Pension for a new Grandchild

Merlin139

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I have put the question here as it was a Pension that started the question.

New Grandson born at the beginning of the month. We as Grandparents want to save money for new grandson. Came up with idea of a Pension. For that we needed original birth certificate.

On inspecting birth certificate we noticed that our son had put an extra name in his name. This then led to what did his birth certificate say? What did his passport say? What did his driving licence say?

Have changed names and letters so I do not reveal true identity.

Grandsons Birth Certificate. (Sons Name) Mike Romeo Golf Bravo

Sons Birth Certificate. Mike Romeo Bravo

Sons Passport. Mike Romeo Bravo also wrong spelling of place of Birth.

Sons Driving Licence. Mike Bravo

Sons Bank Account. Mike Romeo Bravo

Baptised as Mike Romeo Golf Bravo, During 1980's. We remember adding Golf during ceremony although Certificate of Baptism says Mike Romeo Bravo.

So 3 questions:

1. Is it important to change Fathers name on Grandsons new Birth Certificate at a cost of £95 or does it not make much difference?

2. If he wants to use Golf in his name does he need to change name by Deed Poll?

3. Does he need to change his driving licence?

Has anyone got any pensions advice about a pension for a Grandchild?

AnotherJoe

I only going to comment on your last point "Has anyone got any pensions advice about a pension for a Grandchild?" which is, do something else that he can use in a shorter time than maybe 60 years away.

Apart from the fact the god only knows what the pension landscape will be like in 60 years there are many events that grandson will be involved in such as education, training*, housing, perhaps illness, where the money will come in useful much sooner.

I would say a pension only comes in after you've exhausted all the other options, eg youve already put aside funds for education and housing.


* one of my friends children qualified as a pilot, his grandparents paid for the training effectively out of his share of the will but earlier. I'm sure he's grateful they did that rather than have that money locked away for another 40 years and of course he'll have a good pension anyway as a result of being a well paid pilot.

Brynsam

Take out a stakeholder pension. Cheap and cheerful and he can always transfer to a SIPP later in life, or whatever whizzy new product is around. There will always be other calls on cash, so having funds locked away in a pension might be very welcome in 65 years or so - but for all the reasons AnotherJoe has outlined, probably wise not to lock up too much cash.

Dox

Merlin139 wrote: »

So 3 questions:

1. Is it important to change Fathers name on Grandsons new Birth Certificate at a cost of £95 or does it not make much difference?

2. If he wants to use Golf in his name does he need to change name by Deed Poll?

3. Does he need to change his driving licence?

Totally confused by your post - wish you'd used more realistic names and perhaps made your grandchild female so the references would have been to him and her, not just 'him'!

1. If it's a very common name such as Smith or Patel, any identifier/level of accuracy will help in future, particularly in communications with 'officialdom'
2. Son or grandchild? Either way, he can call himself whatever he wants - but again, may have difficulty with officialdom in future years
3. Get him to ring DVLA to check.

xylophone

I was a Trustee for a minor - a stakeholder pension was opened for him but only after other saving and investment accounts for earlier in life were opened.

Remember (assuming that your grandchild has no relevant income, (likely unless he's a child actor/model etc) the maximum that can be contributed to a pension for him is £2880 which will be increased by tax relief of £720.

https://www.legalandgeneral.com/pensions-retirement/stakeholder-pensions/stakeholder-pension-for-children/

https://www.aviva.co.uk/stakeholder-pension/stakeholder-pensions-for-children.html

Has a Junior ISA been opened for your grandchild?

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

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/stocks-shares-junior-isa

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

https://www.charles-stanley.co.uk/junior-isas

Mojisola

Merlin139 wrote: »

New Grandson born at the beginning of the month. We as Grandparents want to save money for new grandson. Came up with idea of a Pension.

Always worth bearing in mind that there may be more Grandchildren in the future - will you be able to afford to do the same for them?

Alice_Holt

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I only going to comment on your last point "Has anyone got any pensions advice about a pension for a Grandchild?" which is, do something else that he can use in a shorter time than maybe 60 years away.

Apart from the fact the god only knows what the pension landscape will be like in 60 years there are many events that grandson will be involved in such as education.......housing, perhaps illness, where the money will come in useful much sooner.
.

I can quite understand this, but as a counterpoint:
1) Money put into a pension for them now, means less money too find in their 30's, 40's when they may have more pressing demands on household finances than funding their own pensions.
2) 60 years of compound growth.
3) The 20% tax uplift on contributions.
4) And as you say, the uncertainty of the pensions landscape, death of defined benefit schemes, etc

Murdina

Going back to the names, my understanding is that (currently anyway) they cross check to either passport or birth certificate when issueing a driving licence. So if one of his names has been omitted not sure that is necessarily his fault - but not having the various documents matching could theoretically be an issue if he presented licence and one of the other 2 as ID for something and the organisation to which presented were being particularly fussy.
As regards the Golf name cannot see this is an issue. Probably better not to use it given it does not match passport/birth certificate/driving licence & thus appears to have no "official" status (not that that matters in theory - you can call yourself what you like but these days with money laundering regs/ID checks it is not quite that simple). I think it is your son's look out not yours.
As to the pensions, I was discussing same with a friend who had done this for her children. I remember thinking at the time it seemed pointless unless you have shedloads of money and are also going to help them out sooner. I don't think she anticipated the way the housing market has developed in recent years for example. A junior ISA would be much better as allows more flexibility. What if (God forbid) they die before they reach their late 60s? Would it not have been nicer to have had the money to spend?

Merlin139

Thanks for all of the replies.

The figures we were looking at came to around £100 per month that we would contribute. This may not sound much to some people and is nowhere near the maximum of £2880 per year. It is a sum that we can easily afford and are happy to do. We could also afford to do it for a few more Grandchildren, but do not expect anymore.

We could put the money in other investments and let him have the money when he is 18 or 21 and he could do with it what he wants.

We could also choose to spend the money on presents for him each year.

I think the reason for the choice is that we understand the value of money. We earn about 25% of what we used to earn 10 to 15 years ago but we have so much more now because we think about what we want to do with it. We don't waste it. Although what we spend it on others may see it as wasting it.

If he does not see any of the money we are putting away for him for 55 to 60 years what does it matter. If the world is still around then it may assist him in his retirement. He may not need it or he may wish to give it away to charity. He may want to stick it all on red or black or put it on his favorite number! If he does not make it till retirement then to his estate it will go. If we are still around by then we will be around 115

The choice of names was done to use the phonetic alphabet. The wife wanted to use Mathew, Mark, Luke and John

sheramber

Adding a name at a baptism doesn't change the legal name which is what is on the birth certificate.

Checking my documents

my driving licence has my full name.

My bank account has only first and last name

passport has full name as it is has to agree with the birth certificate

Would anybody know or notice the place of birth has the wrong spelling?

If any information on a passport is not correct the passport should be returned for correction.

To make GOLF a legal part of his name he would have to change his name by deed poll

antrobus

sheramber wrote: »

Adding a name at a baptism doesn't change the legal name which is what is on the birth certificate.

As far as England and Wales is concerned you can use what ever name you like. That principle was established in the 18thC when one Elizabeth Chudleigh wasn't prevented from calling herself the Duchess of Kingston even though she wasn't.

The Wiki page on Legal names quotes the words of A dictionary of American and English law, "Any one may take on himself whatever surname or as many surnames as he pleases, without statutory licence".

And goes on to say;

However, this does not apply to names given in baptism. As noted by Sir Edward Coke in Institutes of the Lawes of England, "a man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian names."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_name#England_and_Wales

So the position is that you can change your name at will in England and Wales; there isn't really any such thing as a 'legal name'. A deed poll is merely a device used to convince sundry officials that the old you has become the new you. Although a marriage certificate also works.

It's different in Scotland.