F+C Child Investment Plan

dewmass

Hi,

I've been researching child investments over the weekend and the F+C Investment Plan looks a good option to me. I was hoping that someone with one of these would confirm its OK and also which blend of trusts to go for. I'm not over cautious and with the kids being less than 2 I should be able to afford to be fairly adventurous but I'm a complete novice! All help would be very welcome.

dunstonh

I was hoping that someone with one of these would confirm its OK and also which blend of trusts to go for.

That is a regulated area of financial advice and we cant recommend funds here.

I'm not over cautious and with the kids being less than 2 I should be able to afford to be fairly adventurous but I'm a complete novice!

A sentence that swings back and forth on the risk profile and doesnt give us enough to go on.

Some things to note are that childrens investments are often inside a life fund wrapper. Whilst this has some benefits to some people it can have disadvantages to others. Often a regular saving unit trust can be cheaper and more tax efficient (but also not as tax efficient depending on your personal circumstances). Whilst single premium life fund investments have dropped in cost massively in recent years, regular contribution plans havent. This can make regular contribution unit trusts better value for money as their pricing doesnt change whether you put in £20pm or £200.

dewmass

dunstonh wrote:

A sentence that swings back and forth on the risk profile and doesnt give us enough to go on.

.

It wasn't very good at all really was it? More specifically, I don't mind a moderate level of risk and am planning to pay £50 a month into the trust. I am of the opinion that over the course of 18 years stocks will be a better investment than cash but as I say I'm a complete newbie and would welcome suggestions

Milarky

You'll have next to nothing in the account in the first year (starting almost from scratch with £50 per month added) a bit in the second year, and so on, building up gradually.

To my mind this means you don't have to be cautious at all! Just split the investment in the simplest way possible (eg 20% more volatile stocks sector 80% general or large cap sector - that replacates the 'all share' FSTE which has 80% in the 100 and 20% in the 250 BTW but it wasn't meant to - simply to illustrate a prudent division) and drip feed your premiums into the account. Remember that these companies won't go bust - they'll just move in line with the relevent sectors of companies which make up their holdings.

Then if your 20% outperfroms - which it ought to - your 80% you will see this in a creeping up from 20% of the total value of the holding. You could put it all your premiums into the equivalent of the FTSE 100 of course - and not splitting them at all, of course.