Fidelity won’t let me do a partial transfer of my stocks and shares Isa – what can I do?

I have been investing monthly in Fidelity shares and shares Isa in four different funds for the last 25 years.

My plan was that as I got older and Isa got fatter, I would sell some of the funds at a high note and “Isa” would transfer the cash to other less volatile savings accounts.

As a rough idea, I wanted to withdraw between £5,000 and £10,000 once a year if the markets were good.

What I discovered is that Fidelity (and other big share and share fund providers) still don’t allow partial Isa transfers.

So my options are:

1. Withdraw the money manually and lose the Isa wrapper. This is fine if I have retired and am on drawdown (both from my pension and Isa) and have no income. I also did this before the Isa deadline, when I was never going to reach £20,000 in the current year with income.

2. Transfer the entire Isa to another provider (hopefully one with the same funding options) and transfer it again minus £5,000 to 10,000. I estimate that due to transaction charges the bid/ask spread each time I do this will cost me £100 or more. I’m also taking the risk of being out of the market for a while and could lose dividends.

3. Sell it all for cash, transfer it somewhere friendly, partially transfer some money, and transfer it back to Fidelity.

What a travesty, in 2024. I feel like it’s trapping my investments. At no point will all four funds be aligned, so I’ll be happy to sell them all. I feel like the money is stuck there until I retire.

I understand that Isa transfers cost providers time and money, but I have seen other providers simply charge a £35 fee to do so. That’s another complaint, but at least you know what your situation is. Providers are always happy to accept your transfer, but have very inflexible transfer options.

Am I just being a Grinch or is it time for these big investment platforms to move with the times? via email

Angharad Carrick from This is Money says: It seems strange that in 2024 the major investment platforms are behind when it comes to Isa transfers.

Some of the legacy platforms have been forced to modernize, with the introduction of subscriptions and things like fractional shares and proxy voting, as a wave of rivals sweeps the market.

The three options you present seem like an unnecessarily complicated and expensive way to transfer your money.

And as you say, when it comes to transferring Isas from another provider, Fidelity will be more than happy to help. It will even cover up to £500 if your current supplier charges exit fees.

However, when it comes to transferring some of your money, you realized that it is not that simple.

You said you had tried a couple of times to transfer cash to a new supplier and it came back.

Each time he was told that Fidelity did not allow partial transfers.

It has locked you into the product and, given that you have four funds in your Isa wrapper, it is unlikely that you will be ready to sell all the funds at the same time.

On Fidelity’s website it says that “it is not possible to request a partial transfer of cash or assets.”

More recently, she was told that “Fidelity does not offer partial transfers as a standard service,” but that she could ask the sales team to approve a transfer.

Now it appears his plans to move the cash he’s invested over 25 years are at the discretion of Fidelity’s sales team.

This seems strange and there is nothing about what criteria the sales team will use to approve partial transfers.

I contacted Fidelity to ask why it wouldn’t allow him to sell some of his assets and transfer the cash.

It said: ‘Customers who want to transfer money they have invested into an Isa during the current year must transfer their funds in full.

‘In most scenarios, we do not process partial transfers from an Isa account, but clients with relationship managers, who can support their client through the process, can obtain approval from their signing authorities.

‘In these cases we can process partial transfers from a previous year subscriptions Isa only.

‘Given the complexities involved with partial transfer requests, we have deliberate controls and protocols around Isa partial transfers to help us manage some of the complexities and can only facilitate those that meet the requirements of the necessary approval process.

“However, we do support partial transfers from general and Sipp investment accounts as standard.”

So it looks like unless the sales team approves your request, you’ll have to consider your three options for moving your cash.

This seems like a silly solution for something that the vendor could fix relatively quickly. As for the criteria for approval, it seems we are none the wiser.

Unfortunately, Fidelity is not alone in dragging its feet with partial Isa transfers and it may be wise to read the terms and conditions of the platform you use, to be clear about the rules.