Childrens savings

missmemore

Hi All
I want to start saving (very long term) for my grandson who is currently one yrs of age. I want to gift him the savings when he is approximately 21yrs of age. What is the best way/savings account??
All suggestions will be greatly appreciated 

xylophone

Do you mean that you wish to make gifts to your grandson  starting now or that you wish to save in your own name with a view to making a gift to your grandson when he is 21?

If you  wish to start making gifts to your grandson now, they can be held in bare trust for him but he has the absolute right to access and control at the age of 18, (16 in Scotland).

If you save in your own name, then you can make the gifts  at a time of your choosing but would  need to make a specific gift in your will of the savings in question in case you should predecease him.

If you accept that any gift in his name  will be accessible at age 18, you could choose simply to contribute to a JISA  - his parent will need to open it and manage the account on his behalf.
https://www.gov.uk/junior-individual-savings-accounts

Otherwise, you might choose to open a child account for him as bare trustee
Example
https://www.bathbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/personal-savings-and-investments/Junior%20Saver

Or you might feel that investments might be more appropriate over a long time period. Example
https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/investing-for-children/junior-investment-account

https://monevator.com/using-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds-life/

cloud_dog

...also, will you be able to treat all the grandchildren equally?  Do you know how many you will have?

Worth considering the practicality.

Notepad_Phil

cloud_dog said:

...also, will you be able to treat all the grandchildren equally?  Do you know how many you will have?

Worth considering the practicality.

My MIL found this out the hard way when there was quite a difference in how much she was able to give to her grandkids depending on how old they were when she started putting money away. She was quite disappointed when she found she did not have the means to boost the sums given to the youngest.

For our kids we just put a combined monthly sum away into a separate area of our ISA funds - it meant that we could equalise the amounts given and also hand the money over when they needed it, which in our childrens case was not at 18. You just need to make sure that your wishes are known and add it to a will if necessary.

We'll start to do this as well when any grandchildren start arriving. 

P.S. we invested the money rather than saving it. It meant they got a lot more than if we had just put it into a savings account - of course there is no 100% guarantee that will always happen, but we felt it was worth the very small risk that savings would beat investments over the long term.