my sons first stocks and shares LISA with Hargreaves Lansdown, and invested the money in a Vanguard fund within that LISA'

If you want to buy a different Vanguard fund, just do that via the LISA you already have with Hargreaves Lansdown.

LeadFarmer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963647#Comment_81963647

yes we could, but as we are now more aware of all the different Vanguard funds available we might prefer a different one.
If so i assume we’d open a different Vanguard fund via HL and could then transfer the other one to it?

eskbanker

If you buy a different Vanguard fund with this year's money then you can choose to switch the other holding into it if it's seen as more appropriate for the investment objectives, but there's no obligation to:

https://www.hl.co.uk/help/buying-selling-investments/funds/switch-funds

It may seem pedantic but this process is nothing to do with 'transferring a LISA'!

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963909#Comment_81963909

You can use the same LISA platform that you already have - no need to open a new one.

If you don't like the Vanguard fund you already have, use the fund switch process linked above, Or you can just sell it, inside the LISA. A few days after the sale you get settlement, meaning you now have cash in the LISA that you can do with as you please - e.g. to buy another fund that you like better.

This is all completely independent of making a 2026-27 contribution. For that, you deposit your new contribution into the existing LISA, then buy whatever fund you like.

If you want to buy the same fund for your last year's and this year's contribution, you might want to do this in one go, as this might you save in dealing charges (not sure whether it doe, I haven't checked the HL terms).

Of course, if you do not like the HL LISA platform, and want to move to a different LISA provider, things are different. But I don't want to confuse matters by describing the steps for that, as I think you just want to chose a different fund, as per above.

LeadFarmer

Thanks everyone.

If we choose a different fund for this years LISA we'll be keeping it with HL and Vanguard again.

So am I right that…

all we'd then do once the new fund is open is follow the advice in the link above posted by eskbanker and the previous years LISA money will be transferred into the new LISA without pushing him over this years 20k threshold?

eskbanker

So am I right that…

all we'd then do once the new fund is open is follow the advice in the link above posted by eskbanker and the previous years LISA money will be transferred into the new LISA without pushing him over this years 20k threshold?

At the risk of labouring the point, there's no new LISA and no transfer! Within the existing HL LISA, you'd be switching the old Vanguard investment into a different one…

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964573#Comment_81964573

Suggest you read through the thread again very carefully…..