Transfer your US stock plan shares or cash to Fidelity
Welcome to our dedicated page which will help you move your Stock Plan Account shares or cash held in the US with Fidelity Stock Plan Services (SPS) to a new investment account with Fidelity in the UK.
Important information - please keep in mind that the value of investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on personal circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. You cannot normally access money in a SIPP until age 55 (57 from 2028). This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.
Our service fee
Your US Stock Plan Account shares
There's no charge to set up an account or transfer investments to us. If you transfer your US shares from your Fidelity Stock Plan Account and do nothing else, you'll incur no service fee on your Investment Account as it holds shares which are a type of exchange-traded investment (shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), investment trusts).
However, if you decide to transfer and sell or diversify your investments then these are our share dealing charges and service fee rates:
- If you transfer from your US Stock Plan Account and sell any of your shares, in your Investment Account, we'll charge £7.50 per trade for online deals (£30 for phone deals) plus up to 0.75% FX fee.
- We charge £1.50 for deals to buy shares as part of a regular savings plan, or for a reinvestment of a dividend.
- If you buy funds in your Investment Account - even if you still hold some shares, then a service fee will apply as set out in the table below.
- Once you've transferred, if you move your money into an ISA or SIPP, or have other accounts as well as your Investment Account, we'll charge a service fee on those accounts.
The table below shows how our service fee (where applicable) changes as your investments increase.
Please read the Doing Business with Fidelity document for more detail on our fees and charges.
| Value of investments | Service fee (annual amount or %) |
|---|---|
| Less than £25,000 | 0.35% if you have a regular savings plan or £90 (£7.50 a month) if you don't |
| £25,000 or more but less than £250,000 | 0.35% |
| £250,000 or more but less than £1 million | 0.20% |
| £1 million+ | 0.20% a year for the first £1 million and no service fee for investments over £1 million. This means the maximum fee you will ever pay for all of your personal accounts is £2,000 a year. |
The same service fee is charged across all of your investments. So, if you hold £300,000 - the fee would be 0.20% across the full amount. For exchange-traded instruments, this portion of the fee is capped at £90 (£7.50 a month) and there is no service fee for these investments when held in the Fidelity Investment Account. There’s also no fee for investments held in a Junior ISA or Junior SIPP.
When you pay service fees, they are always taken from your Cash Management Account.
- If you have cash in there, we will take your fees from this rather than any tax-wrapped ISA and SIPP investments you may have.
- If you don't have enough cash in there, we will sell from your investments to make up the outstanding balance and transfer that to the Cash Management Account. When we do this, we have a hierarchy and start by selling from your largest investment by value and by asset class. This means for example we would take the fee from the largest fund before we take it from an exchange-traded fund or investment trust.
Investment charges set by companies managing your funds
Ongoing fund charges are set by the companies who manage the funds and start from 0.05%.
Some funds may also have:
- a bid-offer spread, which is effectively a charge applied when you buy or sell
- a performance fee
- a fund manager buy or sell charge
We’ve negotiated discounted ongoing charges on hundreds of funds on our platform. We recommend checking each investment's factsheet for more information, as investment charges can differ between funds.
Share dealing and other charges
- As we've mentioned above, there is a charge made for each buy and sell transaction you place (including switches and dividend reinvestments). This will be deducted from the amount invested or raised through a sale.
- £1.50 for deals as part of a regular savings or withdrawal plan, or for a reinvestment of income or a dividend.
- Simple charge of £7.50 for each deal placed online
- Phone trades are charged £30.00 for each deal.
- Foreign exchange charge of up to 0.75% applies for dealing in international shares that are not in sterling.
- Stamp Duty, levies and taxes:
- UK Stamp Duty of 0.5% applies when you buy UK shares
- Irish Stamp Duty of 1.0% applies when you buy Irish shares
- UK and Irish Stamp Duty is also charged when selling UK or Irish shares listed on an international stock exchange (the tax will reduce the price you get, rather than being taken separately) See T&Cs for details.
- In certain circumstances UK Panel of Takeovers and Mergers levy of £1.50 applies on UK share deals of over £10,000. See T&Cs for details.
- In certain circumstances Irish Takeover Panel levy of €1.25 applies on Irish share deals of over €12,500. See T&Cs for details.
Download the Doing Business with Fidelity document for more fees and charges information.
You'll be pleased to know that there are many things that we don't charge for, including:
- Service fees on junior accounts and exchange-traded investments held in an Investment Account
- Service fees on cash held in your accounts
- Exit fees
- Buying, switching or selling funds
How and when we take our fee
We deduct your service fee around the 1st of every month. This is calculated based on the total value of your investments held over the previous month.
If you hold any joint accounts we include them when we are adding up all of your investments to work out what service fee you pay. This ensures that you will pay the lowest possible rate.
The total value is then divided by 12 to determine the monthly amount that’s taken from your individual account.
When you pay service fees, they are always taken from your Cash Management Account.
- If you have cash in there, we will take your fees from this cash. This helps protect any tax-wrapped ISA and SIPP investments you may have, as it allows you to pay these fees from separate cash.
- If you don't have enough cash in there, we will sell from your investments to make up the outstanding balance and transfer that to the Cash Management Account. When we do this, we have a hierarchy and start by selling from your largest investment by value and by asset class. This means for example we would take the fee from the largest fund before we take it from an exchange-traded fund or investment trust.
Currently, you're only able to transfer investments from your US Stock Plan Account into a single Investment Account. However, when we open up this service to joint accounts, we'll deduct your service fee around the 1st of every month. This is calculated based on the total value of your investments held over the previous month.
If you hold any other accounts outside of your joint account, we do not include them when we are adding up your investments to work out what service fee you pay. The service fee payable on a joint account is calculated on that account only.
The total value is divided by 12 to determine the monthly amount that’s taken from your joint accounts.
When you pay service fees, they are always taken from your Cash Management Account.
- If you have cash in there, we will take your fees from this cash. This helps protect any tax-wrapped ISA and SIPP investments you may have, as it allows you to pay these fees from separate cash.
- If you don't have enough cash in there, we will sell from your investments to make up the outstanding balance and transfer that to the Cash Management Account. When we do this, we have a hierarchy and start by selling from your largest investment by value and by asset class. This means for example we would take the fee from the largest fund before we take it from an exchange-traded fund or investment trust.
In most cases, this won’t make any difference to what you pay, as taking 0.35% from two accounts separately is the same as taking 0.35% from the accounts added together.
However, if you hold £15,000 in an individual account (such as an ISA) and £15,000 in a joint account then you’d pay the 0.35% service fee on the individual account (as the total value of investments is over £25,000 [£15,000+£15,000=£30,000]) plus the £90 (£7.50 a month) a year fee on the joint account (as it’s below £25,000) - unless the joint account has a regular savings plan of at least £25.
Our quick and easy-to-use calculator will estimate your fees within a couple of minutes. As investment charges vary depending on which fund you invest in, this tool is only meant as a guide. If your needs are more complex, consider talking to our financial advisers.
Fidelity fees if you also use an adviser
The fees mentioned above are for investments held directly with Fidelity.
If you hold some investments through a financial adviser, then the charges will be different from the ones you hold directly with us.
We suggest you speak with your financial adviser to find out more about what charges and fees will be applied.
Other fees for US shares in non-US companies
An American Depositary Share (ADS) is a share held in non-US companies which can be bought or sold on US stock exchanges. These shares are registered in the American Depositary Receipt (ADR) system.
An American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is a certificate issued by a U.S. bank which allows non-US companies, to list their shares (or ADSs) on the U.S. stock exchanges.
If you hold ADS shares in non-US companies then there is an annual ADR holding fee that is paid to the American bank or broker which lists the shares (or ADSs) on the U.S. stock exchanges. This is because creating and issuing ADRs entail periodic service fees, or "pass-through fees", intended to compensate the American agent bank for providing their services. The fee is then passed on to the companies holding the shares (ADSs), and then onto the individuals owning these shares. Usually the ADR fee is deducted from any dividend payments due but if there is no dividend payable then shareholders have to pay the ADR fee due via the account they hold the shares in.
This is a common practice across the market and not a Fidelity fee but which if there is no dividend, has to be paid from your Fidelity cash management account if you hold ADSs.
The fee is dependent on the number of shares held on a fixed date known as the ADR record date and it typically ranges between USD $0.01-0.05 cents per share. For example if the fee is set at 2 cents per share the fee could be:
- If you hold 100 shares x 2 cents, then the charges would be $2.
- If you hold 1,000 shares, then the fee would be $20 etc.
The fee will be deducted in GBP at an exchange rate to be determined.
This fee is an annual fee but the date this must be paid will depend on the ADR's record date and how many shares you hold on that date. Usually the ADR fee is deducted from any dividend payments due but if there is no dividend payable then shareholders have to pay the ADR fee due via the account they hold their shares in.
If you are not holding any shares at that time, the fee will not apply to you.
The fee (if there is no dividend) will be automatically deducted from the cash balance on your cash management account with Fidelity after the ADR record date, typically 7 business days of the following month. This means that if the ADR record date was on 27 August 2024, it is likely the fee will be charged on September 10, 2024 although this may be subject to change.
Please note we collect any fees due from your cash management account, so please ensure there is money available in here. You can add cash to your account online here. If you do not have enough cash available, we may take money or sell investments held in other accounts for example your ISA or Investment Account to cover this fee.
