When my wife sadly died last year, I inherited her stocks and shares Isa. Her investments were sold for about \u00a360,000. As her surviving spouse, I can inherit her tax-free Isa allowance equal to the value of her Isa when she died. This is on top of my own annual Isa allowance of \u00a320,000.<\/p>\n
My wife\u2019s Isa was held with the investment platform Fidelity, so I thought that the simplest thing would be to open a stocks and shares Isa with the same company to make use of this tax-free entitlement. Rather than sending the whole \u00a360,000 in one go, I asked Fidelity if I could pay into the new Isa in stages and it said I could. <\/p>\n
The Isa was set up earlier this year and I filled in some paperwork so that Fidelity could apply my wife\u2019s allowance to my Isa. I made a first payment of \u00a36,000, mainly to see if everything worked. But when I sent a second payment of \u00a320,000 the website said I had exceeded my allowance for the year. I tried to make a third payment of \u00a315,000 but it would not accept it. It was clear that my wife\u2019s allowance had not been applied to the account and so I couldn\u2019t make any more deposits.<\/p>\n
I called Fidelity, which said I would need to submit another form to apply for an inherited Isa, but this eight-page document is identical to the one I had already filled in. I am also concerned that HM Revenue & Customs will think I am making multiple applications for the same inherited Isa. <\/p>\n
Fidelity then said that to use the inherited Isa allowance, I would need to send a cheque, but I don\u2019t own a cheque book so I am unable to do this. Surely this can\u2019t be necessary? <\/p>\n
\u2022 Halifax has lost my \u00a315,000 and I am sick with worry<\/a><\/p>\n I feel like the staff do not understand the rules around the inherited Isa allowance. If only I could talk to somebody with some common sense.<\/p>\n The last call to Fidelity took more than an hour, mostly because I was left on hold while the adviser consulted his colleagues, but I\u2019m still no closer to resolving this. Through exhaustion I have now suspended my attempts to invest in the Isa. <\/p>\n My plan was simply to re-establish my wife\u2019s Isa, but I didn\u2019t think that it would be quite so stressful and difficult. I am also finding it distressing to explain in every phone call that my wife has died. Any help you can give me would be more than welcome. Katherine Denham writes<\/p>\n Few people know about the rule that lets a surviving spouse boost their Isa allowance after the death of a partner. It really can help to ease financial worries after a loss.<\/p>\n Staff at Fidelity should, however, know about and understand the rule \u2014 and the company\u2019s procedures for using it. There really is no excuse for you having to repeatedly explain that your wife had died simply because a procession of staff had not been able to implement the rules. Fidelity should have handled your case better.<\/p>\n While your wife\u2019s investments had been sold and you had put the money in an interest-paying savings account, you were keen to invest it as soon as possible. You told me that years ago you and your wife had set up stocks and shares Isas at the same time with different companies and had a friendly competition to see whose investments performed better. You said she won by a mile and your plan was to re-establish the Isa in the same way to see if she would keep on winning.<\/p>\n When someone dies, their surviving spouse or civil partner can get an extra tax-free allowance, known as an additional permitted subscription. The allowance depends on the value of the Isa when they die and must be used within three years from the date of death or 180 days after the estate is settled, whichever comes later. <\/p>\n \u2022 The obscure rule that lets you bust the Isa allowance<\/a><\/p>\n This inherited allowance can be used on top of your personal Isa annual allowance of \u00a320,000. Some companies let you transfer investments into your name without selling them (known as an in-specie transfer), while others insist that the investments must be sold when a customer dies. Fidelity got itself in yet another muddle by initially telling me that it doesn\u2019t allow in-specie transfers from inherited Isas, only to later say that this was possible after all.<\/p>\n To use a partner\u2019s allowance you must complete an inherited Isa form, which you had done, but companies have different policies for applying an inherited allowance to an account. In Fidelity\u2019s case, payments must be sent by cheque or bank transfer and must include a specific reference number. <\/p>\n However, it had told you that you could use the inherited allowance by making card payments into the Isa through your online Fidelity account, which was the wrong procedure. Your payments made this way quickly used up your own personal allowance and Fidelity then wouldn\u2019t let you make any more contributions.<\/p>\n Fidelity then wrongly told you that you had to send a cheque to deposit money using your inherited allowance when actually a bank transfer was possible. <\/p>\n It has now finally manually adjusted its records so that the contributions were correctly logged, apologised and paid you \u00a3500 compensation. It said it would be taking steps to address the risk of this happening again. Let\u2019s hope so because this whole saga was unacceptable. <\/p>\n Fidelity said: \u201cWe are committed to providing the best service possible and on this occasion, our customer did not receive this. We are very sorry this situation arose and apologise for the inconvenience he has experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n You said: \u201cThis has been a frustrating three months but I\u2019m glad it\u2019s over. Thank you for your help.\u201d <\/p>\n How can my bill suddenly be \u00a37,700, British Gas? <\/p>\n Last year I paid my energy supplier British Gas \u00a3126 a month by direct debit. Then for some unexplained reason earlier this year it sent me a bill for \u00a37,705. I live in a three-bedroom house so this was a ridiculous amount to pay, especially when I had been keeping up with my monthly payments. <\/p>\n I spoke to British Gas and assumed that the issue would be cleared up quickly, but this has not happened and I still seem to be on the hook for this bill. After calling several times and getting nowhere, British Gas then said it wanted to increase my monthly payments to more than \u00a3700. I stopped my direct debits and complained and have tried to find out what is going on but to no avail. <\/p>\n \u2022 My adviser made a mistake. Why should I pay the \u00a35k tax penalty?<\/a><\/p>\n It is impossible to speak to anyone who either is sufficiently competent to understand the problem or who has the authority to do anything about it.<\/p>\n The last person I spoke to said that my \u00a37,705 bill was correct and that the increase was probably due to a gas leak. They said I should get a contractor to check it. If that amount of gas had leaked into my home then I am pretty sure my property and most of my street would have blown up.<\/p>\n I have spent hours on the phone trying to resolve this. It is incredibly frustrating and very unsettling to have a bill of \u00a37,705 outstanding. Katherine Denham writes<\/p>\n No supplier would be able to justify a monthly bill rise from \u00a3126 to more than \u00a3700 with a straight face and, surprise, surprise, British Gas has admitted to me that it had made a big mistake. <\/p>\n The \u00a37,705 bill related to your whole consumption since you opened an account with the company in July 2021. It said the bill had been generated incorrectly when it processed one of your meter readings. <\/p>\n
Name and address supplied <\/p>\n
Rupert, London<\/p>\n