Investing for a newborn - JISA provider recommendations
Discussion
Our first little one is due at the end of the month, so we’re starting to think about the best way to put some money away for them.
I’m leaning towards a S&S JISA. I’m less convinced a Junior SIPP is worth it for us, given some likely family money/inheritance further down the line. The plan is £50–£250 a month, going into a low-cost global tracker.
A few questions for those who’ve done it:
Provider: who are you with and would you recommend them? HL and Fidelity both seem to charge nothing for a JISA. Any reason to pick one over the other?
Fund: what do you hold? Is a single global tracker enough, or did you go for something else?
Control at 18: did anyone decide against a JISA because the child gets full access at 18? Did you save in your own ISA, earmarked for them, instead?
Grandparents: if family want to chip in, is it better for them to pay into the JISA, or are there better routes for them?
Anything you wish you’d known when you set it up?
Cheers
I’m leaning towards a S&S JISA. I’m less convinced a Junior SIPP is worth it for us, given some likely family money/inheritance further down the line. The plan is £50–£250 a month, going into a low-cost global tracker.
A few questions for those who’ve done it:
Provider: who are you with and would you recommend them? HL and Fidelity both seem to charge nothing for a JISA. Any reason to pick one over the other?
Fund: what do you hold? Is a single global tracker enough, or did you go for something else?
Control at 18: did anyone decide against a JISA because the child gets full access at 18? Did you save in your own ISA, earmarked for them, instead?
Grandparents: if family want to chip in, is it better for them to pay into the JISA, or are there better routes for them?
Anything you wish you’d known when you set it up?
Cheers
Ours is 5 months old and has a JISA with Fidelity, I can't remember the costs but I'm sure I researched it and they were the cheapest.
I understand the rationale for a JSIPP and the tax relief but we went JISA so they could have it at an earlier age for a house deposit, to travel, or start a business, rather than waiting until they are 60+.
We are paying in each month into the HSBC FTSE all World Index.
Fidelity only allow payments by standing order or debit card so if grandparents etc want to pay some in they are giving me cash, which I then bank and then pay by debit card which is a bit of a pain. I'm not sure if other providers are different.
I don't have an issue with them having access at 18 part of my role as a parent particularly being an accountant is to teach them to be good with money. Also we will be saying to them this is your inheritance you won't be getting anything else as we will be spending it all so don't waste it.
ETA Congratulations, I assume this is your first child. It's hard work, especially the first couple of months but totally worth it.
I understand the rationale for a JSIPP and the tax relief but we went JISA so they could have it at an earlier age for a house deposit, to travel, or start a business, rather than waiting until they are 60+.
We are paying in each month into the HSBC FTSE all World Index.
Fidelity only allow payments by standing order or debit card so if grandparents etc want to pay some in they are giving me cash, which I then bank and then pay by debit card which is a bit of a pain. I'm not sure if other providers are different.
I don't have an issue with them having access at 18 part of my role as a parent particularly being an accountant is to teach them to be good with money. Also we will be saying to them this is your inheritance you won't be getting anything else as we will be spending it all so don't waste it.
ETA Congratulations, I assume this is your first child. It's hard work, especially the first couple of months but totally worth it.
Edited by Josemartinez on Tuesday 13th October 22:34
Edited by Josemartinez on Tuesday 13th October 22:43
I’ve got one with Fidelity who I have my own ISA and SIPP with.
The JISA is free with them. If you hold etf only with them they only charge £7.50 a month for an adult account.
As you’ve got a long window with a JISA it’s tempting to go for higher potential returns. Personally I’m happy with a Nasdaq tracker and separately S&P 500 tracker. I know they overlap and it’s a bet on US tech but you’ve got a shot at much better returns than a global tracker.
The JISA is free with them. If you hold etf only with them they only charge £7.50 a month for an adult account.
As you’ve got a long window with a JISA it’s tempting to go for higher potential returns. Personally I’m happy with a Nasdaq tracker and separately S&P 500 tracker. I know they overlap and it’s a bet on US tech but you’ve got a shot at much better returns than a global tracker.
Audis5b9 said:
Control at 18: did anyone decide against a JISA because the child gets full access at 18? Did you save in your own ISA, earmarked for them, instead?
Yes, I did. I didn't want my son having full access incase he turned out to be a wrong un and he injected it all up his arm. I put money into an ISA for him, but in my name as I wasn't using up my allowance back then, and I didn't tell him anything about it until he was 18.Sounds harsh but in my job I see a lot of kids from really decent families turn out this way, they just need to be mislead by people outside of the family and they are on a slippery slope.
Thankfully that never happened and he's now 20yrs old and working with an apprenticeship so I have told him about the investment and that it is his money. We are leaving it in my name for now. I've also put the maximum amounts in LISA's and ISA's for him in his name and he enjoys tracking the investment progress. He even has accounts with other platforms where he invests his spare money, he knows more about the stock market, platforms and funds than I do, he's turned out to be a very sensible kid.
As fr pensions, well I just don't know what age he would be able to access them as the government can raise that age whenever they want, so an ISA was the right choice, If I were doing it today I would consider putting some money into a LISA in his name to get the governments contribution as he wouldn't be able to just cash that in and spend it.
Edited by The Gauge on Wednesday 14th October 09:30
Audis5b9 said:
Control at 18: did anyone decide against a JISA because the child gets full access at 18? Did you save in your own ISA, earmarked for them, instead?
Everyone on here is a powerfully build director using their own full ISA allowance the JISA is just an overflow 
If you do have capacity in your own ISA it makes sense to keep control just in case.
I plan to involve mine in the whole process showing when it goes up and when it goes down etc.
Granddad here
Jisa for mine ,proviso they know nothing about the fund ,parents can make the decision come 18 years old whether they're responsible enough to be informed about it at that time.
Should be enough for a house deposit ,some uni fees,a nice motor or otoh pissed up against the wall eventually.
You can only do so much at the end of the day lol
Eta ,technology fund 100% at all times
Jisa for mine ,proviso they know nothing about the fund ,parents can make the decision come 18 years old whether they're responsible enough to be informed about it at that time.
Should be enough for a house deposit ,some uni fees,a nice motor or otoh pissed up against the wall eventually.
You can only do so much at the end of the day lol
Eta ,technology fund 100% at all times
Edited by dingg on Wednesday 14th October 09:43
PM3 said:
Small hijack : for the JISA for a grandchild. Is the 9K a year considered OUTSIDE of future IHT ?
Its still a gift so the 7 year rule applies. It will only be the amount gifted and not any growth.Its worth looking into if applicable as you can gift £3k and carry over 1 year unused. You can also make regular gifts from what the tax man calls surplus income which are both outside of IHT.
Edited by trickywoo on Wednesday 14th October 12:30
Vanguard JISA, 80/20, buy every month, no worries....
Until your son gets to 17 and spends all his time looking at nonsense on tiktok about drop shipping and reselling fake trainers on Vinted.
Pension makes the most financial sense but the horizon is so far off to be of any real value unless you've got the comfort to not worry about that, the opportunity cost was too large for us.
Until your son gets to 17 and spends all his time looking at nonsense on tiktok about drop shipping and reselling fake trainers on Vinted.
Pension makes the most financial sense but the horizon is so far off to be of any real value unless you've got the comfort to not worry about that, the opportunity cost was too large for us.
trickywoo said:
PM3 said:
Small hijack : for the JISA for a grandchild. Is the 9K a year considered OUTSIDE of future IHT ?
Its still a gift so the 7 year rule applies. It will only be the amount gifted and not any growth.Its worth looking into if applicable as you can gift £3k and carry over 1 year unused. You can also make regular gifts from what the tax man calls surplus income which are both outside of IHT.
HOWEVER ... a timely reminder from you that only the gifts and not the tax free gains applicable so that might still be a good point . Especially now I am just into "sniper alley" and have no idea if I will be around in 25 years or 3 years !
Grandad with a one year old here, did a bit of research and JISA with HL has zero charges, opened with a grand and £150 a month in the new VALL fund. I'm not rich enough to use up the allowance and thought about the compounding in a JISA but who knows where they'll be in 60 years time.
Quite often on these threads the way to go can be behavioural rather than anything else.
Are you already using your own ISA allowance(s) for example? If so that might make putting money to one side under your own name impractical.
If you already have your own ISA are you going to have multiple accounts on multiple platforms to "gap" the money you invest for your kids?
The bit nobody likes - are you really disciplined enough that however much s
t hits the fan you will never "borrow" from the kids savings?
Having a JISA takes that option away as the money is legally your kids and it cannot be touched by anyone other than them when they're old enough.
Are you already using your own ISA allowance(s) for example? If so that might make putting money to one side under your own name impractical.
If you already have your own ISA are you going to have multiple accounts on multiple platforms to "gap" the money you invest for your kids?
The bit nobody likes - are you really disciplined enough that however much s
t hits the fan you will never "borrow" from the kids savings?Having a JISA takes that option away as the money is legally your kids and it cannot be touched by anyone other than them when they're old enough.
Audis5b9 said:
Thanks all, some good stuff here. Sounds like it s going to be HL or Fidelity.
Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
Fidelity don't allow bank transfers, it's all by direct debit or debit card once logged in. I assume you could set up a DD from grandparents account but one off would have to go through parents. Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
Panamax said:
If you have the cash, do both JISA and SIPP.
Long term SIPP compounding is absolutely astounding, thanks to "free money" from the government which then compounds tax free.
This is what I do. Any gifts go into the lads JISA, then I put around £500/ year into his SIPP. (Not loads, but better than nothing!). I'll try and increase this once our mortgage is paid off.Long term SIPP compounding is absolutely astounding, thanks to "free money" from the government which then compounds tax free.
Just with HL, fairly easy to manage.
Audis5b9 said:
Thanks all, some good stuff here. Sounds like it s going to be HL or Fidelity.
Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
They just pay in like by direct debit or bacs Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
Why not Vanguard?
ColinsCornflakes said:
Audis5b9 said:
Thanks all, some good stuff here. Sounds like it s going to be HL or Fidelity.
Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
They just pay in like by direct debit or bacs Anyone holding anything other than the All-World trackers in their JISA?
Also, for those with HL or Fidelity, how do grandparents pay in? Can they do it themselves, or does it all have to come through you?
Why not Vanguard?
However my lads grandparents kindly pay £200/month into his JISA, via standing order. It's a bit of faff, but can be setup over the phone with HL. They did mess up the order 3 times, which was somewhat frustrating. But now it's correctly set it's seemless.
Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff