eeek @xray@lee – I feel like I need to explain myself here
Have we written the first line of code? – Short answer here is yes…but
I know there’s always a “But”. I will try and explain & give you a sense of the factors involved here & why it taking a while.
We do have a dedicated Transfers development team with devs working on this as well as expanded Transfers Ops teams. This development team looks after all transfer (ISA, SIPP & both transfer in & out)… we have plans to improve & automate lots of the step for all these processes.
So why is it taking so long:
Truthfully, by far the most demand for transfer & biggest delay have been to SIPP Transfers in (we only support Vanguard atm + very shortly Hargraves & Fidelity). This development work was prioritised but unfortunately has taken far longer than we expect – multiple 3rd party systems Equisoft, Origio, manual processes + other providers. Apricate if you’re trying to transfer out this will feel like a separate process but it often been the same individual working on both problems & its taken a lot of attention.
Manual processing is very difficult without some degree of automation. We need to make sure the right controls are in place to avoid mistakes – you can imagine this is very important when transferring assets from pooled nominees on CREST.
In-specie Transfers out are v.tricky when all you’re holding are fractions. We need a process which only transfer the integer share unit (you can only transfer whole shares). We then need written permission to sell any remaining fractions or shares & this needs to be coordinated with the receiving party
The above is just to give a sense of some of the interdependencies & work going on.
I fully apricate non of this matter when you just want the process to be up & running.
I will just add, we absolutely do read these posts & it is very high up on our list of priorities. We will try and get you more timing & updates shortly.
Now that would be sort of believable if you hadn’t been able to get Vanguard SIPP transfers in up and running within days of Vanguard changing their fee structure. Clearly that was prioritised as a business decision.
Assuming this won’t be available any time soon, does anyone have any sort of way of minimising interest loss when transfering out? How long are funds likely to be uninvested?
Just created an IE account. Looks like it will remain a zombie account. This 2 year+ debacle to provide in-specie transfers out of an ISA has put paid to me moving my significant ISAs from their current home.
Agreed. I really like Invest Engine, and so easy to use. However, I won’t be adding new ISA or transferring previous ones until “In Specie Transfer Out” is implemented. On my list of IE wants, this should be prioritised before managed plans, which should then follow asap afterwards as these are also long overdue.
Although I really appreciated the recent update on managed plans for early next year, the concern is trust. When statements are made in 2023 and 2024 that something will be done ‘in a few months’, or something done ‘soon’, but then the year(s) go by, it’s hard to trust any stated timescale. I really hope both In Specie Transfer Out and managed plans will be with IE in much less than a year.
Hi @Metas Please be assured in-specie transfers out is on our roadmap. However, it is taking a bit of time to get the feature over the line. It is also worth considering that a lot of other providers do not support fractional shares, which may restrict them from receiving in-specie funds from us. However, I can assure you the team is working hard behind the scenes.
I believe Investengine is currently beta testing in-specie transfer out for ISAs.
I recently instructed a switch to another ISA provider, because I’d reached a cap on the amount I felt comfortable keeping with IE. There were two main concerns: long-term concerns about IE’s profitability/business model, and the fact that in-specie transfer outs were still not possible, thereby risking the need to be out of the market for an unknown amount of time should I transfer out.
I was extremely surprised to see that my Investengine ISA investments (rounded down to the nearest whole share) magically appeared with my new ISA provider.
I’m truly delighted that IE are now offering in-specie transfer outs. If I’d known, I probably wouldn’t have instructed the switch so soon!
Might be a while still before it IE are in a position to confirm its available to everyone.
But I’d now be much more confident this feature is on its way soon….
Oh come on the fractional shares issue is nonsense. Could be solved easily by selling down to cash enough to create an exact number of full shares (the impact of that would be negligible). Then you are doing an inspecie transfer of the vast vast majority and cash transferring a tiny amount.
Fractional Shares: → Fractional shares cannot be transferred in or out of IBKR. Instead, you can close your fractional share positions and transfer out the proceeds. (Standard fractional share trading commissions will apply.)
Whole Shares → Whole shares can be transferred in and out of IBKR (provided there are no restrictions on the shares in question.)
It seems as though Invest Engine are finally rolling out in-specie transfers. The option to perform a ‘Stocks’ & Cash’ portfolio transfer from IE to Trading 212 had been greyed out until very recently. As you can see from the screenshot below, it now appears to be available!
Also, I recently requested a manual in-specie transfer out from IE to Freetrade, and the customer service team granted this request. I would have liked to transfer directly to my main portfolio with Trading 212, but due to the issues with the CREST system, the only route was InvestEngine > Freetrade > Trading 212 - this took around 5 weeks from beginning to end.
I requested to transfer my portfolio a week ago and was met with the following disappointing response:
“This is a notification to confirm that we have received an ISA transfer out request from Trading 212 for the transfer of your full ISA to their management. In order to proceed with the request you will be required to liquidate the holdings in your portfolio so we can transfer your ISA as cash. You can do this by selecting your ISA portfolio on your dashboard > Options > Sell portfolio > Sell all.
Please also ensure auto-invest is switched off from this moment.
Once you have submitted your sell orders, please reply directly to this email to advise. We estimate that your transfer will be completed within 5 working days after you have initiated the sell orders. Alternatively, if you would no longer like to proceed, please let us know.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.”
I wonder if it would be different if someone wanted to transfer to T212 or to Hargreaves / Interactive Investor / Vanguard etc. bc of fractional shares.
