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A Junior ISA is a tax-efficient way to save and invest on behalf of your child.
Payments into a Junior ISA are different from adult ISAs, because the money you put in belongs to your child. Once you put money in, you can’t take it out again, except in exceptional circumstances, and your child can only get access to their money when they turn 18.
There are two types of Junior ISA:
Your child can have one or both types of Junior ISA and you can deposit up to the annual limit of £9,000 into them in any combination you like.
For example, you could pay £3,000 into a Junior Cash ISA and up to £6,000 into a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, or vice versa. You can split the allowance however you want to between the two accounts.
The benefit of a Junior ISA is that you or your child won’t pay tax on any interest, returns or dividends they receive.
Wealthify only offers a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA. Any money paid into a Junior ISA will belong to the child, but they cannot access it until their 18th birthday.
Junior ISAs allow your child to keep more of their money by protecting any positive returns they receive from income tax and capital gains tax.
Only a child’s parent or legal guardian can open a Junior ISA account on their behalf.
Your child can have one Junior Cash ISA and/or a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA at any time, into which you can currently contribute a maximum of £9,000 per tax year, per eligible child. You can split the amount however you choose between a Junior Cash ISA and a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA as long as the combined amount doesn’t exceed the annual limit.
You don’t need to use the same provider for your child’s Junior Cash ISA and Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, so you’ve got flexibility to choose the best option for you and your child.
At the start of each new tax year, on 6 April, the child’s annual Junior ISA allowance re-sets and you can start another year of tax-efficient saving for each child.
Your child will only be able to access the money within their Junior ISA when they turn 18.
When they turn 18, the Junior ISA is automatically changed into an adult ISA. At this point, they can choose to keep saving or investing, or they can withdraw some or all of the balance to help pay for things like university, or a new car.
If you want to build an investment pot for your child that neither you or they can touch until your child turns 18, then a Junior ISA could be the answer. Any money paid into a Junior ISA belongs to the child and cannot be withdrawn by anyone other than the child when they turn 18.
Junior ISAs are available to children who:
You can transfer your Child Trust Fund over to a Wealthify Junior ISA, but your child cannot have a CTF and a Junior ISA at the same time. When transferring a CTF to a Junior ISA, the full balance must be transferred.
Junior ISAs can only be opened by the parent or legal guardian of a child under the age of 18 who fits the eligibility criteria. Once opened the parent/guardian will become the registered contact for the account.
As the registered contact for a Junior ISA, you are the only person authorised to make decisions about the management of the account. You’ll also need to keep Wealthify informed if the child’s personal details change; e.g. if they change their name, address, contact number, or get married.
When the child turns 18, they will become the registered contact and their Wealthify Junior ISA will change into an adult ISA. They can either keep investing, move it somewhere else, or withdraw some or all of it e.g. to help pay for university, or a car.
The money in a Junior ISA will never belong to the parent/guardian. It belongs to the child, but they won’t be able to access it until their 18th birthday.
No – the Junior ISA can only be opened and funded after the child is born. We need the child’s date of birth so that we will know when your child turns 18.
Wealthify offers Junior Stocks & Shares ISAs.
Wealthify Junior ISAs contain a range of investments from across the globe matched to the level of risk you choose. Our team of experts build your child’s Junior ISA, choosing which investments to buy and managing them on your behalf.
You can choose to invest for you child in an Ethical Plan or an Original Plan. Read more about our Ethical Plans here.
Each Junior Stocks & Shares ISA will contain up to 20 investment funds from providers like Blackrock and Vanguard. Investment funds are a convenient and cost-effective way to invest, as they contain hundreds or even thousands of expertly-selected shares, bonds and other investment types. This means your Junior ISA will contain a diverse range of investments spread across global markets and regions, helping your child to spread their risk.
The Junior ISA allowance for the 2023/24 tax year is £9,000.
A child can have one Junior Cash ISA and one Junior Stocks & Shares ISA. The annual allowance can be split between accounts any way you like, but the total payments made into both must not exceed this amount in any given tax year.
The two Junior ISAs don’t have to be with the same provider, so you can choose the best option for you and your child. Wealthify does not currently offer a Junior Cash ISA, but we may do in the future, so watch this space.
If your child already has a Child Trust Fund in their name, it would need to be transferred to us in order to open a Junior ISA with Wealthify. You can transfer a Child Trust Fund into a Wealthify Junior Stocks and Shares ISA using the official transfer process.
No – you can hold a Junior Cash ISA with one provider and a Junior Stocks & Shares ISA with a different provider.
The parent or legal guardian opening the account will be the registered contact, but the money will not be accessible to them and will always belong to the child. The child won’t be able to access the money until their 18th birthday.
As the registered contact for a Junior ISA, you are the only person authorised to make decisions about the management of the account. You’ll also need to keep Wealthify informed if the child’s personal details change; e.g. if they change their name, address, contact number, or get married.
When the child turns 18, they become the registered contact and their Wealthify Junior ISA is rolled into an adult Stocks & Shares ISA. They can either keep investing, move it somewhere else, or withdraw some or all of it e.g. to help pay for university or a car.
Yes, you can invite anyone to be a contributor. That could be your parents, siblings, cousins, friends, neighbours… the list goes on. Once they’ve accepted the invite, and passed verification, they’ll be able to add to your child’s ISA whenever they want.
The only caveat to this is that they’ll need to live in the UK and be a UK tax resident, aged over 18.
You can invite someone to pay into your Wealthify Junior ISA by using our 'Friends and Family' feature. You can find out more about this here: https://www.wealthify.com/junior-isa-family-friends
Money added to a Junior ISA belongs to the child. The parent or guardian who opened the Junior ISA acts as the registered contact, but they can’t access the money once it has been deposited, unless there are exceptional circumstances. When the child turns 18, account ownership is transferred to them.
If you’d like to make regular, monthly payments to a Wealthify Junior ISA, you can set up a Direct Debit.
You can top up your child’s Junior ISA whenever you like by making a one-off Direct Debit or a bank transfer. For example, when your child receives money as a birthday or Christmas gift. Just sign in to your Wealthify account and visit your dashboard, then click on the ‘top up’ link next to your Junior ISA account.
No matter how the contribution is made, it MUST come from the bank account that was used to open your Wealthify account.
We don’t currently accept card payments.
Wealthify is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Your money is looked after by our team of experienced and qualified investment managers, and we’re backed by global financial services provider, Aviva.
Your child’s money is held securely by our custodian, Winterflood Securities Limited. They are responsible for holding your cash and investments safely. They are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and are part of Close Brothers Group, who have been trading for more than 130 years. They hold your child’s cash and investments separately from Wealthify (ringfenced) in accordance with the FCA’s client asset rules.
As an authorised firm, Winterflood Securities Ltd. is also a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means your child’s investments may be protected up to £85,000.
It’s important to remember that the value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested. The FSCS scheme does not allow you to claim compensation simply because the value of your child’s account falls below what you originally invested.
Children don't pay tax on any returns in a Junior ISA. If you would like to find out more information on tax allowances for children, you can find out more here.
A Junior ISA allows you to save or invest up to £9,000 a year on behalf of your child without paying tax on any interest and/or capital gains earnt from the money within the Junior ISA.
Saving into a Junior ISA on behalf of your children does not affect your own annual ISA allowance.
Yes, you can easily transfer your child’s existing Junior ISA to Wealthify by completing our Junior ISA transfer request form. We’ll send you the transfer forms to complete and return to us, then we’ll contact your existing provider to arrange everything.
Please remember, if you’re transferring a Junior Cash ISA to Wealthify, it will become a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA. Your child’s money will be invested in global financial markets and the value of your investments can go down as well as up.
If you’re an existing customer, simply head to your Dashboard and use the ‘transfer in’ button on your home screen.
Yes, but you must transfer the whole balance of your Child’s Trust Fund (CTF) as you cannot have a CTF and a Junior ISA open at the same time.
When you transfer the full balance of a Child Trust Fund over to a Junior ISA, it doesn’t count towards your child’s current Junior ISA allowance, so you can transfer the whole CTF balance without it affecting their Junior ISA allowance for that same tax year.
You can find more information on Child Trust Funds on the government’s HMRC website.
There's no direct transfer process available. If you want to move some money from your ISA to your child's Junior ISA you would need to withdraw your ISA funds, deposit them into your registered bank account and then pay it into your child’s Junior ISA.
As soon as the money is received in the Junior ISA, it will belong to the child and you will no longer have access to it, so bear this in mind if you’re thinking about transferring from your own personal ISA or savings account.
Child Trust Funds (CTFs) were long-term savings or investment accounts created for all children. Everyone born in the UK between 1st September 2002 and 2nd January 2011 got £50-£1,000 free from the Government to save in a CTF, so, if your child was born between these dates, they probably have one.
Junior ISAs replaced Child Trust Funds in 2011.
You can transfer Child Trust Funds to Wealthify, at which point they will become a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA.
You can find more information on Child Trust Funds on the government’s HMRC website.
Yes. We’ll be sad to see you go, obviously, but if you choose to transfer your Junior ISA to another provider you can by using their official Junior ISA transfer form.
No, this service won't cost you a penny. We wanted to make it easy and affordable for your friends and family to add to your child's Junior ISA, so there are no extra charges or costs for this service.
You’ll need to log in to your Wealthify account and invite them – the invite will include all the details they need to know in order to get started. They’ll then need to sign up and create a Wealthify contributor account (they can skip the signing up bit if they already invest with us!)
From their Wealthify dashboard, they’ll be able to verify their identity either through a text message we’ll send them or a PIN code you provide. Once they’ve completed verification, they’ll be able to add to your child’s Junior ISA.
If they’re new to Wealthify then they’ll need to set up their bank details to get started, but this will be saved for future contributions.
Yes! By taking the steps for verification and creating separate contributor accounts, we've made sure that your Junior ISA Plans are still safe and secure.
Your contributors will only be able to see how much they’ve added, and the amount left in the Junior ISA's tax allowance for that year. They’ll also be able to see any messages they’ve sent with their contributions.
We all like to add a note when you give a gift, so anytime your contributors add to your child’s ISA they’ll have the option of attaching a message for the parent and child to read!
Money is a pretty sensitive subject, so we don’t want to show them what you or other contributors have added. This way, they’ll easily be able to see how much they’ve added to your child’s future while keeping everyone else’s information private.
For more information read our Privacy policy.