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How to transfer my portfolio?

These steps apply only to non-ISA transfers. For ISA transfers, please see Transferring my ISA.
We accept instrument transfers from most brokers and banks. If your positions are held in a personal account, they can only be transferred to your personal Lightyear account. Likewise, if they are held in a business account, they can be transferred to your Lightyear business account.

How can I start the process to transfer my investments into Lightyear?

  1. Make sure that your current broker can process transfers out of their platform.
  2. Go to your profile on mobile or web and hit “Transfer your Portfolio”.
  3. You'll be prompted to select the account you wish to make the transfer into.
  4. Next, you need to select the instrument you wish to transfer to us. The instrument you want to transfer must be available on Lightyear and tradable on the same exchange and currency as on our platform. See our stock screener, fund screener, and bond screener for our entire selection and ensure the instrument exchange and currency matches with what you hold. If you don't find your instrument in the list, this means we don’t have it in our selection and can’t accept this transfer.
  5. For a stock transfer, we accept whole shares and the value of each position must be at least $/£/€ 1000. You can only transfer exercised, regular stocks – Lightyear does not accept non-qualified stock options (NSO). For a bond transfer, the minimal order size is 1 bond and therefore the minimal order value is the market price of 1 bond.
  6. As a last step, you need to pick your broker, so we can send you a guide which you can use when creating a transfer request on their side. All you need to do then is follow our guide to initiate a transfer from your current broker and then we’ll take over for the rest! If you can't find your broker on the list, select "Other".

Where can I transfer my investments over from?

  • We can accept a transfer from almost any broker that facilitates transfers out of their platform but in the app you'll find a list and guides specific to brokers from which transfers are commonly initiated.
  • It’s crucial that you initiate a transfer on your current broker’s platform. We can only start processing it once we receive their confirmation.
To help you, we have created detailed step-by-step guides for the following brokers, which we’ll provide you after you’ve started the transfer in our app. We do our best to keep these instructions up-to-date but note that the flow can change depending on your broker's platform and processes. It’s always best to consult directly with your sending broker as they are the experts of the request you're submitting on their platform:

How much does the transfer cost?

We don’t charge you for the transfer but your current broker might, so please be aware of any costs during the process. Your current broker might ask you to pay or sell some of the stock to cover for the transfer fee.

How long does it take?

There are only a few steps required from you to initiate the transfer. At present, this is a manual process. The time it takes for transfers to appear in your Lightyear account may vary, and it often depends on the practices of your existing broker. If your existing broker uses older systems, the process may take longer or involve additional complexities.
Please note that as the transfer timeline is largely controlled by the originating broker and requires their action, we can’t unfortunately speed up the process. We'll aim to keep you updated throughout via app notifications.

Can I transfer my investments out of Lightyear?

We can help with transfers out, but for now, it's something we handle case-by-case while we work on finalising this feature in the app. We'll do our best to support your request, depending on what's possible at the moment.
If you'd like to request an instrument transfer out of Lightyear, send us an email from your verified email address at transfers@lightyear.com with the following details:
  • Which instruments you'd like to transfer out
  • How many shares of each
  • The name of the receiving institution
Once we have that information, our team will review your request and get back to you with the next steps. Moving investments out of your account involves fees charged by our broker partners. These can vary depending on the instruments you're sending, and we can confirm the amounts as part of the process.
Alternatively, or in case your transfer cannot be facilitated, you can liquidate your positions and transfer the funds back to your bank account.
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support@lightyear.com