Converting shares to an ISA

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

I recently received shares from a company profit-sharing scheme and would like to invest them into an ISA. I am looking for a single company ISA with no annual charges as this will eat into my capital. Can you advise? EG, Coventry.

Kim North, independent financial adviser from Pretty Financial, says: The way to convert your shares into an ISA is to find a stockbroker who will buy them and then sell them back to you in an ISA wrapper.

As you do not need any advice about which shares to buy you can save money by using a discount broker so shop around (you can get a list of execution-only brokers on the website of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers. Go to their website at www.apcims.co.uk

But you will not find any that will do what you want with no charges since quite a lot of administration is involved for the broker. Generally the lowest charge you will find is about £15 for conversion to the ISA and then an annual charge of 0.5% for admin, but you may have to shop around among brokers to find one that will handle the shares in your company.

Many have a restricted list of shares that they will agree to hold in single-company ISAs - if yours is not a FTSE all-share stock it may not be on their list. If it's hard finding a broker, check if your company knows one that will do it.

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