Since the Junior ISA was officially launched in November 2011 we have seen a steady flow of providers offering their own version of the investment. It seems that the stocks and shares Junior ISA is a much more popular product than its cash version and this is reflected in the amount of providers offering a stocks and shares version when compared to the amount of providers offering a cash version.
The stand out providers are ‘The Children’s ISA Ltd’, ‘Family Investments’, ‘TaxFreeJuniorISA.co.uk’, ‘The Children’s Mutual’, ‘Jump’ and ‘Scottish Friendly’.
A lot of providers offer very similar accounts but your money goes into different fund(s) dependent upon the provider. The government have also confirmed that you cannot transfer a child trust fund to junior isa which many parents feel is unfair as they feel that their children are now stuck in an unsupported and inferior investment.
There are also some Junior ISA comparison sites cropping up with www.juniorisaproviders.org being the most notable one. Here you can compare many different Junior ISAs from a wide range of the UKs leading providers.
The UK coalition government has annouced plans to introduce a new ISA for children know as a ‘Junior ISA’.
This will replace the ‘Child Trust Fund’ and is to encourage parents to help their children save for their future.
Parents will be able to pay in a capped amount each year which can either be cash, stocks or shares just like with a normal adult ISA (Individual Savings Account) and the child will not be able to receive the funds until they reach adulthood.
It is predicted that education costs such as going to university and also house prices are to continue rising so it is important to help your child to have some savings which can then go towards their university fee’s or help them onto the property ladder.
Unlike the Child Trust Fund, the government will not be making any contributions towards any Junior ISA accounts which has resulted in complaints from many people.
It is believed that only weather families will be able to afford it whilst lower income families will be excluded.
The government is expecting to save around half a billion pounds by scrapping the Child Trust Fund in favour of a tax free junior isa