We accept ISA transfers from all brokers and banks. If you want to transfer investments from your GIA (non-ISA account), please see How to transfer my portfolio?.

Transferring into Lightyear

Currently, we can’t facilitate a direct Stocks & Shares transfer – this means that when you transfer your ISA to Lightyear, your existing broker will sell your holdings before sending the proceeds onto Lightyear. Once the funds are in your Lightyear Stocks & Shares ISA, you can rebuy your stocks and funds.

Note that transferring in this way will not affect your ISA allowance for the current tax year, as your funds remain in the ISA wrapper throughout the process. For this reason, it's important not to withdraw the proceeds as cash, or move them to a non-ISA account. Doing so would mean that any subsequent deposits into your Lightyear ISA would count against your ISA allowance for this tax year.

Here's how to transfer your Stocks & Shares ISA to Lightyear:

1. To start the cash transfer, go to your profile view on mobile or web and hit “Transfer your Portfolio”.
2. You’ll be prompted to select the account you currently hold with the other provider and provide details about your transfer.

We’ll do our best to keep you in the loop via the transaction tracker, app notifications and emails.

Transfers out of Lightyear

At the moment, we can’t facilitate a direct Stocks & Shares transfer. Currently, transferring your ISA out of Lightyear requires selling your holdings and moving the funds as cash to your new provider, where you can reinvest in shares if you wish.

The request needs to be initiated through the provider you are switching to. Once you’ve submitted it and they are ready to start the process, they will contact our team and we’ll coordinate your ISA transfer. We’ll contact you via email.

How long does it take?

For transfers into Lightyear, there are only a few steps required from you to initiate the transfer in our app. The time it takes for transfers to appear in your Lightyear ISA may vary, and it often depends on the practices of your existing broker. If your existing broker uses older systems, the process may take longer or involve additional complexities.

How much does it cost?

We don’t charge you for an ISA cash transfer in or out of Lightyear. Your other provider may impose charges and we recommend consulting with them before submitting transfer requests.

Additionally, kindly note that as we currently only process cash transfers, the process may incur trading fees, FX fees and market loss.

Read also: Individual Savings Account (ISA).