Help with deciding which Child Trust Fund

wazza24

Hi there i have recently been looking at my 2 sons CTF's one is with the Halifax (UK FTSE Index Tracking fund accumulation shares) and the other is with the Share centre (Legal & General UK Index R Acc Fund).

can anyone advise which is the best way to compare these funds, i am thinking of transfering the halifax one to the share centre, as it looks like it isnt doing as well as the share centre one. any advise would be great thanks.....:)

wazza24

just a note i phoned up both halifax and the share centre today after posting this and was shocked. the ctf with halifax had 1.5 years extra time and is currently £200 less in value, unbelievable

snowcat53

wazza24 wrote: »

just a note i phoned up both halifax and the share centre today after posting this and was shocked. the ctf with halifax had 1.5 years extra time and is currently £200 less in value, unbelievable

Well no, not unbelievable. These are both UK FTSE index trackers which go up and down, so the return will depend critically on when they started and when money went in. If the earlier one suffered the effects of the share slump in 2008 it will look worse. Of course you so also need to check the relative charges on the 2 funds and if they are tracking the same index (100 or allshare).

In the long run (which you are of course looking at here) we all hope shares will do better than cash and low interest accounts

wazza24

Thanks for that snowcat, one is tracking the all share and one is tracking the ftse 100, i am def confused now which one is likely to do best, how am i meant to know or is it just a gamble?

atush

The ftse 100 is the 100 biggest companies by value in the UK. The all share is all the companies int he ftse. So they do differently at different times with sometimes smaller companies outperforming larger and vise versa.

Currently many see the bigger companies as 'value' due to the dividend yields of many. But smaller companies can move faster and sometimes be more flexible. So really, the question is where do YOU see value and what do you think will happen int he economy in the next 5-10 years.

wazza24

Thanks all, think i'll go witht he L&G All Tracker...:)

snowcat53

You could also take a look at F&C CTFs - their range (non-stakeholder) have generally low charges and the F&C Investment Trust is a solid performer. My son's CTF is with them, split between that one and the Global smaller companies fund (more risky but potentially more growth)

http://www.fandc.com/new/it/Default.aspx?id=95341

ses6jwg

I opted for Family Investments purely because it seems to be an OK performer, isn't solely UK based (which a lot of CTFs seem to be), but they also offer the facility to view the account online which updates every day allowing you to track the balance.

They also offer cashback if you transfer via Topcashback, and they offer various vouchers etc very few months for altering a DD

xylophone

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1587994/Junior-Isa-Child-Trust-Fund-How-save-children.html
http://www.myeggnest.com/info/compare.aspx

wazza24

Had a look at F&C, snowcat. looks pretty good. with out being to nosey, what sorta returns has ur CTF been seeing? what i am wondering is how worth it is it to take the extra risk?

Thanks again

snowcat53

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/2011/04/my-child-trust-fund-selections.html
Reassuring to me to see Andrew Oxlade chose the same funds!

The performance links in the article no longer work but just looked them up (Feb 2012 monthly factsheet data)

F&C Inv trust +46.9% over 3 yr, +18,2% over 5yr
F&C Global Smaller companies +104.3% over 3 yr, +21.3 % over 5 yr

http://www.fandc.com/new/it/Default.aspx?id=78413 - click the monthly factsheet link on right

I am willing to take some risks for growth, but will probably switch most into the Inv trust / cash as approach maturity