Child trust fund

jaimem14

Looking for some advice re Child trust fund. Trust fund now transferred from Halifax to Forrester, due to shares falling significantly in recent weeks, trust fund now worth less. Should I jump ship now and put into ISA or leave it and hope it will pick up? One trust fund matures in December, the other matures!in 4 years. Any guidance would be helpful. 

Alexland

Is the money likely to be needed at 18 or could it be left invested for the eventual likely recovery however long that takes?

charlie999

Alexland said:

Is the money likely to be needed at 18 or could it be left invested for the eventual likely recovery however long that takes?

Sorry to jump in on this post, but I am in a similar position. My son’s CTF has dropped by £3000 over the last couple of months. He turns 18 next April. Alexland, do you know if he leaves his money where it is, if he’ll still continue to benefit from shares rise after that? I’m worried the value will just freeze once they turn 18? Thanks.

Alexland

It's worth asking his CTF provider on what options they will give at 18 but even if they uninvest the money then there are plenty of products where it could be reinvested for the recovery.

JF2019

charlie999 said:

Alexland said:

Is the money likely to be needed at 18 or could it be left invested for the eventual likely recovery however long that takes?

Sorry to jump in on this post, but I am in a similar position. My son’s CTF has dropped by £3000 over the last couple of months. He turns 18 next April. Alexland, do you know if he leaves his money where it is, if he’ll still continue to benefit from shares rise after that? I’m worried the value will just freeze once they turn 18? Thanks.

Here is the reply I made to a similar post on 18th March 2020. I was then quoting a 3k loss which I am now happy to say is closer to a 2k loss (I know I said I wouldn't look but I couldn't help myself lol):

My DD turns 18 in 20 months. Her CTF has dropped around 3k in 2 weeks eeek. I am sort of happy to sit tight and hope that 20 months is enough time for a recovery. 
Recent new guidelines state 'at maturity, where no instructions have been received from the account holder on what they want to do with the investments in the child trust fund, the money will be held in a ‘protected account’ pending instruction.
Funds in the ‘protected account’ will retain their tax advantaged status, and the terms and conditions which applied before maturity'. I asked the CTF provider if this meant that my DD could hang fire at maturity if not happy with the amount until she was and they seemed to think this would be ok but that no further contributions could be made. 
Interestingly, her October 2008 statement, at the time of the financial crash, was £279.00 down compared to total payments made since inception and in October 2009 was £27.07 down compared to total payments made since inception. I was happy to sit tight as lots of years left and by October 2015, she was £1,773.95 up and this continued to grow. Her latest statement in November 2019 was £5,081.45 up compared to total payments made since inception. So now we are about 2k up. They adopt a lifestyling approach from 16 but not sure how / if that has helped her. I think I need to stop logging in everyday lol.