Junior ISA access when 18

[chocolatesaltyballs22]

Huge backstory which I will try and be brief about - abusive and controlling exH who we discovered recently has been spending my daughter's inheritance on school fees and holidays without her knowledge. That's a separate subject but just to give you a flavour of what he is capable of.

My daughter turned 18 a couple of weeks ago - she had a junior ISA (which will now be a full ISA) in her name where other money she has inherited from her GPs has been invested - my ex has had control of it up until now. He had promised to give her the details on her 18th birthday but this never happened. He is now avoiding the issue and side-stepping any questions she asks him. Classic avoidance tactics.

My question is what we can do legally to get her access? We know who the account is with, can we just contact them and explain the situation? I'm concerned that he will withdraw money without her knowledge.

He cannot withdraw the money without her knowledge and he will have received a letter shortly after her 17th birthday informing him of this. The only exception to this is if a child dies, has less than 6 month to live or does not have mental capacity (which has to be proved with a financial deputy order).

Is it an actual Junior ISA or a child trust fund? (He coudl have moved the child trust fund monies into a junior ISA). There is a tracing service for child trust funds www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/child-trust-fund Otherwise your daughter could contact the provider, she will probably need ID etc.

Thanks for your reply, it's an actual Junior ISA. Except I expect now that she's turned 18 it will have become an ISA.

If he removes money without her knowledge/consent it's theft.

Does your daughter know about the account? Does she have access via Internet banking, app or otherwise? Worth her changing the password for her login in case he has it?

It’s your daughter’s account. She needs to call the people who hold the account and get access details.

Those saying “dad can’t do anything”, legally he couldn’t, but I get the sense from the op he wouldn’t necessarily be above forging a signature or two.

Thanks - this is the issue, she has never had the account or login details. He has controlled it. He contacted her after she was 18 asking if she had changed the password but he has never even given her the account details or password so how could she have done that? I suspect he's up to something. We know where the account is held and he has shown her screenshots detailing how much is (was?) in there. I think I need to tell her to contact the bank where the account is held and take it from there.

Go to the bank with ID and then any correspondence can come to her.