Our Blog

Introducing the new Junior ISA !

On 1st November 2011 the government is introducing a new Junior ISA as a replacement for the Child Trust Fund (CTF), available to all UK resident children under the age of 18 who do not have a CTF in place.

As with adult ISA's, both Cash and Stocks and Shares Junior ISAs will be available, with the qualifying underlying investments the same as the adult equivalent product.

It's worth noting the important features of the new Junior ISAs:

* Each eligible child will be able to receive total contributions of up to £3,000 each tax year into their Junior ISA, and as with CTF's, any person or organisation can contribute into any child's Junior ISA.
* Unlike adult ISA's however, there will be no rules on how contributions have to be allocated between Cash and Stocks & Shares Junior ISAs.
* Withdrawals will not be allowed until the child reaches age 18 except in the case of terminal illness or death.
* Until age 16 the Junior ISA will be managed on their behalf by a person who has parental responsibility for the child. At age 16 the child will assume responsibility for the management of the Junior ISA themselves. At age 18 the Junior ISA will by default become an Adult ISA, and will then be accessible to the child.
* Having a junior ISA will not affect an individual's entitlement to an adult ISA.
* It will be possible to transfer between Junior ISAs, but it will not be possible to hold more than one cash and one stocks & shares Junior ISA at any time.

For children with an existing CTF it is proposed that the contribution limit will increase from the current level of £1,200 per year to £3,000 per year to match the new Junior ISA subscription limit.

This is a welcome addition by the government and a useful savings tool for any eligible child. If you would like more information about Junior ISAs please contact us

AWP

Welcome to our new website and blog

Welcome to our new website!

We have spent a lot of time developing this site into a tool that is both interactive and informative. We hope you think that we have achieved this!

Our aim is to keep this blog up-to-date with breaking financial news and useful information for our clients or anyone choosing to visit our site.

If you use social networking sites, you will see the links at the top of the page which allow you to share any of our pages on your profile/tweets if you think they are useful.

We understand that there are going to be parts of the site that we can improve on, and would urge you to give us feedback at apope@abacuswealthplanning.com or smoisey@abacuswealthplanning.com

Enjoy using our site, and watch this space?

Adrian & Steve