Moving an ISA or SIPP to another platform without losing the tax wrapper.

Facts checked 22 October 2026

Moving an ISA or a pension to another platform is routine. The tax wrapper survives the move only if the money goes from one provider to the other as a transfer. If you sell up, withdraw the cash and pay it in somewhere else, the wrapper is gone.

Open the new account, then ask it to transfer

The order matters. Open the ISA or pension at the platform you are moving to first. Then fill in that platform's transfer form. The new provider contacts the old one and the money, or the investments, move between them. You do not touch the money on the way.

ISAs. HMRC sets the time limits: 15 working days between cash ISAs, and 30 calendar days for other transfers. If a transfer runs late, complain to the provider first, then to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Pensions. The new scheme usually sends you a transfer request form and arranges the move with your old provider. MoneyHelper says a transfer often takes two to six weeks, and the old provider has up to six months to act on the request.

Why selling and withdrawing loses the wrapper

Money withdrawn from an ISA is outside the wrapper. Paying it into a new ISA counts as a new subscription, against this tax year's £20,000 allowance. A flexible ISA lets you put money back into the same account in the same tax year, but that is not a move to another provider.

A pension is stricter. Before the minimum pension age you cannot take the money out without a heavy tax charge. After it, a withdrawal is taxed as income, apart from any tax-free part, and paying it into a new pension counts against your annual allowance. A transfer between two registered UK pension schemes is not taxed at all.

What it costs to leave

Some platforms charge to transfer out, often per holding. Check the old platform's charges page before you start, and check whether the new one charges to set up the account or offers to cover exit fees.

Exit charges on personal and stakeholder pensions are capped by the Financial Conduct Authority for members aged 55 or over. On plans taken out before 31 March 2017 the charge can be no more than 1% of the value moved. On plans taken out after that date there can be no early exit charge at all.

Whether the new platform holds what you hold

A transfer can move your investments as they are, which is called in specie. It can also sell them and move cash. If the new platform cannot hold one of your funds or shares, that holding is usually sold. You are then out of the market until the cash arrives and is reinvested. Ask the new platform which of your holdings it can take before you start.

What a pension can lose in the move

Some older pensions have features the new scheme will not copy. MoneyHelper lists what to check for before you transfer:

exit fees or other penalties for leaving
guaranteed annuity rates, which can pay a higher income than you could buy elsewhere
a with-profits bonus paid after a certain date
a protected pension age, which can let you draw the pension earlier than the standard minimum
employer contributions, which many employers will not pay into a scheme you choose yourself

Guaranteed benefits worth more than £30,000, such as a defined benefit (final salary) pension, cannot be transferred until you have taken regulated financial advice. A cold call, visit, email or text offering to move your pension is likely to be a scam.

From 6 April 2027: no transfers into a cash ISA under 65

Regulations laid in September 2026 change two ISA rules from 6 April 2027 for anyone under 65:

Transfers from a stocks and shares ISA, or an innovative finance ISA, into a cash ISA are not permitted. Transfers the other way, from cash into stocks and shares, are still allowed.
No more than £12,000 of the £20,000 annual allowance can go into cash ISAs.

Both rules stop applying from the start of the tax year in which you turn 65. A move between two stocks and shares ISAs is not affected.

Comparing platforms before you move

Which platform costs least depends on how much you hold, what you invest in and how often you trade. A percentage fee can cost less on a small pot and a flat fee less on a large one. The platform costs tool works out the yearly cost of a portfolio of a given size, mix of accounts and trading pattern at each UK platform it compares. It leaves out transfer and exit fees, so add those for the platform you are leaving.

How Fairworth does it

In Fairworth, each ISA, SIPP or other account is held at its own platform, so after a move you add the new account and record the transfer. Between two accounts of the same type, such as one stocks and shares ISA and another, or one SIPP and another, a transfer moves the units and their cost basis together, and nothing counts as sold. Between different types, such as a general account and an ISA, Fairworth records a sale and a purchase and shows the gain the sale realises. It does not check your ISA allowance.

Once your accounts are in, Fairworth works out what your platforms cost you each year from your real holdings and trading, and prices the same holdings at each major UK platform.