Transfer your US stock plan shares held with Fidelity SPS

Fidelity SPS and Fidelity International are separate companies that operate in different jurisdictions. If you live in the UK, you can still hold shares in a Fidelity Stock Plan Account in the US, but there are limits on what you can do with them.

A Stock Plan is a benefit that companies provide to grant their employees the ability to receive or buy shares of company stock as part of their employee compensation. The shares are held in an account called a Stock Plan Account.

When you transfer your Stock Plan Account shares into an Investment Account with us, they'll be transferred as they are, without having to sell your shares to cash, and then you can choose to:

• sell or keep them as they are
• diversify and take advantage of our award-winning products and services
• transfer any other investments you hold elsewhere, so that everything can be managed in one place.

Whole shares will be brought over to your Fidelity Investment Account in the UK as they are (this transfer is known as an ‘in specie’ transfer), without the need to convert the shares to cash.

If your Stock Plan Account still holds share awards that have not yet been distributed, then these will remain in your Stock Plan Account. Once you've received confirmation that the shares have been distributed, you can then choose to transfer these from your Stock Plan Account to a Fidelity UK account using the transfer process.

You can only transfer to a Fidelity UK Investment Account once the awards are vested and any active instructions are executed or cancelled.

You won’t be liable for capital gains tax (CGT) as we're transferring your shares 'in specie', without having to sell your shares to cash. If you are unsure about your overall tax position, you should consult HMRC guidance or a tax adviser.

We won't be able to transfer any cash held in your US Stock Plan Account to your Investment Account, as we don’t currently support cash transfers. However, we will be offering this service in the future.

But you do have options for transferring cash held in your US Stock Plan Account. You can leave it in the account for now or send instructions to NetBenefits to withdraw the cash. Foreign exchange charges may apply on cash transactions.

We will only transfer across whole shares of any stocks currently held in your Stock Plan Account. Any fractional shares will be left in the Stock Plan Account held with Fidelity SPS.

Yes, as you live in the UK and have US stocks, depending on the type of shares you hold, you may need to complete a new W-8BEN form (even if you've already completed one on NetBenefits), which reduces the amount of tax the US government charges you on any income earned from US shares from 30% to 15%. Fidelity, in common with other investment platforms, requires customers dealing in US shares to provide a W-8BEN form within two weeks of the transfer request. It's quick and easy to complete your W-8BEN online and, if required, you’ll be directed to this form once you start the transfer process.

Once you’ve completed the W-8BEN in the Profile section of your account, under 'Preference centre' > 'Investing in US shares (W-8BEN)', the form will be valid for 3 years. You won’t need anything else to trade and hold US shares.

Once you've submitted the necessary information online, it takes an average of six weeks to complete - this allows us to do all the necessary checks for moving your stock plan shares from the US to the UK.

We cannot reinvest dividends from the US directly into your Fidelity UK Investment Account, so these dividend amounts will be converted into cash and will remain in your US Stock Plan Account. You can then choose to withdraw the cash into a bank account (fees and charges may apply), or leave the cash in your US Stock Plan Account until we have the ability to transfer cash over. This will require a separate instruction and we will let you know how to do this once this service is available. 

Any dividends or interest that you’ve earned, but not received, at the time of the transfer will remain in your Stock Plan Account and you can see them on NetBenefits. 

A blackout period is a specific window of time during which you cannot trade in your company's stock.

Yes, If you have an active US Stock Plan arrangement with your company, you must check whether any trading restrictions are in place with your current employer before selling any of your company shares.

You may have opted to receive your communications via email, but we will be sending out the acknowledgement letter and confirmation letter by post as we do with our standard account opening procedure.

We'll send you updates via text or email depending on how you've chosen to be contacted, except for the acknowledgement letter and confirmation letter which you'll receive by post. You can also check on progress by logging into your account, going to 'Manage Investments' then clicking on 'Track your transfer'.