Children's savings and Friendly Society tax-exempt plans

suavegeezer

It'd be good if the MSE team (Gaving Shepherd?) could add a word or two about Friendly Society's Children's Tax Exempt Savings Plans to their Top Children's Savings Accounts page. Each provider's info seems to hid often lacks transparency about where money is invested, the charges and potential returns / how they work - which is off putting in itself. However, we're now in new economic times, so I'm wondering whether they could provide an additional benefit in addition to ISAs.

masonic

suavegeezer said:

It'd be good if the MSE team (Gaving Shepherd?) could add a word or two about Friendly Society's Children's Tax Exempt Savings Plans to their Top Children's Savings Accounts page. Each provider's info seems to hid often lacks transparency about where money is invested, the charges and potential returns / how they work - which is off putting in itself. However, we're now in new economic times, so I'm wondering whether they could provide an additional benefit in addition to ISAs.

The answer to why they haven't is probably because these are not products worth considering. It is no longer the case that investing small sums needs to be prohibitively expensive, so there are several low cost options for those who wish to regularly invest for their child.

wmb194

jesshove said:

In 2004 when my first grand child was born I invested about £250 in a Child Trust account with Compass Friendly Society. I would like to get some up to date information from them but no-one answers their telephone number (can only find one). I'm wondering if they are still operating or maybe have been taken over but can't find anything online at all. I would be most grateful for any information  Best wishes Jessica

It's still listed on the FCA register but the last accounts shown there are for 2012. It looks to be a minuscule affair.

https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/25123

wmb194

jesshove said:

In 2004 when my first grand child was born I invested about £250 in a Child Trust account with Compass Friendly Society. I would like to get some up to date information from them but no-one answers their telephone number (can only find one). I'm wondering if they are still operating or maybe have been taken over but can't find anything online at all. I would be most grateful for any information  Best wishes Jessica

You could try contacting this organisation, The Association of Financial Mutuals.

Compass appears on its page of extant societies but the link to it has been disabled. Linked below is a page where you can download all of the societies that have closed. Compass isn't on it, but it could be that it isn't up to date.  That page suggests that if it isn't shown on this to contact the Mutual Societies Registration at the FCA and then failing this an option might be to try the unclaimed assets register.

https://financialmutuals.org/our-members/tracing-a-society/

dunstonh

It'd be good if the MSE team (Gaving Shepherd?) could add a word or two about Friendly Society's Children's Tax Exempt Savings Plans to their Top Children's Savings Accounts page. 

No it wouldnt.

MSE doesn't do investments.  When it has dabbled on that front previously, it hasn't done it very well.  And Martin took a lot of flack with structured products.  So, investments have largely been ignored except for some marketing links.

However, we're now in new economic times, so I'm wondering whether they could provide an additional benefit in addition to ISAs.

Old fashioned product with old fashioned pricing that wipes out any tax benefit.

OLD THREAD REVIVAL - beware replying to old posts.

suavegeezer

masonic said:

suavegeezer said:

It'd be good if the MSE team (Gaving Shepherd?) could add a word or two about Friendly Society's Children's Tax Exempt Savings Plans to their Top Children's Savings Accounts page. Each provider's info seems to hid often lacks transparency about where money is invested, the charges and potential returns / how they work - which is off putting in itself. However, we're now in new economic times, so I'm wondering whether they could provide an additional benefit in addition to ISAs.

The answer to why they haven't is probably because these are not products worth considering. It is no longer the case that investing small sums needs to be prohibitively expensive, so there are several low cost options for those who wish to regularly invest for their child.

Thanks. Even advice stating that they're too expensive an option / not worth it would be useful for completeness.

suavegeezer

dunstonh said:

It'd be good if the MSE team (Gaving Shepherd?) could add a word or two about Friendly Society's Children's Tax Exempt Savings Plans to their Top Children's Savings Accounts page. 

No it wouldnt.

MSE doesn't do investments.  When it has dabbled on that front previously, it hasn't done it very well.  And Martin took a lot of flack with structured products.  So, investments have largely been ignored except for some marketing links.

However, we're now in new economic times, so I'm wondering whether they could provide an additional benefit in addition to ISAs.

Old fashioned product with old fashioned pricing that wipes out any tax benefit.

OLD THREAD REVIVAL - beware replying to old posts.

Thanks. They have advised on choosing stocks & shares ISA providers, so not sure I understand the dfference. But that's perhaps because the info isn't out there. Like I responded to Masonic above. Even if the advice is, "steer clear, they're not worth" it'd be good see.

dunstonh

Thanks. They have advised on choosing stocks & shares ISA providers, so not sure I understand the dfference. 

Stocks and shares ISA can have a reduction in yield due to charges of around 0.3-0.4% p.a.
FS plans tend to be closer 1.7% to 2%.

They have 1980s/90s charges.    Around 5x higher than possible with S&S ISAs.