Should I choose a different provider for DS2s Junior Isa? And other junior Isa questions!

[phoebebouffet]

So DS1 has a stocks & shares Child Trust Fund with family investments, I'm wondering if I should choose a different provider for DS2's Junior ISA just in case they go bust...but if so who? they seem to be the only ones doing it at the moment.

Also the fees are 1.5% but 1.5% of what? Our total contributions? It's value? and when is that applied? I get statements every year and have never seen it on there.

We currently contribute per month to DS1's CTF is it worth cancelling this now and setting up a Junior ISA for them both I've just read on that the junior isas have got better rates than the CTFs but is that just for the cash ones?

Many thanks

I don't think any child with a CTF is eligible for a JISA, so don't cancel.

When we took out CTFs, the 1.5% charge on a stocks and shares CTF put me off. (It's 1.5% deducted from the fund annually, but you won't see it explicitly as it will be reflected in the unit prices - I assume the investment is in the form of a unit trust). So we went for a savings account CTF with an annual bonus on the interest rate. (I can save separately in my own stocks and shares tracker with a much more reasonable 0.5% charge).

As it turns out, putting money in a savings account instead of the stockmarket proved to be the better option given what's happened over the last 7 years, but that's just hindsight!

With DS1, who was born too early for a CTF, I've opened a JISA, and again I've gone for a savings account with a reasonable interest rate, because I've got my own investments in the stockmarket, so I am happy to diversify.

We're with Family Investments. Children who qualified for the CTF voucher are not allowed to take out a Junior ISA at the moment (some petitions are being created to change that). If you read the explanatory text on the Family Investments website it lays it all out there. If DS2 was born after the scheme finished then they can have a Junior ISA. I've always got on with Family Investments. No funds are doing that well at the moment but the products I've had with them over the last 20+ years haven't done too badly in the long-term.

thanks for your advice, will keep thinking!

If they go bust you are covered upto £50k per person per firm. Google financial services compensation scheme.