There are many different investment accounts you can use to build your wealth. However, you might want to explore how you can grow your children’s future wealth effectively, too.
Therefore, you should consider junior investment accounts – such as Junior Individual Savings Accounts (JISAs) and Junior General Investment Accounts (Junior GIAs).
Read below, where we help you understand these accounts and why they’re important for your child’s finances.
Understanding junior investment accounts
Junior investment accounts allow you to grow your child’s savings from an early age, so you can build their wealth effectively for the future.
There are two main types of junior investment accounts, and each one has different aspects when it comes to investing tax-efficiently.
JISAs
Investing in a JISA account can help you build your child’s savings whilst sheltering the money from tax. Any money you save in this account is exempt from income and Capital Gains Tax (CGT).
However, you can only invest a certain amount each year into this account, according to the annual JISA allowance. For the current 2023/2024 tax year, this amount is £9,000.
These savings become accessible once your child turns 18. No money can be withdrawn before then.
You have the option of a cash JISA or a stocks and shares JISA, and you can only open one of each per year.
Junior GIAs
Junior GIAs work in a similar way to JISAs, except there’s no allowance limit on these accounts, so you can contribute as much as you want throughout the year.
However, unlike JISAs these accounts are taxable, so you should consider using your child’s CGT and personal allowances to help improve tax efficiency.
Also, the savings in Junior GIAs can be accessed at any point and don’t require your child to be over 18.
Their importance to your finances
There are many reasons why junior investment accounts are important to your finances. This includes things like:
Achieving your child’s financial targets
Junior investment accounts are important for helping you achieve your child’s financial goals.
There are many future ambitions you could have for your child, whether it be for them to purchase their own property by a certain age, pay for their education fees, be set to buy their first car, or simply to have their assets allocated effectively.
Whatever these goals are, JISAs and Junior GIAs can help you make sure they have a large sum of money to access, which can go towards these goals.
Protecting their financial future
Investing in these accounts can also help you protect your child’s financial future.
Whilst you may have certain goals for them, there are a wide range of things which could potentially impact your child’s finances. This could be changes in their personal life or things like the financial markets and tax rates.
Building their savings in these accounts can help you increase their wealth resilience, so they can navigate these impacts more effectively if and when they occur.
Being a part of your financial plan
Junior investment accounts can also be important when it comes to your financial planning.
With your financial adviser’s help, you can outline all the goals you have for the future and the specific steps needed to reach them.
If you have targets for your family’s wealth, then it can be essential to include JISAs or Junior GIAs in this plan.
Your adviser can help you plan the right structure for contributions to these accounts throughout the year, to grow your child’s savings effectively and also benefit your own financial situation.
On top of that, they can continuously provide you with an investment overview and analysis of the markets, to see how certain factors can impact your child’s wealth – and how you can prepare for this.
If you want to start exploring junior investment accounts but don’t know how to devise the right approach, speak to a modern wealth management service for expert financial guidance.
