It is not long until the end of this tax year. This is always a good time to sit down and assess your financial situation and evaluate your existing ISAs.

Many people consider switching their ISA provider due to poor performance or a lack of expert guidance and switches often occur towards the end of the tax year to make use of any remaining ISA allowances going in the new financial year.

Why should I transfer my ISA?

There are a few key reasons you might want to transfer an existing ISA between providers. These include:

Performance

Performance is key. If your ISA is not performing, it might be time to move it. Keep an eye on the performance of your provider relative to its peers and regularly weigh up whether better returns could be found elsewhere.

Performance over recent years would certainly have been enhanced if your ISA had been invested in AIM shares, with the FTSE AIM Index yet again massively outperforming the main UK stock market.  Our Blog here covered AIM’s outstanding performance in 2020.

Cost

This is another key factor when deciding who manages your ISA. It is important to compare the costs you are paying for your ISA against those you would be paying with another manager.

Service

Not all wealth managers offer the same level of service. You might be looking for a provider who you can talk to directly when needed and not a call centre or mailbox. There are plenty of reasons you could be happier with a new provider.

Consolidation

Having your ISAs in one place can help you take advantage of fewer costs standalone costs for administration. It is also easier to keep track of your progress with everything under one roof.

Does transferring affect my ISA allowance and is there a limit on how much I can transfer?

Transferring an ISA to another provider will have no impact on your allowance for that tax year. The £20,000 limit is consistent across all providers and part of the transfer process includes sending your contribution history.

An ISA transfer lets you move money built up in previous years to a new provider without losing the tax-free status of that money. There is no limit on the amount or share of previous years ISA money that can be transferred. You can transfer all or part of it.

If you are transferring an ISA with contributions made in the current tax year, you will have to transfer the whole amount of those contributions. This is essentially to stop you having contributed to two separate ISAs of the same type within the same tax year.

How do I transfer an ISA?

Transferring an ISA is easier than you might think. Initiating an ISA transfer can be as easy as requesting it from your new provider. You will be asked to fill out a short form, which is then signed and sent back to the new provider. From there, they will liaise with your current provider to make the transfer happen.

ISA Transfer Form

You will need to complete this form before you are able to move your money. This may be a form that is included on their website, on a platform or they may be directly in touch with you to sort out the details.

Do not withdraw this money to move it. Doing this will void the tax-efficient status of your savings and it will count against your tax-free allowance if you choose to reinvest in an ISA. If you are transferring from one Stocks and Shares ISA to another, then you should have the option to move the investments you hold to your new provider without selling them. This is often called an ‘in specie’ or ‘re-registration’ transfer.

Transferring

This is when your new provider moves the money away from your old provider. The process can take from 4-6 weeks but there is nothing for you to do here. Your new manager will manage this process on your behalf.

Transferring to an AIM ISA brings more than CGT and Income tax benefits. AIM shares also bring 100% mitigation from Inheritance Tax if held for two years and until death.

You can find out more about Fundamental Asset Management’s high performing AIM Inheritance Tax ISA portfolio, which has been delivering exceptional investment returns for more than 16 years, from the link here. We also have an Adviser Centre with a wealth of information to support financial advisers including case studies, adviser webinars, guides and platform partners.

Derek McLay

Business Development Manager

Fundamental Asset Management Ltd.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak recently delivered his spring Budget setting out the Government’s plans for taxation and spending for the upcoming financial year. This contained several important measures aimed at restoring control of public finances gradually and to tackle the ongoing challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

But what does it mean for Inheritance Tax?

Business Property Relief

Much of this discussion prior to the budget was focussed around the rules on Business Property Relief. Business Property Relief allows an investor to achieve 100% mitigation from Inheritance Tax on Business Property Relief assets held for two years and until death.

Not every business qualifies for Business Property Relief, but shares in a qualifying company listed on AIM, the growth market of the London Stock Exchange, do. We have been successfully managing AIM Inheritance Tax portfolios since 2004, significantly outperferming the AIM Index.

Mr Sunak made no changes to the rules on Business relief which seems in line with his position to support small businesses. Our report available from the link here and below explains more about Business Property Relief.

Personal Tax Thresholds

One area where Rishi did cover Inheritance Tax was in his decision to freeze all personal tax thresholds until 2026, including Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax, Inheritance Tax and the Pensions allowance.

The Inheritance Tax threshold freeze includes both the nil rate band and the residential nil rate band.

These thresholds were expected to rise with inflation as an individual’s income increases, but as this will no longer be the case, more individuals will find themselves with an Inheritance Tax issue on the horizon as they move towards 2026.

One simple and popular Inheritance Tax planning solution remains an AIM Inheritance Tax (‘IHT’) portfolio which will give full IHT mitigation after only two years while also enabling the investor to retain access to funds. An AIM IHT portfolio can also sit within an ISA.

You can find out more about Fundamental Asset Management’s high performing AIM IHT ISA and AIM Inheritance Tax portfolio service, which has been delivering exceptional investment returns for more than 16 years, from the link here. We also have an Adviser Centre with a wealth of information to support financial advisers including case studies, adviser webinars, guides and contact details.

Join us for our webinar at 2pm on 25^th March 2021 where we will be discussing Are AIM tax reliefs at risk? You can register from the link here.

London’s AIM market had a remarkable 2020, ending the year with its market value at an all-time high and with the AIM Index also significantly outperforming other UK main market indices. But what drove this remarkable performance in such a challenging year?

AIM (formerly known as the Alternative Investment Market) closed 2020 with 819 companies and a total stock market value of £131 billion. While there was a net decline of 44 companies from 2019, the overall market value was £16.9 billion higher. A lot of the strong performance came from companies qualifying for the popular Inheritance Tax planning reliefs.

The AIM index continues to be dominated by relatively few large companies, with AIM’s twenty largest companies valued at £45 billion, representing 34% of the total value of AIM. At the end of the year there were a record 24 AIM companies valued at more than £1 billion each, compared to only 16 at the end of 2019.

With its shares up 42% in 2020, ASOS closed the year as AIM’s largest company, valued at £4.8 billion, having assumed the crown from online fashion rival Boohoo Group, which came in second, valued at £4.35 billion, despite attracting criticism for poor working conditions at its suppliers and questionable corporate governance.

AIM’s Leisure Goods sector was another beneficiary of the pandemic seeing its value soar £3.7 billion to £7 billion, driven by strong trading from video gaming companies, three of which were valued at more than £1billion each at the year end, with Codemasters Group not far behind.

AIM subsequently lost Codemasters as it was acquired by US giant Electronic Arts. It’s a shame to see another fast-growing UK company acquired by an overseas rival, but this is very much the nature of AIM, with UK shareholders seemingly unwilling to back the longer-term growth opportunity. Codemasters was a constituent of our AIM Inheritance Tax portfolios.

Having attracted little attention for many years, many of AIM’s small healthcare companies were quick to develop tests for Covid-19, subsequently benefiting from explosive demand and share price growth.

The value of AIM’s Healthcare related companies, encompassing the sub-sectors of Medical Equipment and Services and Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, rose £5 billion in value to £17 billion.

There were big moves from anything involved in Covid-19 testing and vaccine development, with companies in these areas adding £1.6 billion of market value. The Healthcare sector also brought AIM’s top performer in the year in Novacyt, which received large orders from the UK’s Department of Health for its Covid-19 tests, helping to lift the shares over 6000% in the period.

With many countries (and notably Germany) getting behind hydrogen as an alternative to natural gas, there was growing interest in hydrogen-based energy, which is being pushed as a solution to fill the energy gap left from the impending closure of nuclear and coal-fired power stations.

AIM has several hydrogen fuel cell companies, whose shares soared over the course of the year, despite the challenges of the pandemic, adding £5.9 billion in market value to the Alternative Energy sector. Both ITM Power and Ceres Power closed the year valued at more than £2 billion each, with shares of the former up 600%.

AIM’s Technology sector consisting of 113 companies, encompassing the sub sectors of Software, Hardware and Telecommunications related activities, proved extremely resilient with its value rising £4 billion to £18 billion.

Our associates Investor’s Champion provided a review of AIM’s electrifying performance in 2020 in this update here.

AIM’s outperformance relative to the main UK market was driven by the latter having no exposure to video gaming and hydrogen fuel cells, two sectors seeing exceptional share price gains, and relatively little pure exposure to niche software, technology and online retail. The UK main market also continues to suffer from a distinct lack of growth!

The AIM of today consists of a far greater number of good quality businesses, many of which are delivering far more impressive growth than their peers on the main market and are also suitable for AIM Inheritance Tax portfolios.

As individuals own 25.1% of AIM companies, against just 11.3% of FTSE 100 companies, UK private investors will also have benefited very nicely from this outperformance and supported many fast growing UK businesses.

To benefit from the Inheritance Tax planning reliefs, individuals need to own the qualifying AIM shares directly in a segregated portfolio in their own name i.e. the tax benefit cannot be gained through investing via a collective/fund structure. In support of this, a growing number of financial advisors embrace AIM and AIM Inheritance Tax portfolios, which can also be accessed through a number of advisor wrap platforms.

We discuss AIM’s impressive performance in 2020 and potential themes to follow in 2021 in our Webinar here.  

Click the picture below to register for the session.

 You can find out more about Fundamental Asset Management’s high performing AIM IHT ISA and AIM Inheritance Tax portfolio service, which has been delivering exceptional investment returns for more than 16 years, from the link here.

We also have an Adviser Centre with a wealth of information to support financial advisers including case studies, adviser webinars, guides and contact details.