My wife left a small inheritance for both of our nieces, £1000 each. The nieces are 6 and 3 years old, I get on well with her brother, their father, but I don’t trust him with this money, on past experience I suspect he is likely to use it for something like paying towards his mortgage or paying for their next holiday, something that he will feel will be benefiting the girls but in a round about way. The family isn’t short of money, but her brother can be somewhat blinkered by his own needs. I know from talking to my wife about it that she wanted it to benefit them directly, to do something with it that would make a difference in their life’s. She never gave me any direct instructions, but I’ve decided that I’d like to put the money into some kind of saving or bond that will mature when each girl reaches 18 or 21 and pays out directly to them.
So I’m wondering if anyone on here has been in a similar position? I know nothing about finance and will be doing some research into it but I thought I might start that here among people who may have had to do the same thing.
A junior isa either cash or shares is the obvious thought but I think it is difficult to prevent parents having access to it. You really need professional advice but of course that costs. You could set up savings accounts in your name and assign them in your will. Possibly talk to your bank.?
@Pudding Thanks pudding, there’s some first ports of call there for me to be getting on with. I had a bit of a chat with a friend at the weekend and she was also highlighting the problems with Isa and parental access. It sounds as if I may be looking for a specialist product which as you suggest might need specialist advice. I think it may take more research than I first assumed
There used to be a product supplied by the government but I don’t think it is still available. I was a financial support consultant in IT but it was accounts not investment.
Why dont you just open a seperate account in your name and pass the children the money when they reach 16/18 and old enough to decide what to do with it?
Opening an account for them and keeping it within my Will is definitely a possibility. I suppose I’m wondering if there’s some other way that would offer better returns given that it would be sitting there for 12 to 15 years and 15 to 18 years in the case of the younger niece.
One of the problems with it being in your name is it takes your tax allowances. In their names they have their own tax allowance. You would historically get a better return gambling on stocks and shares isa.
There are plenty of high interest accounts you could choose and just pass them the 1000 pounds each along with any interest it has earnt when they are older.
I think parents or guardians can access child accounts until they are 16.
Hadn’t thought about the tax implications, thanks for that Pudding, being self employed means it’s definitely something I’ll need to consider. I’ll have a look at stocks and shares ISA as a start.
All of that I did not know! Cheers for that. We never really had any money until quite recently so saving and tax brackets is something that we never really had to concern ourselves with
Thanks Ali, that was more what I was thinking or rather hoping to do but it seems that it’s pretty costly to set up from what I can see. The son of the friend I was talking with is in finance so I’m hoping to get together with him and have a bit of a deeper chat about this kind of thing and how feasible it is with the amount I have to invest/manage
Well you could just put it in your will and have an executor to your will place the money with them if you die before they reach the age you wish them to have it. If you live, you’ll be there to give them the money.
@Ali29 It’s certainly starting to look like it might have to be something along those lines. I was hoping for something a bit more independent of myself, I’ll have to do a bit of a deep dive into research but away with work for the next few weeks so it’s looking like it might have to wait. Oh well no real rush given the timescales involved
