Transferring Stocks & Shares from 1 broker to another

1spiral

In 2023 I transferred a stocks and shares ISA from II to Iweb.

Today I logged into the II platform to look for some historical information from the account. I was surprised to see that I had just over a £100 in it. Surprise turned to anger when looking through the history to see that shortly after the transfer a dividend and some interest was credited to the account totalling £475 Since that date II have been taking their monthly fee such that they have taken around £375 in total.

My question is is it normal that a full isa transfer of stocks and shares does not result in the follow on of dividends credited after the transfer is complete?

dunstonh

My question is is it normal that a full isa transfer of stocks and shares does not result in the follow on of dividends credited after the transfer is complete?

Yes.Completely normal.

This is why they keep the account open and issue the quarterly statements for you to read. You can then either withdraw the residual balance or ask for a residual balance transfer.

masonic

When I last left II, they made quite a song and dance about the fact they'd closed my last account and that I'd have 6 weeks to log in or view any of my documents before my access would be terminated.

It turned out they made a mess of one of my historic trades (over 10 years ago), so have recently been in touch as they are going to have to issue me a cheque for the amount they short-changed me.

I was under the impression that pending dividends would normally be sent to the new provider when they arrived. That's what AJ Bell did when I transferred my SIPP to Fidelity. In that case I wouldn't have minded keeping the account open as I always intended to go back (and did so a couple of years later).

Did you always have the fee taken from the ISA? Or was it originally by DD, which you cancelled?

vacheron

All of the the providers I have switched to "in specie" over the last 5 or so years have forwarded dividends to the new provider where the transfer has occurred after the ex-dividend date. Sometimes it took a couple of weeks, but I have never had to go back and look for the dividend. (I may have just been lucky with the providers I chose though).

I also tend to do full transfers rather than transferring partial shares. It may be that when a full transfer happens, the outgoing provider sets up a universal dividend sweep instruction to the new incoming account?

phlebas192

If you requested to transfer the entire ISA then, yes, dividends that were ex-div before the transfer but paid afterwards should be transferred to the new provider - that has always happened with transfers I have done and is implicit in the request to transfer the entire ISA. OTOH, if you had specifically requested that only the holdings should be transferred (ie a partial transfer) then obviously nothing else would be transferred, including dividend payments.

If it was a full transfer request then I would complain to ii and require them to put you back in the same position as if they had promptly completed it.

1spiral

Thank you for all the replies.

I certainly was of the understanding that it was a full transfer. There were shares and cash within the isa and had it been a partial transfer, I would've had to have listed those individually. That was not the case. After the transfer there were 0 shares and 0 cash remaining. Fees were always debited from the isa prior to the transfer. The irony here is that the transfer was made to avoid the fees but I have still been (unknown to me) paying them from the deposited dividend.

Complaint has been raised.

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067574#Comment_82067574

I wonder if they would have taken your account into negative balance and started charging interest once the money ran out.

GeoffTF

It was a long time ago, but when I transferred an account from TD Direct to iWeb, I had stranded dividend. TD Direct had to reopen my account, convert the dividend and transfer it over. The big platforms can now do electronic transfers. Perhaps that would have prevented the problem. Nonetheless, always check that all your investments and any dividends have been transferred. I recently transferred an account from HL to Scottish Widows Share Dealing (as iWeb is now called). It took under a week. I have not checked to see whether my HL login still works, but I am hoping to get a quarterly statement and a tax certificate in due course.

masonic

HL don't disable online access, and they only recently restricted document history to 6 years. Earlier this year I was able to fill some gaps in my quarterly statements going back to 2005.

jaybeetoo

When I’ve transferred trading, ISA and SIPP accounts between providers, any dividends paid to the old provider after the transfer, have followed on to the new provider.

granta

Same as others above, for any full transfer out, I have been told that the account would be put into 'closing' mode and a dividend sweep done to move them to the new provider.

However, in practise, several times, this has not happened and has resulted in me having to follow up. Usually, they have apologised and sent me a goodwill/inconvenience payment as they recognised that it was their responsibility to send on the payment.

The ii fee charge is odd though because they do not charge a fee if you only hold cash with them. This has been my past experience with them. Hopefully they will refund it back to you.