Another Child Savings Question...

hanon

I'm looking for some sort of investment account for both of my kids.

One has a CTF and one is eligable for a Junior Isa. The CTF is not performing particularly well and Junior ISAs don't seem to be getting very good reviews.

Ideally I would like;
the same type of savings for both of them
the investment to be based on stocks and shares, not cash
the investment to be a managed fund
the management charges not to be excessive

I don't mind the kids having access to the savings when they turn 18 - it is their responsbility to spend it wisely although I may live to regret saying that!

Sums involved are not large. Initial investment will be less then £1000 for each child. Monthly I hope to be able to pay in £50 each hopefully increasing next year.

Does anyone have any ideas? Am I asking the impossible?

Thanks in advance!

jimjames

Aberdeen offer plans from £30 pm, F&C have plans from £25 pm so both are well within your budget and have very low fees.

Not sure of the reviews of Junior ISA, it is just a wrapper so performance will depend on what you put inside it.

HL are one of the biggest Junior ISA providers and offer 2500+ funds so plenty of choice!

xylophone

Except in tax privileged accounts like the JISA, there is the "£100 rule" to consider when income is earned on money provided by a parent .
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/individuals/savings-income.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tdsi/children.htm

You might as well use the JISA for the child who is eligible? https://www.gov.uk/junior-individual-savings-accounts/overview

Performance depends on what is in the account - and remember you can split the JISA between stockmarket and cash if you wish.

With regard to cash, if you /your wife, (whichever is the contact for the JISA )has an ISA with Halifax (or is prepared to open one), there is a "relationship" interest rate of 6% on offer on the cash part of the JISA
http://www.halifax.co.uk/isas/?WT.seg_3=Common/promotion/savings/hlinkd/saving-isasonli-lnkd-isasonli00JISA
You could open a JISA through HL and choose your own funds? http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/junior-isa

http://www.juniorisas.org/html/compare.html

If you are unhappy with the CTF you might consider another provider?
https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/overview

hanon

Thanks for the replies.

Ideally I was looking for plans which would suit both of my kids but it doesn't sound ideal.

I've looked at so many Junior ISAs and having multiple funds to select from was actually something I was trying to avoid - I'd prefer a managed option. I'll happily admit I don't have the skills, time or knowledge to be able to choose funds for them - I'd rather rely on an experts.

How about...

- The Children's ISA - managed
- Family Investments - managed

I did try a post URLs I but I understand this is restricted for newbies like Myself.


Thanks.

xylophone

You might find this of interest as you deliberate http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/03/beware-junior-stocks-and-shares-isa-offers-282002/
http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/investments/buy-junior/

If you look at the HL website, you will find a lot of information about funds- you could read up and then perhaps use the Cavendish if cheaper?

jimjames

hanon wrote: »

How about...

- The Children's ISA - managed
- Family Investments - managed

Even with these 2 options you still have to choose between options for funds.

http://thechildrensisa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Low-Cost-Fact-Sheet.pdf

With other plans you can also choose but there are easy default options where the manager handles the fund and chooses which proportion of investments to use worldwide (eg F&C investment trust)

This is the F&C plan
http://www.fandc.com/new/IT/Default.aspx?id=78401

You do also need to be aware of charges. The Childrens ISA levies 1% initial charge and then additional charges of 0.4% and 0.6% per year (so total 1%) for one of their options, others may be different.

Family Investments charge 1.5% pa charges

F&C charge 0.2% transaction fee plus 0.5% stamp duty.

hanon

OK - having spend a ridiculous amount of time researching this I've finally opted for the F&C JISA and the F&C savings account.

So I sit down with a nice glass of red last night to set them up and transfer funds etc and......the site is down for maintenance!! Doh.

Never mind will do it in a minute.

Thanks for your help. Everytime I do something like this I am amazed at how difficult it seems for someone without much financial experience to get to the facts!

hanon

...and I've just tried again!

The service is currently unavailable due to system maintenance.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The service will resume later today.

BLoomin 'eck.

xylophone

a nice glass of red

Hope you haven't been pouring out all night....:D

Perhaps you could let us know how it all works out!