Where best to invest for children?

Mrs_Binxtoria

Hello

I'm hoping that you very helpful people on here will be able to help with  the best place to start investing for children

We have just received a £1000 inheritance for each of my children and are interested in investing for them.  Currently they have a normal savings account and a Junior Cash ISA.  I am looking to invest in a stocks & shares ISA with the £1000 and invest £25 monthly.  My son who is 12 is really interested in becoming involved with this process and who is good with saving, unlike his sister who spends her money as soon as she gets it.  Which would be the best platform for a. this type of investing and b. for my son being involved with the process?

I have looked at Vanguard but it needs to be a £100 monthly investment.  I have also looked at Fidelity and Hargreves Lansdown, at the moment I am drawn towards Fidelity but would welcome any other suggestions.

AnotherJoe

All three of my grandkids have JISAs with HL, seem to be OK. You'd have to invest in Funds (aka OEICs) rather than Investment Trusts or ETFs though otherwise the fees per month would be out of whack (theres not usually a fee for buying a fund, or certainly isnt on HL anyway) The HL JISA is a lot easier to see and understand that the previous JISA they had with IIRC Charles Stanley which was impenetrable (they transferred out of CS to HL last year). The HL interface is very easy to understand. Cant speak to the Fidelty UI, I've never used it.

If you did want to buy an investment that was an IT/ETF, you'd be better off investing £300 a year once annually to avoid 12x lots of charges

As for son being involved it doesn't really matter because he can look up the progress of a particular investment irrespective of what platform its in, but again the HL one would be easy to understan if he wants to look at his exact account.

One other thing that is in favour of HL >>if you already have an investment with them<< you can link accounts so you could log into yours and see both of theirs without needing to have separate logons. Maybe that also exists with Fidelty as well, I just know it definitely does with HL.Obviously not relevant if you dont have an account with them.

Albermarle

Recently Fidelity removed all platform charges for their JISA, so you only pay the charges for the funds it is invested in .

Alexland

Yup, Fidelity's zero ongoing fee S&S Junior ISA is an amazing offer so fill your boots. They are a big stable reputable platform giving access to plenty of low cost funds with no trade fees on funds.
Their JISA is a loss leader promotion so they are probably hoping to retain children to stay when they grow up and maybe encourage their parents to open accounts.
I have been using Fidelity continuously for one thing or another for around 20 years now and still overall happy so they are doing something right. Following recent improvements their website user interface is clearer than HL who have a better app.
You can link accounts on Fidelity so the adult account can see their partner or children's accounts.
Although at age 12 remember that S&S investing is a medium to long term activity for at least 5 years preferably much longer (to avoid withdrawing when markets are down) so if the money is needed to be spent at 18 maybe stick to cash.

Mrs_Binxtoria

Thank you for your replies and advice.  We have decided to use Fidelity for their accounts and I am going to open a personal one too as I like the option of the smaller monthly amounts, whereas Vanguard's is £100 minimum.  I currently have a fund with  Vanguard which I am using to invest my mortgage overpayments in until we get to the point where I can pay the mortgage off, but can't afford that plus another one of £100 per month.

I realise that we have only 6 years to go until my children reach 18 so is it still worth investing bearing in mind it should be longer term?  I am hoping that even 6 years will provide a better return than the paltry interest rates that are being offered at the moment.