The next generation

A Junior ISA must be opened by the child’s parent, guardian or person with parental responsibility, but anyone can set up a Direct Debit or add lumps sums.

The parent or guardian will manage the account until the child is 16, when they can apply to take control of it, but you, or other family and friends, can continue to contribute. The child will be able to access the money paid into the Junior ISA and any annual bonuses that have been added once they are 18. No one else can access the savings.

Children aged 16 and 17 can open a JISA themselves.

Your child can have a Junior Cash ISA, a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA or both. If they hold both, the combined total which can be saved this year must still be within the annual Junior ISA allowance.

Unlike Adult ISAs where it’s possible to have multiple ISA accounts from different tax years, your child can only hold one cash Junior ISA and one stocks and shares Junior ISA. So if your child already has a stocks and shares Junior ISA with £5,000 saved into it and you want to open a Foresters stocks and shares Junior ISA, you will need to transfer the £5,000 into our Junior ISA.

Our Junior ISA is categorised as a Stocks and Shares JISA and transfers from other Junior ISAs will be managed on your behalf, making the process as easy as possible for you. All you need to do is complete a simple form.

Yes, it’s easy to transfer an existing Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund into our Junior ISA. Just complete our online application, which includes a Transfer request form to be downloaded. Just complete and return this to us and we’ll contact your existing provider and manage the transfer process on your behalf.

If the child already has a Child Trust Fund (CTF), they can’t hold both products, but the CTF can be transferred into the Junior ISA, as can another Junior ISA held with another provider. To transfer a CTF or Junior ISA into our Junior ISA, select the Transfer option in our online application, which includes a Transfer request form.

Your money is invested in our consistently well performing with profits Order Insurance Fund with the aim of providing investment growth. Dependent on the performance of our fund, we aim to add annual bonuses and a final bonus to your child’s Junior ISA which will increase their plan’s value. The addition of bonuses is not guaranteed.

We never forget it’s your child’s money, so we take extra good care of it. Within our fund, your money is spread across a number of different types of investments to help minimise risk and increase the potential returns. This way your money benefits from exposure to a range of asset classes which may include equities (company shares), fixed interest bonds (government and company), property and cash.

As a friendly society, it’s particularly important to us that our investments are managed in an ethical and responsible way. Foresters is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) which demonstrates our commitment to responsible investment, to reducing our impact on the environment and mitigating climate change risk in our investment portfolios.

When you open a plan, you can be confident that investing with us means your money will be invested in a trustworthy and environmentally conscious way. The PRI is the world’s leading supporter of responsible investment and promotes a better understanding of the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Find out more about the 6 PRI principles we have signed up to here.

Many funds that invest in a variety of asset classes would have a mixture of equities and bonds.  These asset classes traditionally have a negative correlation, meaning that if equities go up in value, bonds generally go down in value.  The opposite happens when equities go down in value.  Over the past few years this correlation has moved to a positive correlation, resulting in equity and bond valuations moving in the same direction.  This can increase the risk of poor returns and increased volatility in fund values.

We use private assets to help diversify our fund and reduce its overall risk, as private assets are not so closely correlated with equity and bond (public) investments and so can help to balance investment volatility.  Private assets also offer the potential for higher returns as they are often long term investments.  The downside is that private assets offer lower flexibility than public assets. We monitor the overall exposure between private and public assets to ensure the mix meets our expected cashflows.

The Foresters Stocks & Shares Junior ISA doesn’t pay interest. Instead, by investing the money you pay into the plan into our Order Insurance with profits Fund we provide the potential for growth through bonuses. What growth your child’s Junior ISA receives will depend on the performance of our fund.

The following annual bonus rates have been declared for the Junior ISA:

The annual bonus rate is applied to the amounts you have invested, less the amounts you have withdrawn, and any annual bonuses that have been previously added.

The addition of any bonus is not guaranteed and your child may not get back the full amount originally invested, dependent on the investment conditions at withdrawal.

To find out more about the addition of bonuses and how we manage our fund please read our Principles and Practices of Financial Management (PPFM).

We may vary the design of a product to best meet the needs of our policyholders which may affect the timing and size of future bonuses. Therefore the above table is provided for information purposes only and should not be considered an indication of likely future performance.

There is an Annual Management Charge of 2% of the value of your Junior ISA. We deduct charges upfront before we declare bonuses. This means there are no additional charges for you to pay. This charge could change, but we promise it will never exceed 3% of the value of your Junior ISA in any one year. The charges are designed to cover our costs for administering the JISA on your behalf. For more information about charges, please take a few minutes to read the relevant Junior ISA  Key Information Document and Important Information.

No – no one can access the funds legally before the child turns 18. In other words, the plan is locked.

Once your child turns 18 they’ll be able to access their Junior ISA. Their lump sum will either continue to be invested as an adult ISA, or the money can be used to further their plans. It could help them with university fees, saving towards a deposit on a house, or even buy their first car.

Anyone can pay into the Junior ISA so, in this case, another person can carry on with the payments.

After your application is accepted you will receive a statutory notice of your right to cancel. You will then have 30 days from the commencement date of the Junior ISA, or the date the notice is received, whichever is later, in which to change your mind. Something often referred to as a cooling-off period.

For more information please see the Important Information document.

If you’re unsure as to the suitability of this product you should seek advice from a Financial Adviser.