so the government will give me £50 or something to start a trust fund I’ve been putting away a small amount each month myself and plan to keep doing this for when sprog is older if it wants to go to uni or whatever. Should I put it into one of these trust funds or just go with some other off the self fund?

Remember a child trust fund belongs to the child and it is theirs at 16. Do one for them (car, bike etc) but another long-term saving fund (ISA) in YOUR name to cover uni costs.

Our kids government ones have decreased in value, so glad there’s none of our money in there. Keep it seperate, you will keep control of both how and when it gets spent and how it is invested.

If they are linked to equities they will go down – the point being that over the course of their life any effects will be smoothed out and higher.

so what sort of options could I have for a long term investment that I can put small amounts in each month and what might the tax implications be for me?

An ISA is tax free up to £3600 a year or something like that so safe low risk money must be in an ISA.

Mastiles_fanylion – you can have up to £10,200 into a ISA in any given tax year. Any growth is tax free as are withdrawals. The risk element depends entirely on where the funds are invested, I have clients who have a huge range of investments ranging from cash (low risk) to off the scale (usually far east equities)

ISAs are not just for low risk!

As for the OPs question; as already said, any cash you are setting aside should go into a portfolio that YOU control. Keep it’s existence secret from your child, so you release the funds to them when you deam it appropriate (maybe for uni or when they need a deposit on a house etc.) The CTF matures automatically and there is no control over what it’s spent on.

Who do folk have their CTFs with? They all seem much of a muchness but is there one that stands out from the crowd?

Also worth looking at Child Savings Account according to lovemoney

If you fill in form R85 for the account then it will be tax free (as presumably you’ll child will be earning less than the low tax threshold) but you can still control the account for children under a certain age (16 I think)