What can I transfer into a Lifetime ISA?

There are many different ways you can transfer money into your Lifetime ISA (LISA). The transfer time can vary, depending on the following factors:

  • The type of investments you’re transferring. As a guide, cash only should take two weeks, equities four to six weeks, funds six to eight weeks and foreign holdings 10 to 12 weeks. If you’re transferring cash and investments, your cash will be transferred to us after your investments.
  • How long it takes your current provider to respond to our requests.
  • Whether the documentation required by us or your current provider is completed correctly.
  • Whether you still have to pay fees to your current provider, including closure and administration fees.

You can track the progress of your transfer by finding ‘Transfers’ within your account.

Transfer a Lifetime ISA with another provider to AJ Bell

You can transfer a Lifetime ISA from another provider to an AJ Bell Lifetime ISA, with some key facts to note:

  • Transferring from one Lifetime ISA to another doesn't affect your annual payment limit.
  • You can't make payments into more than one Lifetime ISA in each tax year. If you've already made payments into another Lifetime ISA in this tax year, you need to transfer those payments in full to make any payments into your AJ Bell Lifetime ISA during this tax year.

Transfer a Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA

If you already have a Help to Buy ISA, you can transfer it into a Lifetime ISA, subject to the following:

  • You can transfer all, or just some, of your Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA, as long as you don’t transfer more than your £4,000 annual Lifetime ISA allowance during a single tax year. If you’ve already paid into your LISA this tax year, you can only transfer the amount that remains of your £4,000 allowance.
  • The amount you transfer will qualify for the government bonus.
  • The money you've paid into your Help to Buy ISA during this tax year already counts towards your overall £20,000 ISA allowance. So, transferring it to your Lifetime ISA won't use up any more of this allowance.

Transfer from a Cash ISA to a Lifetime ISA

You can transfer cash from a Cash ISA to Lifetime ISA. Please note the following:

  • Your transferred cash will qualify for the government bonus.
  • Make sure you don’t exceed the £4,000 yearly limit, since it counts as a Lifetime ISA payment.
  • As the payments you’ve made into your Cash ISA already count in your overall ISA allowance of £20,000, the transfer won’t change the amount you have left.

Transfer from a Stocks and shares ISA to a Lifetime ISA

You can transfer cash from a Stocks and shares ISA to Lifetime ISA, but it will count as a Lifetime ISA payment, so you can’t transfer more than the £4,000 annual limit.

  • As the payments you’ve made into your Stocks and shares ISA already count in your overall ISA allowance of £20,000, the transfer won’t change the amount you have left.

Move cash to my Lifetime ISA from my AJ Bell Stocks and shares ISA or Dealing account

To move cash from your Stocks and shares ISA or Dealing account to your LISA, select ‘Move cash between accounts’. Please keep in mind:

  • You can’t partially transfer ISA subscriptions you’ve made this tax year. Cash subscribed to your Stocks and shares ISA this tax year can only be transferred to your Lifetime ISA if you’ve subscribed less than £4,000 (the Lifetime ISA limit).
  • You can partially transfer any subscriptions you’ve made in previous tax years.
  • When you transfer cash from other accounts to your Lifetime ISA, it still counts towards your annual £4,000 LISA payment limit. So, you'll need to be careful how much you transfer.
  • If you’d like to transfer investments from your Dealing account into an ISA, you can use our Bed and ISA service. In a Bed and ISA, an investment is sold in a Dealing account and bought in an ISA. As the two transactions are carried out together, only one dealing charge is applied.

If the value of your current year account in your Stocks and shares or Cash ISA is more than the £4,000 Lifetime ISA payment limit (or your remaining Lifetime ISA allowance if you've already made payments), you won’t be able to transfer part of it over. You could however partially transfer any subscriptions you’ve made in previous years.

Remember, you need to fund your Lifetime ISA in the same tax year you open it. Otherwise, we have to close it. If you intend to fund your new Lifetime ISA by transferring in, the transfer will need to be completed before the end of the same tax year.

Read more about transferring into a LISA.