We set up an individual GIA for you as soon as you become a customer (there’s no charge for setting it up). It's linked to you and your adviser if you have one - if you invest through more than one adviser, you'll have a GIA linked to each one.

You can invest in funds outside of an Individual Savings Account (ISA) or Self-invested Personal Pension (SIPP) through your GIA. You can also use the cash facility within it to pay charges. Your Key Features gives more detail on the features of your GIA. You can also read our Guide to GIAs.

How are ongoing charges usually taken?

Every product has a cash facility, and ongoing fees and charges are usually deducted from this. When a charge is due to be paid, the available cash in each product is used first, with any extra needed made by selling assets in the product  - see your Key Features for more information on this.

How can I use my GIA?

One of its features is that it allows you to re-direct ongoing fees and charges related to other products to be paid from your individual GIA.

For example, if you’re invested in an ISA and don’t want to use your ISA to pay the ongoing charges that are due, you can direct those charges to be taken from the cash facility in your GIA.

Why would I want to do this?

The reason why depends on your personal circumstances and investment needs. You could avoid using tax advantaged savings within an ISA to pay charges by choosing to pay them through your individual GIA.

Which charges can I re-direct?

Your ongoing charges - that means a charge that’s taken from your account on a regular basis, such as our annual charge.

If you choose to re-direct, it has to be all of your ongoing charges that are deducted from your GIA. The following charges can be re-directed to your individual GIA. Everyone pays our annual charge, however, the other ongoing charges shown below may also apply depending on the services or products you have:

  •  Annual charge
  •  Drawdown charge (SIPP only)
  •  Ongoing adviser charge
  •  Service charge
  •  Discretionary fund manager charge

Can I re-direct charges to a joint or designated GIA?

You can only re-direct charges to your individual GIA. If you have more than one GIA linked to different accounts, you can only re-direct charges to it from products under the same account as that individual GIA.  Charges can't be re-directed to a joint GIA.

How do I pay the charges re-directed to my GIA?

You need to make sure the cash facility of your GIA is always topped up with enough money to cover any charges. To help you do this you can:

  • Log in to your customer dashboard and select Top up. This gives you the option to pay into your cash facility by debit card, bank transfer or cheque.
  • Set up a Direct debit by completing the Direct Debit instruction. 

What happens if there’s not enough in my GIA cash facility when re-directed charges are due?

We use any available cash in GIA cash facility first with any extra needed made by selling assets in the GIA if you have any. If you don’t have enough cash or assets in your GIA to cover a re-directed charge, that charge will be sent back and taken from the cash facility in the product it came from. Find out more in your Key Features.