Junior ISAs - April update

The Treasury has announced that the successor scheme to Child Trust Funds (‘CTFs’), dubbed Junior ISAs, will be available in November 2011 and will have an annual contribution limit of £3,000. Also that the investment limit for existing CTFs will be increased from £1,200 p.a. to £3,000 p.a..

Unlike CTFs, JISAs will not be seeded by Government contributions and have already been referred to as “the rich man’s CTF”.

Children under age 18 who do not have a CTF will be eligible, including those born before September 2002, when CTFs were introduced, and those born after 3 January 2011, when eligibility for CTF ceased.

In the same way as with ISAs, investments can take the form of cash or stocks and shares/ funds and will be sheltered from income and capital gains taxes. Accounts will be administered and funded by parents or other appropriate adults and will not be accessible until the child reaches the age of 18.