Child Trust Fund: Decision Time

swanny65

Next month my daughter turns 18 and her CTF matures. We invested our voucher with F&C (now BMO) and paid £25 a month from day one. The CTF appears to have recovered after the Covid drop in March/April this year and is now worth just over £11K. I had spread the investment over a range of funds currently - 24.74% F&C Investment Trust, 23.52%European Assets Trust PLC, 21.62%BMO Global Smaller Companies, 9.18%ICG Enterprise Tst, 8.79%BMO Managed Port Trust, 7.18%BMO Private Equity Trust 4.96%BMO Capital and Income Inv Tst. BMO have an excellent website offering advice once she turns 18. It looks to me as if a BMO ISA or leaving as a matured CTF are her only options with them.
My daughter is a student, going to Uni in 2022, with a PT job, life-guarding at a holiday camp, earning about £60 pw but that ends this week and it is not certain whether the park will reopen next year. So in the short term she may not be able to make regular contributions to any investment/savings account until 2021. Other than the CTF she has about £2K in a savings account with Nationwide B/Soc. She hopes to use the CTF to either fund some of her expenses at Uni or use as a deposit on her first home. Part of me thinks keep it in an stocks and shares ISA and part thinks avoid any potential future Covid losses and put it in a savings account until needed. I would be less concerned if it were my money. 
Your thoughts appreciated on:

• Sticking with stocks and shares investment in the current climate for maybe 2 to 5 years.
• If so, is the above investment profile with BMO okay, are BMO bettered elsewhere e.g. on fees, performance 
• Dropping the £11K in a bank or building society ISA - she did open a help to buy ISA last year but isnt currently paying into it. Could/should she stick a lump sum in now and another in after 6/4/2021 ?
•  Whether I have missed anything....

Many thanks
 

xylophone

use as a deposit on her first home.

Has she considered opening a LISA with some of the maturing funds?

Example

https://www.moneyboxapp.com/cash-lifetime-isa/gs

https://www.gov.uk/lifetime-isa

Alexland

Yes if she is looking to spend the money in the next 2-5 years then it's time to start derisking back to cash. She no longer has a suitable investment timescale.
You are lucky the market recovered so well as there were others whose CTFs matured during the crash and crystallised the drop (we did point out they still had the option to reinvest for the recovery).
It is worth condidering putting £4k per tax year in a Cash LISA if she definitely won't need the money for anything else and seems likely to buy a first property within the £450k price cap.

cloud_dog

Our DD is a little younger but I am hoping she will take onboard my sage wisdom of using some of the S&S JISA (will be ISA at 18) to put in to a S&S LISA.

swanny65

Thanks very much for your updates. A LISA appears to be the way to go with at least some of the CTF; £4k or maybe £8k depending on whether she will be life-guarding next year and when at Uni. Will chat through with her what she thinks best. Appreciate your time