Stocks and shares ISA

[BoRED S2upid]

Can you transfer existing shares into an ISA with say HL? If so how does one go about it?

[Lynch91]

If I remember correctly you need to the sell the shares you currently own and then buy them back through your ISA.

[megaphone]

It's called "Bed & ISA". http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/bed-isa-sipp. HL will sell your stock for free, there will be a dealing charge and stamp duty to buy back shares, there's also the sell/buy spread to consider.

[BoRED S2upid]

Thanks both much appreciated.

[megaphone]

I've done it a couple of times, in an ISA and a SIPP. It takes a week or so to go through but it's all straight forward. I had quite a few small share holdings in certificated form, many from the public sell offs in the 1980's/90's, they where just sitting there doing nothing and producing paperwork! Now they're 'online' in my ISA and SIPP it's a lot easier to monitor and trade them, plus tax efficient.