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Original poster

Child trust fund - if you didn't set one up

57 replies

Remoteso · 07/09/2021 14:23

Apparently HMRC did on your child's behalf?

www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-teenagers-missing-out-on-child-trust-fund-cash

CTFs were set up for all children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 with a live Child Benefit claim. Parents or guardians set up these accounts with Child Trust Fund Providers – usually banks, building societies or investment managers – using vouchers provided by the government. If an account was not opened by the child’s parent, HMRC set one up on the child’s behalf.

I didn't realise this, and I've felt guilty for not setting it up, as well as a new baby had a lot else going on at the time!

I've now filled in the form to see if indeed there is one. Will post back with the news either way.

(And perhaps have the hassle of making it fair for DC who was born after the cut off!)

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 07/09/2021 19:51

Ours automatically went to the Schoolteachers Friendly Society. I never topped it up but it will be a nice lump sum for him whjen he's 18.

BertieBotts · 07/09/2021 19:53

IIRC if you did nothing with it, it started out in stocks and would be moved to a more stable normal savings acct when they are 13. That was supposed to maximise the value.

dementedpixie · 07/09/2021 19:54

Ours started with Family Investments which then turned into Forresters i think. You might be thinking of 'lifestyling' @BertieBotts whatever that may be

Ekofisk · 07/09/2021 19:55

We swapped to the Coventry - we just had to post some forms back and they did the rest.

Ekofisk · 07/09/2021 19:59

@dementedpixie

Ours started with Family Investments which then turned into Forresters i think. You might be thinking of 'lifestyling' *@BertieBotts* whatever that may be
Family Investments became One Family. I think Foresters is a different company?

I swapped out of Family Investments because they decided to stop doing lifestyling (moving out of funds and into cash as child approaches 18).

dementedpixie · 07/09/2021 20:01

Or maybe it was the Children's Mutual we were with. It was definitely Foresters we moved from to a JISA with nationwide

dementedpixie · 07/09/2021 20:02

And I think their lifestyling changed too

BertieBotts · 07/09/2021 20:05

Oh, it's Unity Mutual now.

BertieBotts · 07/09/2021 20:09

Ah so they don't do Lifestyling any more? That might be good because I just checked DS1's last statement and it significantly lost value (I expect because of COVID) so it would be good if it goes up again in the next few years.

weegiemum · 07/09/2021 20:14

My dd2 had one (she's 17 now) and last year we put it in a junior isa for her, along with the money my parents were kind enough to save for her. She can't touch it till she's 18 (November) but she's decided she's keeping it to buy her first house! She's always been forward thinking. Her CTF was with Schoolteachers Friendly and was about £1650 when she turned 16, which was over £100 more than a friend of hers with a different provider.

OxanaVorontsova · 07/09/2021 20:20

We started with children’s mutual which has become foresters. DTs are 18 soon, we’ve only paid in £20 a month for each but now value is just over £11k each. Pretty pleased with that!

Ekofisk · 07/09/2021 20:22

@BertieBotts

Ah so they don't do Lifestyling any more? That might be good because I just checked DS1's last statement and it significantly lost value (I expect because of COVID) so it would be good if it goes up again in the next few years.
Family Investments stopped lifestyling as I think the requirement to do so had been removed? Don’t know if all CTFs opted for this.

You’ll probably find that it’s bounced back up again as everything took a big hit in Q2/Q3 2020, when markets nosedived due to Covid, but lots of funds have recovered well.

Worth checking to see where it is now and then take a view about whether it’s worth switching to a JISA.

H1978 · 07/09/2021 20:25

@Payproblems

H197

Is that into stock and shares one or regular saving eg fixed 3%

Invested in shares, as well as the £10.00 I add every month. Not a huge amount after 16 years but it’s there for her whatever she decides to do.
H1978 · 07/09/2021 20:26

@OxanaVorontsova

We started with children’s mutual which has become foresters. DTs are 18 soon, we’ve only paid in £20 a month for each but now value is just over £11k each. Pretty pleased with that!
That’s the same company we used.
Original poster
Remoteso · 07/09/2021 20:29

Anyone any idea what the default fund was with?

OP posts:
Ekofisk · 07/09/2021 20:32

This BBC article explains how you can trace funds:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53935933

dementedpixie · 07/09/2021 20:34

OP put a link for how to trace them too as she has started the process to see where hers are held

CornishTiger · 07/09/2021 20:36

My DS is with one family. Think it’s stocks. No idea whether this is wise or not!

TurmericTolly · 07/09/2021 20:46

We chose stocks and shares and have paid the child benefit in each year once ds was one. Now 15 and worth £25k withForesters (also used to be children's mutual). Will be transferring to a safer Junior ISA soon as funds will be needed for uni maintenance and leftovers towards a property deposit.

Linnet · 07/09/2021 20:48

My dd is 17 and I have no idea how much is in her child trust fund. I have a statement from 2019 which says it’s £414 but I’ve no idea if it’s now more or less, it’s with One family. Nobody has ever paid anything into it so it’s not a huge amount but it’s better than nothing, assuming that it doesn’t drop to nothing before she turns 18.
I think I’ll get dd to sign up to take control of the fund then we can see how much is in it now.

BertieBotts · 07/09/2021 21:34

I imagine the default ones must have been split or there would have just been loads of contacts going to one company?

Anyway I didn't do anything with ours and it went to what is now unity mutual.

We live outside the UK now so I'm not sure it would be that easy to transfer it to a jisa but I'm sure you're right and it was covid related. We'll get the next statement on or near his birthday I suppose.

WayneBruce · 07/09/2021 21:47

We went down the stocks and shares route. Paid in about £100 a month, it's now worth £20k at age 11.
It lost 5k during covid but is recovering well.

Payproblems · 07/09/2021 22:19

Bertie bots, the covid effect was for a few months last year, most market seem to be booming, esp those with exposure to us tech stocks.
. What is yours invested in? Covid isn't an excuse

Payproblems · 07/09/2021 22:21

Anyway anyone can of course simply transfer it anywhere and manage it themselves.
We moved ours to Hargreaves ages ago but it's not the cheapest platform.
I'm probably going to put it in somewhere like vanguard.

Payproblems · 07/09/2021 22:24

Also we don't get statements we have the app so I can't see daily or whenever what's happening to it