S&S JISA - Newbie advice for someone who knows nothing!

Misd_sixties22

Hello,
I've have been trying to save for my children's future. I opened up a Junior ISA for both of them since birth. Eldest has approx £3.5K in hers and youngest £1.5k.  I then stopped paying in and left it and two years ago I opened up a normal account for each under my name as I intended it to be for a house deposit, not a jolly at 18.

I'm saving approx £28 per month for each of them and half of their birthday/xmas money and was wondering whether I should open up a S&S JISA? However, I know nothing about them at all. I have tried to look but get confused!  Can I visit a financial advisor for help and advice? Can they tell me what to do? I have heard of Scottish Friendly but I know you guys don't rate. I don't want to risk everything but I am open to some risk if the returns are better than saving rates (2-3%).
Thank you.

xylophone

I opened up a normal account for each under my name as I intended it to be for a house deposit, not a jolly at 18.

If these accounts are in the name of each child with you as Bare Trustee, then they each have the right to access and control at age 18 (16 in Scotland).

With regard to S&S JISA, Fidelity often gets a favourable mention from other posters - you might find this helpful

https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/junior-isa/

Misd_sixties22

Thank you. I'll look them up. No, it's purely under my name so I have control as to when I give it to them. 

Albermarle

Can I visit a financial advisor for help and advice? Can they tell me what to do?

Financial advisors are not interested in these sorts of amounts .

kuratowski

Returns of better than 3%, are possible with equities, not guaranteed though, and losing some of the investment is definitely possible (it would be unlikely to be lost entirely but you could see drops of 40-50%).  You didn't say how old the children are?  If they are already aged 8+ i.e. less than 10 years away from turning 18 then you may not want to run the risk of investing in stocks & shares.

If you go ahead with a S&S JISA, definitely follow Xylophone's suggestion, use a Fidelity JISA, as Fidelity do not charge fees for their JISAs (so long as you stick to funds, as pointed out below).  The simplest investment option would be the one called "Easy Invest" by Fidelity, which is the Fidelity Index World fund, a developed world index tracker (and it's fairly high up on the monevator ranking too).
https://www.fidelity.co.uk/funds/easy-invest/

Of course, there are many alternatives, but from knowing nothing about it, it's not the worst place to start, and as Albermarle said too small an amount for financial advice, unfortunately.

Alexland

kuratowski said:

as Fidelity do not charge fees for their JISAs. 

* provided you stick to traditional funds otherwise trade fees apply.

stejones44

Alexland said:

kuratowski said:

as Fidelity do not charge fees for their JISAs. 

* provided you stick to traditional funds otherwise trade fees apply.

Sorry to jump on this post. 

I've just opened up an account and awaiting verification.

What /how to find out which funds are fee free?

Thank you 

kuratowski

On Fidelity's website, have a look at the investment finder:

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/planning-guidance/investment-finder/

Here there are four categories of investments: Funds, UK Shares, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Investment Trusts (ITs).  There is no trading fee for the first category i.e. "Funds" (what Alexland calls traditional funds).  The other three types of investments are traded on an exchange, and are associated with trading fees.

"Funds" includes all the multi-asset funds most typically recommended for easy one stop shop investing, such as Vanguard Lifestrategy, HSBC Global Strategy, L&G Multi Index, Fidelity Multi-Asset Allocator, etc.   As well as many global equity index trackers and many more specialised funds if you know what you're doing.

stejones44

kuratowski said:

On Fidelity's website, have a look at the investment finder:

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/planning-guidance/investment-finder/

Here there are four categories of investments: Funds, UK Shares, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Investment Trusts (ITs).  There is no trading fee for the first category i.e. "Funds" (what Alexland calls traditional funds).  The other three types of investments are traded on an exchange, and are associated with trading fees.

"Funds" includes all the multi-asset funds most typically recommended for easy one stop shop investing, such as Vanguard Lifestrategy, HSBC Global Strategy, L&G Multi Index, Fidelity Multi-Asset Allocator, etc.   As well as many global equity index trackers and many more specialised funds if you know what you're doing.

Brilliant! Thank you for the speedy response. I was looking at the HSBC global strategy, so that's cleared everything up.

Thanks again 

[Deleted User]

Albermarle said:

Can I visit a financial advisor for help and advice? Can they tell me what to do?

Financial advisors are not interested in these sorts of amounts .

I went to an IFA just to sort out pensions and talked about savings, we started up a S&S ISA from nothing