Closest equivalent to child trust fund?

Macgirl78

Hi there, i hope someone can help and this isn't readily available anywhere else on here (if so sorry)

Basically, we have a 9 year old who received the child trust fund money of £250 at birth £50 at 2 and then we started putting £20 a month in when he turned 7 (and we could afford to).

We have recently had another child and obviously the ctf is no longer available but we would like to set up an account for her that is as similar in yield (interest rate etc) as our son's. We have the £250 and would want to put in the same amounts at the same intervals (to be fair and all to both our children).

Can anyone advise a relevant account please.

Many thanks

C

dunstonh

Junior ISA is the modern equivalent.

Solsol

We have a Junior ISA for my 18 month old. Went with Nationwide as the interest rate was the best at time of opening (3ish% can't remember exactly) and was still the best rate for this financial year too so we've stayed with it.

You can't withdraw the money until they turn 18 (they can also open an adult ISA at the age of 16 if they want to meaning you can contribute twice their tax free allowance for two years if you have the money or try and encourage them to start saving their own money.)

I've been paying in £50 a month and it should hopefully give him a good headstart on a deposit when he is eventually buying his own house (seeing how difficult it is for people to get on the ladder nowadays I can only assume it'll be worse by the time our LOs are old enough!):(

Macgirl78

That's great thank you.
Solsol, i know what you mean - we were thinking about university too
Things might get better

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/junior-individual-savings-accounts/overview

The JISA is considered more flexible - transfer of CTF to JISA should be possible from April 2015.https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-allow-child-trust-funds-to-transfer-to-junior-isas

http://www.juniorisas.org/html/compare.html?gclid=CPLL0Zvs778CFamWtAodDjQAxQ

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/junior-isa

JasX

you'd probably want to put it into a stocks and shares type affair if you'll be doing this steadily over 18 years won't you tho?

especially if the alternative is a paltry 2-3% each year....

Solsol

JasX I have thought about stocks and shares because obviously money will depreciate over 18 years but don't know the first thing about it I haven't a clue where to begin!

I should really look into it - anyone got any advice on this?

xylophone

don't know the first thing about it I haven't a clue where to begin!

Have a look at the links in post 5.

https://www.hl.co.uk/free-guides/investing-for-children

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1587994/Junior-Isa-Child-Trust-Fund-How-save-invest-children.html
might be worth a look.

Solsol

Thanks xylophone I'd like to open a S&S ISA so that the money holds it's value over the years so will open one for LO and currently keeping our savings in our Santander 123 account due to higher interest rate than ISA. Will be keeping our cash there so it's readily available but will drip feed into S&S for LO

Thanks for the advice

JasX

Best bet would be looking into one that'll let you invest it into a few different 'funds' (ie you but units in the fund, the fund invests in a raft of different companies to spread the risk around) a lot of them are much of a muchness so long as you keep a close eye on fees (I don't know if fund supermarket type places offer these in junior form?).

My philosophy is get as broad a mix as you can get ie some (mostly) 'equity' based funds, probably the larger share in something 'UK major companies' based, maybe a smaller part in a US or European or 'smaller companies' fund. maybe even a tiny slice (5-15%) in something emerging markets focused. Typically you'll find these types of funds branded either by your bank (in which case triple check fees) or with other major providers eg Blackrock, Aberdeen, Artemis, Blackrock, JPMorgan, Standard Life etc etc