Have any of you guys set up children's savings/investment accounts? I've (probably stupidly) left this to my other half and she's parked considerable amounts of money in junior cash ISA's paying peanuts. Should I be looking at stocks and shares ISA's given they're still reasonably young (8 & 9) and if so which ones? Do these types of accounts have to be wound up when they turn 18 or can they be rolled over for a few more years (I'd ideally be looking at a 15-20 year investment so they've got a good start in life after they've finished their education).
Mine are just coming out of children’s accounts (18 & 16).
The junior Isa’s When they mature at 18 becomes theirs and end. You should be able to get 3.5% on cash.
I only did cash (isa’s) For them but had other investments. Friendly society bonds are worth looking at, I took them out when they were born and they did well (tax free also).
Coventry building society pay 3.6% on a Junior ISA and accepts transfers in. I'd at least move to there if the rate currently is poor.
All the usual suspects do a S&S Junior ISA, Hargreaves Landsdown, Charles Stanley etc. I've not used either so can't really comment, I use Fidelity for a lot fo mine and have always ben happy with them, they do a Junior S&S ISA.
I did Junior Bonds for mine as above, company has changed now but details here;
paid £25 a month in for 16 years a bit over 8k out each which is roughly 6% APR so not awful.
My kids accounts are already up to around £25k each due to one of their grandfathers regularly dropping them large amounts of cash. It's a worry that when they get to 18 they'll have control of serious amounts of money and an age when they're likely to be quite irresponsible. Anyway thanks for the Coventry tip I'll look to move the funds there while I figure out a longer term solution.
I strongly recommend you don't give your 18 year olds a serious amount of cash. In fact I wouldn't even tell them they have it available, unless you are certain they won't badger you for it. I relented with one of mine, knowing full well they would waste it and they did.
I strongly recommend you don't give your 18 year olds a serious amount of cash. In fact I wouldn't even tell them they have it available, unless you are certain they won't badger you for it. I relented with one of mine, knowing full well they would waste it and they did.
I agree but my partner's set everything up so there's only so much I can do at this stage. In an ideal world I want the money to be invested for another 20 years.
It's a difficult one, if the money is in a bank account, ISA etc in their name (or you on behalf of them as minors) it becomes theirs at 18. If you truly don't want them to have money at 18 then don't give it to them, alternatively you can set up a form of trust but that's complex and not that cheap to do.
Personally I have tried to make sure they are financially savvy/knowledgeable, some success with the eldest who at 18 is very very good, monitors her investments, bank accounts etc and loves seeing it grow. The youngest less so but I still have two years to work on her!
I sort of take that view on life in general, being a parent is as much about equipping them to stand on their own two feet as much as anything, so financial education is a part of that although not always successful. I can see my youngest wasting a chunk come 18, but I won't be around for ever to hold their hands so if they need to learn by making some mistakes along the way so be it.
Another option is just before they are 18 put it in a 5 year fix! Of course doesn't mean they can't access if they really wanted to, but makes it harder to dip into.
Some other thoughts if you have concerns;
Buy them less liquid assets with a small part, that can be locked away as investments, coins for instance (No CGT if Sovereigns and the like), gold/silver bar etc,
£25k in cash at their age is a lot to leave like that, although at least at 3.6% you are beating inflation right now.
Did anyone get stung by London Capital & Finance ? I read loads of adverts last year & decided if it's too good to be true, then it is. I also advised my brother to steer clear, when he was going to invest. I only just saw this today.
My father in law did, I tried to explain to him but he wouldn’t listen, was only a couple of thousand thankfully and he at least had the sense to not invest more when they kept calling. From the stories I’ve read a lot of people put their life savings in.
Just remember that P2P is mostly made up of those who need money and cannot get it from those whose sole job ( long-time lending institutions) is to address risk of default vs. interest rate charged. Also that one really needs to investigate why they want the money in the first place. If the loaned amount is not explicitly being used to turn £1 into £2, and does not have a good chance of happening, run for the hills. P2P always seems to get popular just at the point in the economic cycle where it becomes more difficult to asses risk. This is the first cycle I’ve seen where it is being sold within platforms. I assume all the lending is unsecured. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I suspect entire platforms will go tits up soon enough.
Did anyone get stung by London Capital & Finance ? I read loads of adverts last year & decided if it's too good to be true, then it is. I also advised my brother to steer clear, when he was going to invest. I only just saw this today.
Plus LCF were not protected by the FSCS. It's pleasing when you look back having researched a company and called it right. Sorry for anyone who had losses.
If you fancy a punt do your research on Nuformix. I don’t normally get drawn in to speculative investment but have just done so with this company after being encouraged to look at it.
Gives off all the right signals and a brilliant business model.
What is it with people wanting to chase unrealistic returns with unknown providers or returns no one else is offering ?? If it was that good then the high street banks & other financial institutions would be offering them.
Do yourself a favour a speak to a professional. Not saying it has to be me - look up an IFA in your local area & see what they say. As I said above- there are various way you can invest that are safe & secure and which are paying c5% -6%.
Not me. The figures on the Basset and Gold website seemed ridiculously high and I was asking if anyone knew of them. I've nothing against IFAs and worked with a few several years ago on a contract with Aviva. I just like to make all my own decisions and aim at medium risk investments. I have a reasonably large portfolio split across UK and international equities, ISAs, premium bonds, cash savings accounts, some cryptos (disaster), and an HL SIPP consisting of 12-13 funds mainly suggested by you, @PragueAddick and @Rob7Lee .
Some shares come with nice perks. I’ve just bought 2,000 shares in Chapel Down (upcoming wine, beer and spirits company in Kent) and as a result get fantastic (up to 33%) discounts on their products, and I have Greene King shares which get you multiple-use vouchers for 25% off food and drink in their pubs. Any other similar benefits with other companies that people have invested in?
I inherited a nice sum from my Mums estate, she was never rich just saved all her life like my dad. It is very easy to keep dipping into it when just in the bank, eventually I put a large sum into BLME bonds for 7 years I do not need to access it any time soon It will pay 2.75% p/a, is FSCS protected to £85000, pays out annually, if it is not expected to reach the rate it says they will inform you, and you can take out your capital and invest it elsewhere I had many companies ringing up promising this and that but when you ask about capital protection they just say it is insured however that is from the asset backed not FSCS protected. I also have premium bonds about £40000 that pay on average £50-£100 a month, The 7 year investment is for my 2 lads after I pop my clogs hopefully to help with a deposit for a house, It is a minefield and the old maxim never invest more than you can afford to lose stands good if not FSCS covered.
I inherited a nice sum from my Mums estate, she was never rich just saved all her life like my dad. It is very easy to keep dipping into it when just in the bank, eventually I put a large sum into BLME bonds for 7 years I do not need to access it any time soon It will pay 2.75% p/a, is FSCS protected to £85000, pays out annually, if it is not expected to reach the rate it says they will inform you, and you can take out your capital and invest it elsewhere I had many companies ringing up promising this and that but when you ask about capital protection they just say it is insured however that is from the asset backed not FSCS protected. I also have premium bonds about £40000 that pay on average £50-£100 a month, The 7 year investment is for my 2 lads after I pop my clogs hopefully to help with a deposit for a house, It is a minefield and the old maxim never invest more than you can afford to lose stands good if not FSCS covered.
Are you are tax-payer ?? I would have to suggest that locking your money up for 7 years to get just 2.75% pa is not great. But each to their own I suppose.
Couple of people at work were tipping this company in the new year when price was a couple of p. Just looked and nearly 12p now. Impressive,
It looks suspiciously like a pump and dump scheme.
It’s no pump and dump scheme it’s taken 10 years developing patent protection on the reformed drugs that their technology facilitates. The surge in price is down to achieving the first milestone of independent verified data on test results of the cancer treatment drug they have modified to be more effective.
It’s because it’s not being pumped up by anything other than incontrovertible proof of concept data that make it stand out from the usual Bitcoin type waffle and hype.
Suggest you look at the people behind this company and the large drug companies looking to buy licences to bring it to market.
Couple of people at work were tipping this company in the new year when price was a couple of p. Just looked and nearly 12p now. Impressive,
It looks suspiciously like a pump and dump scheme.
It’s no pump and dump scheme it’s taken 10 years developing patent protection on the reformed drugs that their technology facilitates. The surge in price is down to achieving the first milestone of independent verified data on test results of the cancer treatment drug they have modified to be more effective.
It’s because it’s not being pumped up by anything other than incontrovertible proof of concept data that make it stand out from the usual Bitcoin type waffle and hype.
Suggest you look at the people behind this company and the large drug companies looking to buy licences to bring it to market.
My view is based upon:
the company has been listed since 2015 but there is literally not a single piece of news about it on Bloomberg;
there is an extremely thin free float implying small transactions have a disproportionate effect on the share price (a pre-requisite for a 'pump and dump' scheme);
the auditors resigned in May 2019;
the stock is a darling of the typical penny stock bulletin boards with various anonymous posters pumping it up;
despite no news announced until May 30, the stock rose 300% between mid-March and yesterday amidst a sudden spike in volumes - looks suspiciously like some leaky inside information - suspect the regulators may want to take a look;
the news announced yesterday which caused the subsequent price spike seems completely immaterial to me (eg "pilot study in healthy subjects") and certainly not justification for £40m of additional market capitalization;
the company only had £0.3m in cash at 31 Mar 2018 even after a £2m share placing;
tens of millions of directors' share options struck at 4p are now suddenly very much in-the-money.
I have no view on the quality of the people behind the company and note perfectly legitimate companies can inadvertently be the subject of such schemes.
Good luck :-)
(Edit @10.06am: I partly stand corrected as there was some news in mid-April concerning a cannabis-related partnership with a Canadian entity.....)
I suspect he's out of business effectively - every sensible investor and certainly every fiduciary will now put in a redemption request to get in the queue. This could take years to resolve....
I was literally looking at my H-L platform last night when separately H-L sent me an email re Woodford. H-L have big egg on their own faces, with several of their 'private label' funds being heavily invested in Woodford's funds. As for me, while I have been selling my Woodford stakes I still have some left, so I am well pissed off.
@newyorkaddick would you advise me to get in the queue, assuming the H-L platform actually allows me to do that? They are saying on the web platform that online dealing is not available.
There is another underperforming fund I hold where I have been looking to gently get out while minimising losses : Merian Global Equity Absolute Return (Hedged) . Absolute Toilet would be a better title. What I learn from the Woodford debacle is that, to coin a phrase, out means out, don't fanny around.
They’ll be able to liquidate fairly quickly I would think. The underlying investments are ok.
Is not the problem that he invested in a lot of unlisted stuff, that has underperformed, and the 28 day period is partly to allow him to shift out of that stuff?
I respectfully disagree that this will resolve itself quickly - the fund is full of less liquid and completely illiquid investments, probably valued at some totally unrealistic price unadjusted for the said illiquidity, and everybody knows what he owns (hence the sharp sell-off in a number of his positions today).
It's really a scandal and a classic mix of arrogance, over-promotion, blind faith etc. and I agree with Prague that HL don't come out of it well at all. I suspect the FCA will investigate.
Unfortunately if they've suspended redemptions then there's probably not much to do for now - my assumption would be that they shortly announce the liquidation of the fund so all investors will be pari-passu - no other outcome would be equitable. I expect the most liquid positions will be sold (if they haven't been already) and proceeds returned to fundholders and the illiquid stuff carved out into a 'liquidating trust' which will make distributions as and when investments are sold.
Prague, funnily enough I own the Merian fund you refer to - it's a market neutral fund so it's never going to produce high-octane returns. If it can eke out 4-5% pa over the long-term with no equity market correlation then it's served its role in my/your portfolio. I have met the team that run it and they're perfectly credible although if they were real stars they wouldn't be working for a big institutional firm.
H-L coming on radio 4 very shortly to discuss Woodford. (Notification only)
They should discuss themselves. While I totally own my decision to invest in Woodford, I was certainly influenced by their constant banging of the drum for him even while more and more people were asking questions. Their entire Wealth 50/150 thing stinks, since they only give you easy access to detailed info on those funds, and slyly imply that all others are not necessarily dogs. As several people in the FT comment today, they never had the Fundsmith fund among their reccos and the only reason is clearly that Terry Smith would not give them the volume discounts they demand. So I hope H-L get the kicking they deserve, and mend their own ways a bit. Of course the fact that Peter Hargreaves stuck £17m into the Brexit referendum campaign has nothing to do with my antipathy :-).
But I read that St James Place have even more blood on their hands than H-L on this one...
Comments
In fact I wouldn't even tell them they have it available, unless you are certain they won't badger you for it.
I relented with one of mine, knowing full well they would waste it and they did.
I agree but my partner's set everything up so there's only so much I can do at this stage. In an ideal world I want the money to be invested for another 20 years.
It's a difficult one, if the money is in a bank account, ISA etc in their name (or you on behalf of them as minors) it becomes theirs at 18. If you truly don't want them to have money at 18 then don't give it to them, alternatively you can set up a form of trust but that's complex and not that cheap to do.
Personally I have tried to make sure they are financially savvy/knowledgeable, some success with the eldest who at 18 is very very good, monitors her investments, bank accounts etc and loves seeing it grow. The youngest less so but I still have two years to work on her!
I sort of take that view on life in general, being a parent is as much about equipping them to stand on their own two feet as much as anything, so financial education is a part of that although not always successful. I can see my youngest wasting a chunk come 18, but I won't be around for ever to hold their hands so if they need to learn by making some mistakes along the way so be it.
Another option is just before they are 18 put it in a 5 year fix! Of course doesn't mean they can't access if they really wanted to, but makes it harder to dip into.
Some other thoughts if you have concerns;
Buy them less liquid assets with a small part, that can be locked away as investments, coins for instance (No CGT if Sovereigns and the like), gold/silver bar etc,
£25k in cash at their age is a lot to leave like that, although at least at 3.6% you are beating inflation right now.
I read loads of adverts last year & decided if it's too good to be true, then it is.
I also advised my brother to steer clear, when he was going to invest.
I only just saw this today.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47713230
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48235410
Was always told to have a diverse portfolio.
It's pleasing when you look back having researched a company and called it right. Sorry for anyone who had losses.
Gives off all the right signals and a brilliant business model.
It looks suspiciously like a pump and dump scheme.
It will pay 2.75% p/a, is FSCS protected to £85000,
pays out annually, if it is not expected to reach the rate it says they will inform you, and you can take out your capital and invest it elsewhere I had many companies ringing up promising this and that but when you ask about capital protection they just say it is insured however that is from the asset backed not FSCS protected.
I also have premium bonds about £40000 that pay on average £50-£100 a month, The 7 year investment is for my 2 lads after I pop my clogs hopefully to help with a deposit for a house, It is a minefield and the old maxim never invest more than you can afford to lose stands good if not FSCS covered.
It’s because it’s not being pumped up by anything other than incontrovertible proof of concept data that make it stand out from the usual Bitcoin type waffle and hype.
Suggest you look at the people behind this company and the large drug companies looking to buy licences to bring it to market.
My view is based upon:
I have no view on the quality of the people behind the company and note perfectly legitimate companies can inadvertently be the subject of such schemes.
Good luck :-)
(Edit @10.06am: I partly stand corrected as there was some news in mid-April concerning a cannabis-related partnership with a Canadian entity.....)
Perhaps I should set myself up as a fund manager......cant do any worse.
@newyorkaddick would you advise me to get in the queue, assuming the H-L platform actually allows me to do that? They are saying on the web platform that online dealing is not available.
There is another underperforming fund I hold where I have been looking to gently get out while minimising losses : Merian Global Equity Absolute Return (Hedged) . Absolute Toilet would be a better title. What I learn from the Woodford debacle is that, to coin a phrase, out means out, don't fanny around.
I respectfully disagree that this will resolve itself quickly - the fund is full of less liquid and completely illiquid investments, probably valued at some totally unrealistic price unadjusted for the said illiquidity, and everybody knows what he owns (hence the sharp sell-off in a number of his positions today).
It's really a scandal and a classic mix of arrogance, over-promotion, blind faith etc. and I agree with Prague that HL don't come out of it well at all. I suspect the FCA will investigate.
Unfortunately if they've suspended redemptions then there's probably not much to do for now - my assumption would be that they shortly announce the liquidation of the fund so all investors will be pari-passu - no other outcome would be equitable. I expect the most liquid positions will be sold (if they haven't been already) and proceeds returned to fundholders and the illiquid stuff carved out into a 'liquidating trust' which will make distributions as and when investments are sold.
Prague, funnily enough I own the Merian fund you refer to - it's a market neutral fund so it's never going to produce high-octane returns. If it can eke out 4-5% pa over the long-term with no equity market correlation then it's served its role in my/your portfolio. I have met the team that run it and they're perfectly credible although if they were real stars they wouldn't be working for a big institutional firm.
But I read that St James Place have even more blood on their hands than H-L on this one...