Stocks & Shares ISA

Hi Chip40.
I have re-read the HMRC website on this, see www.hmrc.gov.uk.

1. You can put a max of £7,200 into ISA's. That is £3,600 into a cash ISA and £5,200 into
a Stocks and Shares ISA.

2. BUT from 6th October 2009 the ISA subscription limit will be raised to £10,200 per year
for all investors born on and before 5th April 1960.

3. For those who qualify on age (see 2 above) the limits will then be £5,100 max in Cash
ISA and £5,100 max into stocks and shares ISA.

4. You can subscribe to ONE ISA EACH for each tax year.Namely ONE Cash ISA AND
ONE Stocks and Shares ISA. You can only subscribe for the current year.

Hi Chip40

I know it's ages since you posted this question, but Roly's reply above is right except for the £5,200 figure being wrong. Now the rules have changed (we're in the new tax year now of course) and the overall limit is £10,200 for everyone. If you have both a Cash ISA and a Stocks & Shares ISA, you can invest up to £5,100 in each per tax year. If you just have a S&S ISA, the limit is £10,200.

It's important to know that ISA limits are subscription limits, and so are the maximum you can subscribe in any one tax year. The answer you need though is that if you are contributing £60 per month to your M&G ISA, as soon as you make a payment to it in the new tax year, you have in effect chosen your S&S ISA for that year and can't have another one.

If you want to keep your M&G fund, but begin contributing to another, you could use a platform like CoFunds, and transfer your M&G holding to it. You get to keep your M&G holding and add to it if you want, but you would then have the flexibility to pay, say, £30 per month into M&G and £30 per month into Newton or Invesco Perpetual. The ISA is provided by CoFunds so you can keep it year after year, but change your funds when you want.

It's easier to do than it is to explain here, but if you consider CoFunds to be a fund supermarket, then instead of going to the butcher for your meat and the baker for your bread, you go to the supermarket to get both. So instead of getting your growth fund from M&G and your income fund from Invesco, you get both through your CoFunds ISA.

Note, there are other such platforms, like Fidelity FundsNetwork, Hargreaves Landsdowne Vantage and Skandia Investment Solutions, to name but a few.

Hope that helps

Pete