ISA allowance raised to £15,000

The much publicised changes to the ISA rules take effect from today. Anyone who has already maxed out their ISA will be able to pay an extra £3,120 this tax year.
The total one can invest has increased from £11,880 before next April, to £15,000.
 
Despite the flexibility around taking money out of pensions, ISAs remain a valuable tax incentivised savings vehicle especially for those who have already paid the maximum to their pension.


Here is my blog post from 2012 (it still stands) on cash ISAs for people with investment portfolios
http://greenfinancial.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/cash-isas-for-investment-clients-of.html
The high street institutions may be attempting to tempt people with advertisements for cash ISAs but is a cash ISA worth having?

Nationally, Only 26% of individuals earning between £100k - £150k maxed out their ISAs. Over 85% of Clients of Green Financial have, for the most part, already used the new allowance. The funds were ready to invest, in the non-ISA part of their portfolio and will be moved in to the tax free element today, thus maximising the time their investments are tax free. And we do all of this as part of our service. There remains no charge for new or existing clients to add to their ISAs.


2012/13 subscriptions Cash: £40 billion, Non-cash: £16billion

£443 billion was held in ISAs (as at April 2013) split almost 50:50 between cash and non-cash