Savings for Niece

mountaindreams

I would like to make regular payments into an account for my niece however I currently have a rather difficult relationship with her parent (my sibling). Is it possible for me to open an account in her name without ID or consent from her parents?

elsien

Probably not. You certainly need ID such as a birth certificate and I’m fairly sure that nowadays unless your niece is 16 and over it does need parental consent. 

Plus any letters going to the child’s address?

Flugelhorn

elsien said:

Probably not. You certainly need ID such as a birth certificate and I’m fairly sure that nowadays unless your niece is 16 and over it does need parental consent. 

Plus any letters going to the child’s address?

certainly looks like the case - gone are the days when you could just save money in someone's name (or buy premium binds etc) 
probably only way is to do it in your account and give her the money when she is older

tacpot12

Many bare trust accounts are limited to the parents, grandparents and legal guardians of the child.

You could open a savings account in your own name, and change your Will to leave the contents of that named account to your neice. This would allow you to keep control over the money until you want to give it to her. You can also see the money growing.

If your neice is very young and you expect to be contributing to the account for at least 10 years, you should probably consider a Stocks and Shares ISA in your own name, or as a Junior ISA in your neice's name - if the difficult relationship with your sibling means that you cannot trust them not to spend the money, a Junior ISA might be a good option as no withdrawals can take place before the child is 18, but the child can take over control of the account at 16. You can help them do this if the other parent is being difficult at that time (but it's not likely to improve your relatinship with them). 

bouicca21

When I tried to open junior ISAs for my grandchildren I couldn’t find any way to do it.  I had to ask their mums to do it for me.

mountaindreams

Thanks all for you experience. My preference would be for the money to be hers now - such as a S&S ISA - so it is fully committed to her.
Although the relationship with my sibling is difficult its their controlling/abusive spouse who is the problem and who I do not trust and manipulates my sibling.

thegreenone

You don't say how old your niece is.