I will start by saying, overall, I really like InvestEngine and have invested both through the platform and in it. However, there seems to be an ongoing issue of settlement times taking far longer than is reasonable, and the issue just isn’t being resolved. I’m not sure how other platforms get around this, maybe a liquidity buffer in the client account. However, personally I accept that zero fees means InvestEngine has to run lean and reduce their risk where they can. Additionally, as I’m looking at accumulating and not looking to withdraw my funds soon it really has minimal impact, except for not being able to rebalance my portfolio for a while.
What I would like though is to be able to move unsettled cash between portfolios, or move ETFs between portfolios (obviously keeping them in the same GIA or ISA wrapper). That way I can keep my cash in an ISA portfolio with just CSH2 and regularly fund my ISA investment portfolio every month/quarter/interval, keeping my KPIs and tracking separate. I cannot see how that would be an issue as I understand my ISA portfolios and funds are all in the same ISA account/wrapper (hence why I can open multiple portfolios a year) and it would just be changing where the funds/ETFs are allocated. Additionally, at the moment you can reinvest unsettled cash, so I’m unclear what the operational challenges are for InvestEngine if that unsettled cash is first transferred to another portfolio and then reinvested? It could still be a requirement for the original transaction to settle before withdrawals take place. Have InvestEngine got any plans to allow this in the future?
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Which ETFs are people having problems with regarding unsettled trades? I’ve personally never had to wait more than 2 or 3 days for a trade to settle.
Is it a case of less popular ETFs with lower trading volumes?
I don’t really want to focus on that part of my post; there are a few active threads (such as Ongoing issue with Awaiting Settlement - #18 by PaulGichemi), and it’s generally niche ETFs and/or small purchases/sales that struggle to settle in reasonable times. Even if it is limited to just these smaller ETFs, it can cause issues for the entire portfolio until it settles. It’s an issue that just hasn’t been resolved.
The bigger point is, if I can make immediate purchases without waiting for cash to settle in the same portfolio, what is the difference in immediately transferring that unsettled cash to a different portfolio and making a purchase? Or transferring an ETF holding to a different portfolio and then selling that ETF and making an immediate purchase?
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Yup, I have that same usecase, and found it frustrating that it wasn’t possible.
I found a somewhat hacky workaround which functions (duplicating CSH2 in portfolios), but at the cost of auto-rebalanining. Shouldn’t be nessecary though.
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@tom.winterton have InvestEngine got any ambitions to enable transferring unsettled cash between portfolios or do I need to put my CSH2 in the same portfolio I want to have my investments in case of long settlement times?
The team is actively working at a resolution to mitigate late settling orders. You can be assured we will post the updates in due course here.
@PaulGichemi thank you for your reply, but that doesn’t really answer my question. I would like to know InvestEngine is looking at being able to move unsettled cash between portfolios in the same account, or move ETF holdings between portfolios in the same account?
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Hey @Menace-Dennis , So I can confirm that InvestEngine is looking into introducing in-specie transfers between portfolios. We can however not comment on timeframes for the release of any new features but be assured we always post the latest news here as well as on our blog page. We will come back to this when we have more information with regard to moving unsettled cash between portfolios.In the meantime, happy investing!