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 any adviser you invested through - 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 ISA or 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.
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.
One of its features is that it allows you to redirect 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.
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.
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 redirect, it has to be all of your ongoing charges that are deducted from your GIA. The following charges can be redirected 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
You can only redirect charges to your individual GIA. If you have more than one GIA linked to different accounts, you can only redirect charges to it from products under the same account as that 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:
- Sign in to your online account and, if you’ve been given access, follow the top-up journey. 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 relevant form. If you have an adviser they’ll be able to help you set up the relevant Direct Debit and the amount. If you don’t, you can set up a Direct Debit by completing the form.
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 redirected 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.