Children Pensions

TanyaMaire

Hi

I was hoping someone would be able to give me advise on a childs pension, the only one I've seen is with Virgin.

I know at 10 my child's a bit young but I think its better to save for a pension than to just put money in a saving account.

I know he can save up to £2,800 a year but apart from that I'm at a lost, any help would be great, thanks.

McKneff

:wave:Hello there and welcome to the boards:)

Please remember, when you put funds in a pension they cease to belong to you and you cannot access them until (under present legislation) till you are 55.

Wouldnt it be wiser to save for them for University, or property, when they will need the help more. Like tuition fees (so no debt)
A deposit on property so less mortgage to pay. So many people come on here asking if they can cash in their pension as they need the money desperately and unfortunately you cannot cash in a pension, it must be very frustratin having £50K in a pension and struggle to find a deposit to buy a property.

They have plenty of time when they start work to build up their own pension after uni/marriage

Just my own personal thoughts.

sunil1234

TanyaMaire wrote: »

Hi

I was hoping someone would be able to give me advise on a childs pension, the only one I've seen is with Virgin.

I know at 10 my child's a bit young but I think its better to save for a pension than to just put money in a saving account.

I know he can save up to £2,800 a year but apart from that I'm at a lost, any help would be great, thanks.

£2880 and the tax relief gross makes it £3600

ta

sunil1234

McKneff wrote: »

:wave:Hello there and welcome to the boards:)

Please remember, when you put funds in a pension they cease to belong to you and you cannot access them until (under present legislation) till you are 55.

Wouldnt it be wiser to save for them for University, or property, when they will need the help more. Like tuition fees (so no debt)
A deposit on property so less mortgage to pay. So many people come on here asking if they can cash in their pension as they need the money desperately and unfortunately you cannot cash in a pension, it must be very frustratin having £50K in a pension and struggle to find a deposit to buy a property.

They have plenty of time when they start work to build up their own pension after uni/marriage

Just my own personal thoughts.

well it depends on whether you think the kids will be responsible enough at an earlier age. Some just see a large sum of money at 18 and spank it. I have done both for my kids but kept the fund account in bare trust so i can control when they get it. If you do the other type they can demand it at 18 although this type has tax benefits.

the pros and cons for investing for children has been discussed quite a lot.

in closing might be better to split the money between both.

dunstonh

I was hoping someone would be able to give me advise on a childs pension, the only one I've seen is with Virgin.

Virtually every pension on the market is available for children. Its not a product specific rule but pension rules. Virgin is pretty much one of the worst pensions you can buy.

Loughton_Monkey

dunstonh wrote: »

Virgin is pretty much one of the worst pensions you can buy.

Fully agreed, DH.

But what I find curious is that Virgin's "FTSE ALL SHARE" tracker has an exhorbitant 1% TER. Legal & General "FTSE ALL SHARE TRACKER" (retail) has a less exhorbitant, but uncompetitive 0.55% TER. Performance over 5 years, though, puts Virgin slightly ahead at 31.5% while L&G shows 30.0%.

Illogical, or what?

dunstonh

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Fully agreed, DH.

But what I find curious is that Virgin's "FTSE ALL SHARE" tracker has an exhorbitant 1% TER. Legal & General "FTSE ALL SHARE TRACKER" (retail) has a less exhorbitant, but uncompetitive 0.55% TER. Performance over 5 years, though, puts Virgin slightly ahead at 31.5% while L&G shows 30.0%.

Illogical, or what?

Illogical perhaps but there could be a dealing point difference as the chart on mine shows certain days Virgin is above and certain days its below.

There may be some rounding on your figures compared to mine. I have 31.45% on virgin (you had 31.5) and 30.99% on L&G (you had 30.0).

The other thing to note that is possible here is that the charge for the stakeholder on Virgin is collected on the pension and not the fund and collected via cancellation of units.


Blackrock UK tracker, which is my preferred uk index tracker comes out at 33.53% over 5 years.

TanyaMaire

Thanks for the advice, I'll check all the pensions to see which is best but the comments about saving for University fee's may win the day!

:T