# ISA transfers. Done for you. Painless, paperwork-free and it doesn’t affect your £20k annual allowance. Just give us a few details and we’ll do the rest. When you invest, your capital is at risk. Your provider may charge exit fees. ## Why transfer to Lightyear? It’s all done for you and doesn’t leave you out of pocket. ### ISA Transfers - We'll handle it for you: Our team will work with your current provider to transfer your ISA. - Free to transfer: Moving your ISA to us is free. Your current provider may charge exit fees. - ISA allowance unaffected: Transferring an ISA does not affect your £20k annual allowance. ## What’s the process? Until the day they send us your ISA, you’ll be able access your ISA with your current provider. ### You tell us about your ISA We only need a few details to get things moving. These can be found in the website or app of your current provider. ### We contact your provider Our UK-based team gets to work and arranges a date to transfer your ISA. You’ll receive email updates throughout the process, and can keep track within your Lightyear account. ### Your ISA arrives Once they arrive, your investments and cash are ready for use. ## How long will it take? After starting your transfer, we wait for your current provider to transfer your funds. Some are faster than others. Based on all Lightyear ISA transfers completed up to 1 June 2026. ## Our ISAs Maximise tax-free allowances with our ISAs ### Stocks & Shares ISA - No order fees on ETFs - Flexible ISA - 3.85% AER through Vaults ### Cash ISA - 3.75% AER interest - Flexible ISA - No withdrawal penalties ## Protection and regulation Trusting us with your investments is something we don’t take for granted. ### Regulated and insured - Regulated by the FCA: We're authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority ([FRN 987226](https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0014G000034WTPOQA4)). - FSCS protection: Lightyear is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). FSCS deposit protection applies to client money only where held with UK banks, not where held in QMMFs. [Learn more here](/help/deposits-conversions-and-withdrawals/how-are-my-assets-protected). ### Safeguarding your assets - We safeguard your cash: Customer funds are held in a mix of Citibank and NatWest bank deposits and AAA-rated Qualifying Money Market Funds. Your money is always kept separate from ours. FSCS protection applies to client money only where held with UK banks, not where held in QMMFs. [Learn more here](/help/deposits-conversions-and-withdrawals/how-are-my-assets-protected). - Your assets are yours, no one else's: You are the beneficial owner of all your investments, and your assets are held in separate accounts. Your assets can't be touched by our creditors and in the unlikely event of Lightyear's insolvency, everything is returned to you. ## Questions a curious investor might ask Frequently asked ### Will transferring an ISA affect my annual allowance? ISA transfers **do not** affect your annual ISA allowance 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 the current tax year. ### Do you offer partial ISA transfers? Your transfer request will be set up as a full transfer. Lightyear doesn't let you choose specific investments to transfer from another broker, but you will be given the option of how to proceed for any investments Lightyear does not support. We'll ask you whether you’d like to transfer the value of unsupported investments as cash or if you'd prefer to leave them where they are. There is a minimum value of £500 on cash transfers and £1000 on in-specie transfers in. ### Will I have access to my funds during a transfer? It depends what sort of transfer you're doing, and on what actions your old broker allows during transfers. - **Cash ISA transfer**: Your funds may be inaccessible for a short period while the funds are moving from your old broker to Lightyear. This part of the process typically takes just a few days, but could be over a week. - **Stocks and Shares ISA transfer**: If you're transferring investments in-specie (i.e. without selling them), you usually won’t be able to trade until we receive the assets from your old broker. If you opt to transfer your assets as cash (e.g. if your current assets aren't supported on Lightyear), your old broker will sell your assets for you before executing the transfer. During the period where they're 'in flight' from your old broker, you may miss market movements while your money is out of the market. ### Is Lightyear a bank? Lightyear is not a bank. We’re an investment platform, so there are a couple of key differences. While we’re regulated by the same authorities as banks, the protection schemes are slightly different for investment platforms [(see here)](/help/deposits-conversions-and-withdrawals/how-are-my-assets-protected). With regards to customer funds, we cannot use customer money in the same way a bank does by lending it out. You have instant access to your Lightyear assets because of this. ### How easy is it to withdraw my money? Easy. We ensure you always have access to your money and we've made the process pretty painless for when you need to withdraw. Once requested, withdrawals may take up to 2 business days to be sent out to your requested bank account. Once sent out, the transfer time depends on the payout method: - For GBP, your funds should typically arrive within 0-2 business hours. - For EUR, your funds should arrive within 0-2 business days. - For USD, your funds will arrive after 3-5 business days. As it's a [SWIFT payment](/help/deposits-conversions-and-withdrawals/swift-payments) it may take longer, so contact your receiving bank for an estimation. ### Do I need financial advice? Lightyear doesn't offer investment advice; i.e. we don't assess if our services or instruments are suitable for you. But we do provide info about what we offer – e.g. our Target Market Matrix which describes investor types based on their investment experience, financial objectives and how much risk they're comfortable with – to help you decide what investments might work best for you. You'll need to make sure your investment decisions meet your needs and amount of investment risk you're happy to take. If you don't feel you have the necessary knowledge and experience to make those decisions for yourself, you may want to get independent financial advice instead. --- Canonical: https://lightyear.com/en-gb/transfer-portfolio-to-lightyear