Junior S&S ISA

Albermarle

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?

Your main priority is to actually make sure that you ( and partner) are in a good financial position. That is paying the mortgage, paying into a pension, having very few debts etc. This is much more important for your family than the fine details of investment plans for toddlers. 

newbieni

eskbanker said:

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.

I think it would be very difficult to manage if I added money to my Vanguard portfolio for my two kids. For instance, it would be easy to account for what I deposit for each of them but how would I track any gains/losses.

I could setup a separate life strategy with a different provider under my name and then equate half to one child and half to the other, however, there's a rule that I can only pay into one platform each tax year.

cwep2

You can only set up one provider per year per person. There are plenty of alternatives to vanguard which are almost exactly the same - just pick a different fund for kid 1 in your ISA and (use same one?) for kid 2 in partner’s ISA. Then the nest egg that grows is easy to see. 

Honestly though you are overthinking it. If you put in 1k now in your name and want to give it to kid 1 at age 21 (18yrs from now) it’s a gift from you to them that can be any size. You can look back on fund performance for many years, if it’s out by £50 on what might be 4-5k how much does that matter? If you’d have put the 1k in two years ago it would have made more difference, so don’t worry too much. You are quite likely to be supporting them financially in many other ways at that stage anyway, whether that extra £50 came from your bank account / your isa / their fund in your isa doesn’t really matter. 

It might be different if a grandparent gave £x to be invested for each child, but if it’s coming from you it makes little difference. 

lr1277

At a slight tangent if you choose to save for your children ensure you have wills in place.

If you start investing (whatever the vehicle) you should specify what happens if the account holder passes. To my mind this means individual investment accounts, one for each child so that as part of your will you can specify the beneficiary of each account. My mum's broker allows her to have more than one GIA.

If you put the money in a JISA, and the child passes before they access the money, the money will return to the parents. Not sure if there are complictions if the parents are not married, but something to investigate if this situation applies to you.

george4064

Can I just clarify when actually happens when the ‘Junior’ turns 18?

I appreciate the child will *legally* be able to access the money, but is it like the platform flicks a switch when they turn 18 and the parent can no longer access and only the child can? Or is it down to the parent (or the child if they know how) to get in touch with the platform to change the login details etc?

xylophone

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/isainvesting/article-10586531/Can-stop-son-getting-hold-Junior-Isa-cash-18.html

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/member/help/savings/isas/junior-isas.html#:~:text=When the young person reaches,some ID from them first.

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/junior-isa/#:~:text=Invest for your child's future with a Junior ISA&text=The Junior ISA allowance for,money in their Junior ISA.

Albermarle

newbieni said:

eskbanker said:

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.

I think it would be very difficult to manage if I added money to my Vanguard portfolio for my two kids. For instance, it would be easy to account for what I deposit for each of them but how would I track any gains/losses.

I could setup a separate life strategy with a different provider under my name and then equate half to one child and half to the other, however, there's a rule that I can only pay into one platform each tax year.

There is nothing special about Vanguard, and there are direct alternatives from other providers for most of their funds, if that helps to keep monies separated.

newbieni

cwep2 said:

You can only set up one provider per year per person. There are plenty of alternatives to vanguard which are almost exactly the same - just pick a different fund for kid 1 in your ISA and (use same one?) for kid 2 in partner’s ISA. Then the nest egg that grows is easy to see. 

Honestly though you are overthinking it. If you put in 1k now in your name and want to give it to kid 1 at age 21 (18yrs from now) it’s a gift from you to them that can be any size. You can look back on fund performance for many years, if it’s out by £50 on what might be 4-5k how much does that matter? If you’d have put the 1k in two years ago it would have made more difference, so don’t worry too much. You are quite likely to be supporting them financially in many other ways at that stage anyway, whether that extra £50 came from your bank account / your isa / their fund in your isa doesn’t really matter. 

It might be different if a grandparent gave £x to be invested for each child, but if it’s coming from you it makes little difference. 

This might be the option I go for, however, I can only contribute to one S&S ISA per year so my existing one could be impacted.