F&C Childrens Investment Plans - New Charges

xylophone

so any suggestions as to what I should do next will be gratefully received.

Move to another provider? https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/overview
https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/account-providers
If there is very little in the accounts and you don't wish to add might as well be cash?

margaretclare

atush wrote: »

M,

you could open a new plan re both of the girls, and just have one. would halve the charges. Transfer the old ones to this new one before the changes maybe?

As your plan is unwrapped, you can mess around with it and even close it.

Thanks for this. I may well just close it down.

Thanks for the info about Friendly Societies. Many of the savings plans for grandchildren require involvement of the parents, as do Junior ISAs.

Invesco used to have one, long before ISAs were thought of, anyone remember it? What was it called, and have they still got one?

JayScottGreenspan

The real scandal here is that probably 90% of affected customers are busy parents who won't get around to reading the letter and/or switching accounts - and their childrens' funds will be wiped out by these charges.

It stinks.

jimjim47

We have 5 Fand C Private Investor Plans for our 5 grandchildren. We have 5 of these letters stating that we will be charged £40 +VAT per year for each of them. I asked FandC what they would be doing in return for my £240 per year but all they said was that they can convert them to childrens' plans for which the charge would "only" be £25 +VAT each.
A better option may be get them to convert the plans into direct share holdings. The charge for this is a one off fee of £12 per plan. Fand C would then not charge anything and would have all the trouble of sending out dividends which we would probably not invest in their trusts. This option is fine for us but will probably not work for child trust funds.

Biggles

jimjim47 wrote: »

A better option may be get them to convert the plans into direct share holdings. The charge for this is a one off fee of £12 per plan.

Yes, I'm considering this option, I already use an online broker for direct share investment.

Trouble is, I'm unsure whether they would then continue to be in the bare trusts that I have set up and, if so, whether this would incur charges from a broker?

jimjames

jimjim47 wrote: »

We have 5 Fand C Private Investor Plans for our 5 grandchildren. We have 5 of these letters stating that we will be charged £40 +VAT per year for each of them. I asked FandC what they would be doing in return for my £240 per year but all they said was that they can convert them to childrens' plans for which the charge would "only" be £25 +VAT each.
A better option may be get them to convert the plans into direct share holdings. The charge for this is a one off fee of £12 per plan. Fand C would then not charge anything and would have all the trouble of sending out dividends which we would probably not invest in their trusts. This option is fine for us but will probably not work for child trust funds.

Thanks for this info. I've checked my paperwork again and it appears that F&C have set one of my accounts up incorrectly as a Private Investor plan not Childrens PLan hence the difference in charges when I had 2 letters with different amounts.

I wonder if we can have a single account with REF: ALL NAMES on it so only paying 1 charge and then split the money in the proportions we see fit.

jaybeetoo

I tried calling F&C but they are engaged (surprise, surprise!).

Anyone know what they charge to transfer F&C shares in a Children's Account to another broker e.g. Hargreaves & Lansdown?

I know H&L wont charge me anything for holding the shares.

jimjames

jaybeetoo wrote: »

I tried calling F&C but they are engaged (surprise, surprise!).

Anyone know what they charge to transfer F&C shares in a Children's Account to another broker e.g. Hargreaves & Lansdown?

I know H&L wont charge me anything for holding the shares.

HL charge 0.5% pa for holding shares in ISA. I think you would be hit by the sell fee from F&C and then the buy charge from HL to move them over to them.

jaybeetoo

jimjames wrote: »

HL charge 0.5% pa for holding shares in ISA. I think you would be hit by the sell fee from F&C and then the buy charge from HL to move them over to them.

Thanks for that.

I managed to get through to F&C at the 3rd attempt. I can transfer the shares without selling them. I have to complete the HL transfer form.

F&C charge £12 + VAT for each type of share.

I need to decide if I should sell the F&C shares and invest elsewhere or transfer them to HL.

jaybeetoo

jimjames wrote: »

HL charge 0.5% pa for holding shares in ISA. I think you would be hit by the sell fee from F&C and then the buy charge from HL to move them over to them.

Thanks for that.

I managed to get through to F&C at the 3rd attempt. I can transfer the shares without selling them. I have to complete the HL transfer form and F&C charge £12 + VAT for each trust holding.

I need to decide if I should sell the F&C shares (£12+VAT) and invest elsewhere or transfer them to HL (and pay 0.5% a year) or leave them with F&C.