Can you inherit your spouse's ISA and keep the tax wrapper?
A surviving spouse or civil partner can subscribe an additional amount equal to the value of the deceased's ISA, on top of their own annual allowance. The money itself passes under the will like any other asset; what is inherited is the room to put an equivalent sum back inside a wrapper.
- Who qualifies: a surviving spouse or civil partner, and nobody else.
- What is inherited: an additional subscription allowance, not the account itself.
- How much: the ISA's value at the date of death, or when the account is closed, whichever is used.
- The deadline: generally three years from the date of death, or 180 days after administration completes.
01 What is actually inherited
The ISA itself ends on death. The investments pass under the will, and from that point they sit outside a tax wrapper like any other inherited asset. What the survivor receives is an additional permitted subscription — an extra allowance equal to the value of the deceased's ISA.
That means a surviving spouse can subscribe their own £20,000 plus the value of the ISA in the same tax year. On a £140,000 ISA that is £160,000 of subscription room in one year, which no other mechanism provides.
It is available only to a spouse or civil partner. Children and other beneficiaries inherit the money without any additional allowance, and can only rewrap it at £20,000 a year.
Shows: the subscription room available to a surviving spouse in a single tax year. Ignores: the deadline, whether the provider accepts the subscription, and any Inheritance Tax on the estate.
On the defaults above, the worked example shows £160,000. Without the additional permitted subscription, rewrapping £140,000 would take about 7 years of ordinary allowances.
Source: Inheriting ISAs
02 How the value is fixed
The additional allowance is based on the value of the ISA either at the date of death or at the point the account is closed, depending on which basis applies. Since 2018 ISAs can continue as continuing accounts of a deceased investor for a period, during which growth remains tax free.
The distinction matters where markets have moved. Where the account has grown since death, the higher basis gives a larger allowance, and it is worth asking the provider which figure they are using.
The subscription does not have to be funded from the inherited money. It can come from any source — savings, the sale of another asset — so a survivor with cash elsewhere can use the allowance even if the ISA money is needed for something else.
03 Claiming it before the deadline
The allowance is generally available for three years from the date of death, or until 180 days after the administration of the estate is complete if that is later. It is not applied automatically: the survivor has to tell a provider they are using an additional permitted subscription.
Providers are not all equally familiar with it, and not every provider accepts them. Where the existing provider does not, the allowance can usually be used with another, though the process differs.
It is one of the most commonly missed entitlements in the whole ISA regime, because it arrives at a point when nobody is thinking about subscription limits. Adding it to the list of things to handle after a bereavement is what stops it being lost — alongside the rest of the survivor's paperwork.
Source: Inheriting ISAs
This is one of the most valuable entitlements in the ISA rules and one of the least claimed, because it arrives in the weeks when nobody is thinking about subscription limits. A surviving spouse can put the whole value of their partner's ISA back inside a wrapper on top of their own allowance — on a £140,000 ISA that is worth years of tax-free growth. It has to be claimed, some providers do not offer it, and the window is three years. Put it on the list with the probate paperwork.
FAQ
Do I inherit my spouse's ISA account?
No. The account ends and the investments pass under the will. What a surviving spouse inherits is an additional subscription allowance equal to the ISA's value, which lets them put an equivalent sum back inside a wrapper.
Can children inherit the allowance?
No. The additional permitted subscription is available to a spouse or civil partner only. Other beneficiaries inherit the money without any extra allowance and can rewrap it at £20,000 a year.
How long do I have to use it?
Generally three years from the date of death, or 180 days after the estate's administration completes if that is later. It has to be claimed with a provider rather than applied automatically.
Sources
Regulator references
- Inheriting ISAs · GOV.UK · 2025The additional permitted subscription a surviving spouse can claim.Last verified: 2026-09-07
- Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) · GOV.UK · 2025The annual subscription limit and the rules on transfers between ISAs.Last verified: 2026-09-07
Calculator unit tests · the assertions this page's worked example is checked against, and their last result
Changelog
- 2026-09-07 — initial publish (new format)
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Jordan Reeves
Founder of Talk Through Wealth. A software engineer for over a decade before turning to retirement planning, Jordan built the projection engine after watching family members get fragmented, country-by-country advice that never reconciled. He writes about retirement the way the engine computes it: month-by-month, lifetime-long, and skeptical of any rule of thumb that hasn't been run through the math.