Foresters Financial CTF

[SixSeven]

I’ve got an appointment with FF next week to discuss my daughter’s CTF as she approaches 18. Has anyone had one of these appointments, I’m not really sure what to expect.

My ds just put his into a fixed bond i think. Surely your daughter should be involved too. Is there much saved in there?

I'm not sure why you have an appointment. Maybe it's so they can try to convince you/DD to transfer it to another of their 'products'?

My DDs have CTFs with Columbia Threadneedle. They have written to us several times to talk about next steps for DD1 since she's turned 18 but not arranged an appointment.

DD1 isn't bothered (there's not much in her CTF) but I have encouraged her to open an ISA and move the CTF into it.

I am in the process of moving DD2's CTF into a Jr ISA.

Daughter will be there too but knows less than I do about investments. There’s about £30k, of which she’d like some accessible to buy a car in a few months but much of the rest can be short (ish) term invested.

Is the fixed bond for a set period of time?

Why do you need an appointment with anyone, it is up to your DD what she does with the money, surely if she wants to save/invest she can just put it into an ISA (S&S preferably, but otherwise cash) or drip feed into a LISA.

It’s an online appointment. I mean, she does need some sensible advice about what to do with her money, but I’m just wondering what they’re likely to try and advise. Will do our own homework before the appt.

There are so many investment options without being railroaded into it by advisors.

Look up Interactive Investor, a low cost investment website, Hargreaves Lansdown, more expensive but lots of options and a Fab website. There are others similar too.

My DS had an appointment about 3 years ago when he reached 18. He decided to open a LISA with some of the funds to take advantage of the £1000 per year from the government and moved the rest into a non foresters S+S fund

This is the sort of route we’re thinking. I believe it’s £4k max for the LISA? Maybe utilise that, then £20k into an ISA and the rest into a standard savings account so she can get a car/insurance?

Being railroaded is my fear. I’ve no experience with this whatsoever, and obviously my daughter has even less financial acumen. Would prefer her not to spend it all in Urban/Sephora!!

It’s pretty straightforward. They’ll usually confirm her identity, explain what options she has once it matures, and go over whether she wants to keep it as an investment or transfer it to a savings account. It’s more informational than anything—no pressure decisions.

The appointments are quite good actually. That advisor chats through how your money has grown and what you can do with it. They have lots of schemes and benefits for the kids too. The guy who dealt with us made suggestions but no hard sell for other products.

Just so you’re aware, it’s £20k in total into ISAs. So if she puts £4k into a LISA she can only put £16k into another ISA this year.

Probably doesn’t make much difference and the advisor will tell you anyway, but just wanted to flag.

Thanks @Liquidcobra and @PamandBluebell .

@LaserPumpkin I did know this, doh!

Makes more sense to put 4k into Lisa now, and hold 4k in savings to add to that LISA in April when she gets next years allowance. Then the other 16k in s&s this year?

Yes that’s definitely an option, good suggestion thank you

We had this, it was quite helpful but they obviously want you to keep saving with them.

In the end dd moved a chunk of the money over to her current account as she wanted to put it towards a car and kept some in a stocks and shares ISA with them then.

Unless the appointment is free or a token amount like £50/100, its a total waste of money.

The adviser is only going to tell you what you've decided to do anyway. Given she's 18 so I'd assume at least a few years before she buys a home then she could probably reasonably put some or all of the £20k in a S&S ISA.

There's other ways of learning about personal finance, for example Meaningful Money is very good and he's in the process of launching a 'young person' version with one of his DDs (so Tiktok/Instagram style rather than half hour podcasts of two dads chatting).

It is free, and I think it’ll be useful to talk to someone who knows what they’re doing. I will look up MM thank you!

Don’t advisors work on commission the appointment may be free but are likely to steer money into funds charging high fees and won’t be whole of the market. At only 30k you can research and select funds using investment platform without advisors.

I would check out their trust pilot reviews 1 star. People have mentioned high fees, lack of service and delays with taking the money out once CTF mature child reaches 18.

We had this and it was really useful. No hard sell just a straightforward explanation of different types of savings products. Daughter was going to uni so they tailored it to this and told her how to apply for several grants that they offer. I thought it was helpful

Eh? Thwy have great reviews and a 4.5 rating!!
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/foresters.com

Overall 4.5 but is made up mixed reviews try reading or filtering those reviews with only 1 star!

I think Forresters are pretty good, the advice is free and was good advice, it wasn’t too tricky moving the money over and I’m happy for dd to keep some money in their stocks and shares isa.

My son had this when his baby bond came to an end. The financial talk was Ok but they do try to get you to commit to their products ( like stocks and shares ISA for example. Nothing wrong with their products although there are better performing funds.