Junior S&S ISA

newbieni

My partner and I have crossed swords on what to do for our two children (1 and 3).

I was going to set up another Life Strategy within my Vanguard portfolio for them but I can't do this and then I felt adding money to my existing portfolio for them was going to get confusing and difficult to manage.

My partner wants to setup a S&S ISA with Hargreaves and Lansdown for each of them. We both share concerns about irresponsibility at 16 my partner thinks we can transfer the money out before they become 16 and hold a separate pot somewhere else until they're wise enough to manage the money. I don't think this is possible or even necessarily a good idea. I also thought Fidelity might be a better option for a platform.

Is our thinking flawed?

dunstonh

A lot of people decide to hold the money in their own name rather than the child's name for that reason.   Often using a separate fund.  That is easy on a whole of market platform as you can use HSBC GS for your holdings (HSBC being slightly better than VLS) but then hold VLS for the child.  

HL is an expensive platform for UT/OEIC funds.   So, alternative whole of market platforms may be better.

S&S ISAs are held in your name (or your partner).  So, if you wanted one each, then one of you would do child 1 and the other would do child 2.    If it is in the child's name then the Junior ISA would be used but accessibility becomes the issue and you want to avoid that.

Albermarle

There are quite a few threads on this subject. You have two basic alternatives.

You open up Junior ISA's for them . Fidelity and HL both offer these with zero platform charges. They will get access to the money at 18. You would not be able to transfer the money back out to yourselves at a later stage.

You invest in your names and then give them the money when you feel it is appropriate. This of course will use up your own ISA allowances, unless you invest outside an ISA where you may have to pay tax.

You could do a bit of both. If they blow some money at 18, then its not the end of the world, in fact it is normal behaviour for someone at that age and a good lesson in 'when its gone its gone'.

Similar thread on same page
Long term child savings advice — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Keep_pedalling

Although your children will have control of JISA from 16 but they can’t withdraw from it until they are 18. 

xylophone

My partner wants to setup a S&S ISA with Hargreaves and Lansdown for each of them. We both share concerns about irresponsibility at 16 my partner thinks we can transfer the money out before they become 16 and hold a separate pot somewhere else until they're wise enough to manage the money. I don't think this is possible or even necessarily a good idea. I also thought Fidelity might be a better option for a platform.

No, you can't.

See
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/article/should-i-pick-a-junior-stocks-shares-isa-or-a-cash-isa/



 See

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/article/best-junior-stocks-shares-isa/

Scroll down to 

Top five self-invested junior ISAs  

newbieni

dunstonh said:

A lot of people decide to hold the money in their own name rather than the child's name for that reason.   Often using a separate fund.  That is easy on a whole of market platform as you can use HSBC GS for your holdings (HSBC being slightly better than VLS) but then hold VLS for the child.  

HL is an expensive platform for UT/OEIC funds.   So, alternative whole of market platforms may be better.

S&S ISAs are held in your name (or your partner).  So, if you wanted one each, then one of you would do child 1 and the other would do child 2.    If it is in the child's name then the Junior ISA would be used but accessibility becomes the issue and you want to avoid that.

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

eskbanker

newbieni said:

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

If you mean that you're using Vanguard's platform for both then I believe they'd need to be different holdings, i.e. you could, say, hold some LS60 and LS80 but not two separate pots of LS60 if that's what you meant?

newbieni

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

If you mean that you're using Vanguard's platform for both then I believe they'd need to be different holdings, i.e. you could, say, hold some LS60 and LS80 but not two separate pots of LS60 if that's what you meant?

Thank you. Yes that is what I meant, I thought this might be a clean way to manage them.

eskbanker

newbieni said:

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

If you mean that you're using Vanguard's platform for both then I believe they'd need to be different holdings, i.e. you could, say, hold some LS60 and LS80 but not two separate pots of LS60 if that's what you meant?

Thank you. Yes that is what I meant, I thought this might be a clean way to manage them.

The cleanest way would be a JISA each, but as suggested above, the next cleanest way would be for one parent to hold the investment for one child, and the other for the other, if there's a desire to retain parental financial control past 18.

newbieni

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

If you mean that you're using Vanguard's platform for both then I believe they'd need to be different holdings, i.e. you could, say, hold some LS60 and LS80 but not two separate pots of LS60 if that's what you meant?

Thank you. Yes that is what I meant, I thought this might be a clean way to manage them.

The cleanest way would be a JISA each, but as suggested above, the next cleanest way would be for one parent to hold the investment for one child, and the other for the other, if there's a desire to retain parental financial control past 18.

I want to get my eldest setup as a priority as they're 3 and I've left it a bit late. What do I do outside of a JISA?

eskbanker

newbieni said:

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

eskbanker said:

newbieni said:

Could I in theory have two Life Strategy holdings with Vanguard?

If you mean that you're using Vanguard's platform for both then I believe they'd need to be different holdings, i.e. you could, say, hold some LS60 and LS80 but not two separate pots of LS60 if that's what you meant?

Thank you. Yes that is what I meant, I thought this might be a clean way to manage them.

The cleanest way would be a JISA each, but as suggested above, the next cleanest way would be for one parent to hold the investment for one child, and the other for the other, if there's a desire to retain parental financial control past 18.

I want to get my eldest setup as a priority as they're 3 and I've left it a bit late. What do I do outside of a JISA?

Not sure there's anything to add beyond what's already been discussed?  If you don't want to go down the JISA route then you need to hold investments within one or more adult S&S ISAs in the names of parents, and if you want to hold the same investments for each child then you can either lump them all together and keep records of what's whose, or hold them in separate ISAs held by each parent.