CTF help | Mumsnet

SusannaMorvern · 2021-05-05T17:47:14+00:00

My DD is 16 this year and I was just chasing up her CTF which started as £517. We haven't added to it, as we've saved elsewhere. But it only seems to have gained 34p in 15yrs, can this be be right? I wasn't expecting a windfall, but a little bit more than 34p. It's a Onefamily Stakeholder CTF, global investments, which the internet suggests should have done a bit better than that.

dementedpixie · 05/05/2021 19:45

Is it not 18 they get the funds?
My dcs have done better than that although not so well last year. I have swapped my dc's CTFs to
junior ISAs instead

dementedpixie · 05/05/2021 19:46

Do you not get an annual statement from the provider? My dc got £250 although I think some people got an extra £250 depending on income

Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 05/05/2021 19:59

We got two lots of £250.
No we haven't had an annual statement, though they have all our details as they send us other things.
Yes, they get it when they are 18, but you can move it to an ISA at 16 I think?
I signed in to view online, can't seem to view past statements. But it just says original investment £517, current total £517.34.

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Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 05/05/2021 20:06

Found some statements in the online account, can only go back as far as 2011. It had already lost 50% by then, it's taken 10yrs to make that back Very glad I didn't put any of my own money in it.

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dementedpixie · 05/05/2021 20:25

You could have moved it to another provider whenever you wanted. Ds is 14 and I've moved his to a junior isa

SavingsQuestions · 05/05/2021 20:28

Is a junior isa a pure savings account? So it can't go down?

I'm trying to decide whether to add to my daughters but we're low income and dont want to lose it!

Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 05/05/2021 20:50

I can't open an ISA unfortunately, because of our location atm. It is free money I guess, just so grateful we didn't invest in it and we put DD's savings in a savings account, as we can't afford to lose the money. DD had her hopes up that it might be a bit more, as friends have done better without investing. I suspect it will nosedive over the next 2yrs too and we can't move it.

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dementedpixie · 05/05/2021 20:51

If its a junior cash ISA you can't lose any money
Stocks and shares ones will be variable

dementedpixie · 05/05/2021 20:52

@SusannaMorvern

I can't open an ISA unfortunately, because of our location atm. It is free money I guess, just so grateful we didn't invest in it and we put DD's savings in a savings account, as we can't afford to lose the money. DD had her hopes up that it might be a bit more, as friends have done better without investing. I suspect it will nosedive over the next 2yrs too and we can't move it.

Are you not in the UK? I did mine online

Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 05/05/2021 21:00

@dementedpixie

We're offshore. I bank in the UK, infact most of our financial stuff is based in the UK, but we can't open anything new.

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Puttingouthefirewithgasoline · 06/05/2021 16:52

Wow that sounds awful, I wonder what it was specifically invested in!!
All ours have gone up and average 20%.
What a shame you were not able to keep a closer eye on it.
We have junior isa and choose our own for them, mine is invested in a small range of different things.

Whoever you set it up with can they not move it to a different fund?

Puttingouthefirewithgasoline · 06/05/2021 16:56

It's not the account that's the issue, it's the managing of it, you should have kept an eye on it and moved it years ago.
I don't mean to sound harsh but it's frustrating, because our dc peers friends who we speak too have managed to grow their dc ctf into several thousand.
Every year spot the dog funds are published, every year anyone with investments should do a stock take and make sure they are doing OK.
Unfortunately you or your dh chose the wrong fund and then didn't keep any eye on it.
I hope this doesn't put you off investing for the future

Our dc cash isa makes a few hundred a year on set and now woefully small %.
The stocks and shares goes up by thousandas

whataboutbob · 06/05/2021 17:47

Puttingout you are a mine of information. I suspect I have a couple of those dog funds, inherited from my DPs. Once in the dog house does that mean a fund is unlikely become a good performer? Or can it bounce back up?

Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 06/05/2021 21:22

It's not the account that's the issue, it's the managing of it, you should have kept an eye on it and moved it years ago.
I don't mean to sound harsh but it's frustrating, because our dc peers friends who we speak too have managed to grow their dc ctf into several thousand.
Every year spot the dog funds are published, every year anyone with investments should do a stock take and make sure they are doing OK.
Unfortunately you or your dh chose the wrong fund and then didn't keep any eye on it.

I've already mentioned that we can't move it as we are no longer based in the UK (and haven't been for most of the funds life on and off).

OP posts:

Original poster

SusannaMorvern · 06/05/2021 21:53

Wow that sounds awful, I wonder what it was specifically invested in!!
Just spent the last 15mins trying to attach a screenshot, what is it with this site?!
Top holdings are Astrazeneca, HSBC, GlaxoSK, Unilever, British American Tobacco, Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell, BP.

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nannynick · 07/05/2021 07:10

Probably this fund: www.onefamily.com/assets/consumer/downloads/fund-fact-sheets/family-investments-child-trust-fund-fact-sheet.pdf

Some years it went up 12% or more, others it didn't and in some it lost 12% and more (such as in the March 2020 drop).
Performance is what I would expect for something that is high equities.

The problem I see is 1.5% annual management change. That would be taken regardless of the fund performance, so if fund performance was not very good for the first few years the fund was held it would have eroded the value. It is then hard to recover that loss.

whataboutbob · 07/05/2021 10:06

Does where you are in the world make a difference ? Shouldn’t you be able to move and close funds remotely?

MoiraQueen · 07/05/2021 13:57

@nannynick Good detective skills I was trying to post a screenshot of the fund, but it just wouldn't load. But yes, it's that one.

@whataboutbob. You can't generally open financial accounts if you are resident elsewhere. I assume if you have huge investments, it would be a different matter...We don't.
I have a current account and ISA with a UK bank, it predates us relocating, I wanted to open a savings account with the same bank, but no it wasn't allowed. I can keep my existing accounts but can't open another. I can't move my ISA, although I can close it.

I don't want to out myself and disclose my location though.

Silkiecats · 07/05/2021 17:25

My DD also has one though she only got the £250 as did her younger brother - hers has not performed well at all and is in the Prosper1.

www.onefamily.com/assets/consumer/downloads/fund-fact-sheets/barclays-ctf-fund-factsheet.pdf

Her brother has doubled in value but appears to be in a different fund despite both being opened in the same way. I've been trying to transfer them for over a month but gone dead. I have an online account at least but I saw another post saying they are a nightmare to access the cash with once child can access. The 1.5% charge is very hefty but not finding it easy to move, at least it was free money I guess.

dementedpixie · 07/05/2021 17:48

I moved my 2 to Junior ISAs with tesco. It went through easily and within about 3 weeks

whataboutbob · 07/05/2021 17:51

Sorry to hear that @MoiraQueen. I guess the government puts controls in place re investing from overseas if there’s a tax incentive linked to an investment product .

MoiraQueen · 07/05/2021 18:22

@whataboutbob

Probably, money laundering is also an issue I think. It wouldn't give us a tax advantage to invest in the UK. But I guess there would be advantages for some people.

But theoretically it is easy to access, It's all there online, and all the steps are explained for moving fund or transferring to DD at 16, she's actually had a letter about it this week. So I wouldn't assume that the press is right, our issues are just location based. I wonder if the people having difficulty accessing, have lost their details? And some companies have changed names, I know ours has.

whataboutbob · 07/05/2021 18:33

I invested my kids’ leaving home fund in a cash ISA and am sorely regretting my risk aversion. But at least we’ll get the money, if not any growth.

Silkiecats · 07/05/2021 18:52

I have all our details but applied to transfer out 1 April and money is still sitting in OneFamily's account and no contact from them. If you google reviews on them there's a lot had problems accessing money.

maggiethecat · 08/05/2021 00:41

OP, I thought that all CTF's had to be invested conservatively and many tracked the ftse 100 which over the 18 year term should result in a reasonable return, hopefully not ending in a crash.

We got £250 to which I added about £5k over the first few years. It's worth about £12k now so better than being in a cash account.

It could be that yours is in a poorly performing fund plus high charges (think our charges are about 0.38%). Can you check if Onefamily will, despite your residence status, allow you to transfer into one of their junior Isas which might give you more investment options?