F&C Asset Management plc : Parents missing a trick as a quarter of Coalition-era Child Trust Fund vouchers remain uninvested

For immediate release 9 January 2012 Parents missing a trick as a quarter of Coalition-era Child Trust Fund vouchers remain uninvested

Figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that of 555,000 Child Trust Fund (CTF) vouchers issued in the
12 months to the end of June 2011, around 136,000 have yet to be invested. This means parents risk being allocated a default 'stakeholder' option, many of which are index trackers levying the maximum fee of 1.5%, that may not best suit their child's needs.
After coming to power in the June 2010 election, the Coalition Government announced it was to scrap further issuance of the vouchers, which had previously been worth £250 (£500 for low-income families) for children born since September 2002. The vouchers were first decreased in value to £50 (£100 for low-income families) from 1 August 2010, before being phased out entirely for babies born after the beginning of January
2011.
The issuing of a CTF voucher is triggered by a claim for Child Benefit. There is no cut-off point for applying for Child Benefit, but those who apply late lose out, as it can only be backdated for three months. Once a voucher is issued, parents have 12 months to choose a Child Trust Fund before one is chosen for them at random from a panel of providers of 'stakeholder' accounts.
The Junior ISA ('JISA') scheme - which is similar to a CTF but without Government contributions - was unveiled last November, but children born within the CTF eligibility window are not currently permitted to have one of the new JISAs, so parents need to make their choice from the existing CTF products available.
An e-petition urging the Government to merge the CTF into the Junior ISA regime has garnered over 2,000 supporters, though this is a long way short of the 100,000 needed to force a debate in Parliament. But while the petition describes the CTF generation as being subjected to 'a form of discrimination that affects their
human rights', it would be wrong to assume that those applying for a Child Trust Fund even at this late stage are faced with a lack of choice.
Jason Hollands, Head of Corporate Affairs at F&C Investments, said: "In time we would not be surprised if the CTF and Junior ISA regimes were merged, in the same way that Personal Equity Plans were eventually integrated in to the Individual Savings Account scheme. In the meantime, it's hard to argue that children's human rights are being infringed by being given free money by the Government. There are Child Trust Funds still available that offer access to a wide a range of investments, including self-select plans. Importantly, the CTF allowance has already been significantly increased from £1,200 to £3,600 for the current tax year to harmonise it with the Junior ISA, so parents and guardians can tuck significantly more aside in existing CTFs if they are in a position to do so."
F&C's Shares Child Trust Fund is still open to both new business and transfers, and offers access to a range of 12 investment trusts covering stockmarkets around the world, as well as private equity, commercial property and hedge funds. Later in 2012 F&C will launch a Junior ISA with the same broad choice of investments. Accounts can be opened with lump sums from £100 or regular investments starting at £25 a month per trust. There is no charge for the Shares CTF, although fees are payable on the underlying investments. F&C also offers one of the cheaper Stakeholder CTF options, with total costs capped at 1% a year.
Returns from a stocks and shares Child Trust Fund can go down as well as up, and investors may get back less than they put in. The same is true of a stakeholder CTF (of the type allocated to children whose parents do not use their voucher), which also invests in shares.
For more on F&C's range of investments for children, visit www.fandc.co.uk.

- Ends - Press enquiries - 020 7011 4600 Notes to Editors About the F&C group

F&C Asset Management (F&C) is a diversified investment management group which traces its origins to the launch of the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust in 1868. While many asset managers are owned by financial services conglomerates, such as banks or insurance companies, F&C is an independent group which is listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: FCAM.L). F&C is focused exclusively on managing money and its teams invests across all major asset classes - equities, fixed income and property - and a number of specialist areas including absolute return strategies, liability driven investments, sustainable investments and private equity funds. Today the group operates from offices in eleven countries and manages approximately £103 billion* of assets across three main business lines: Institutional, Funds & Investment Trusts and Insurance Partners, which collectively represent in excess of three million underlying savers. The group includes Thames River, a boutique asset manager with strong expertise in absolute return and multi-manager funds, and F&C REIT, a global real-estate asset manager.

* as at 30 September 2011