Child Trust Fund and Junior ISA Transfer
Transferring into a Wealthify Junior Stocks and Shares ISA couldn’t be simpler.
✓ Fees: We have a low annual management fee of 0.6% for our Junior ISA. Please understand how your current fees compare with ours.
✓ Charges: It’s free to transfer an existing Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund (CTF) to us, but please check that your current provider doesn’t charge any exit fees.
✓ Benefits: You can invite family or friends to contribute to your child’s Junior ISA; with the current annual allowance for the 2024/25 tax year set at £9,000.
Once you’ve decided that it’s the right product for you and your child, fill out a Junior ISA transfer form, choose your investment style from Cautious to Adventurous — and leave it to Wealthify’s expert Investment Team to do the rest until your child’s 18th birthday.
With investing, your capital is at risk. The tax treatment of your investment will depend on your individual circumstances and may change in the future
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Why transfer your CTF or Junior ISA to Wealthify?
You can either transfer another existing Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund to us, but you cannot transfer one Child Trust Fund to another. Below are some points to consider regarding the differences between Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds.
Wealthify Junior Stocks and Shares ISAs
Benefits
- A tax-efficient ISA for your child.
- Deposit up to £9,000 per tax year*.
- Hassle-free transfer process.
- Low and transparent fees.
- More choice with the style of investing; with a Wealthify Junior ISA you can choose from 5 investment styles, from Cautious to Adventurous.
- Ethical Plans are available to align with your values.
- Anyone can become a contributor to the child’s Junior ISA.
Considerations
- Junior ISAs are limited to one type per child, with Junior Stocks and Shares ISAs available at Wealthify.
Child Trust Funds
Benefits
- A tax-efficient way to save for your child.
- Deposit up to £9,000 per year (resetting on their birthday).
Considerations
- Restricted choice with investing options.
- Potentially higher fees (check with the provider).
- Often have less competitive interest rates due to reduced market competition, as new accounts can no longer be opened.
- Child Trust Funds are no longer available, meaning the account will be closed on the completion of your transfer.
* This is the current Junior ISA allowance amount and could be subject to change in future tax years.
How to transfer a Junior ISA or Child Trust Fund
Whether it’s another Junior ISA or a Child Trust Fund, you can transfer yours into a Wealthify Junior Stocks and Shares ISA in four little steps:
You start the transfer
Fill in our Junior ISA transfer form, tell us how much you’ll be transferring over, and pick an investment style that suits.
Answer our quiz
Take our short suitability quiz to help make sure that a Junior ISA is right for you and your child.
We’ll build it
We have a team of investment experts on hand to build your child an investment portfolio that’s aligned with your values and investment style.
We’ll take it from there
Sit back, relax and let us do everything for you. You can monitor your child’s investments at any time using our app or online. Your child will have access on their 18th birthday.
Junior ISA Transfer Rules
Here are some considerations to see if transferring into a Junior ISA is the best choice for you and your child.
- Junior ISAs can be either a Junior Cash ISA or a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA (Wealthify offers the latter). Unlike the adult ISA rules, your child is only allowed to have a maximum of one of each type of these ISAs; one Junior Cash ISA, and/or one Junior Stocks and Shares ISA.
- If you’re transferring into Wealthify’s Junior ISA with money that’s been deposited into their existing Junior ISA account during the current tax year (6th April to the following 5th April), all of that deposited money (sometimes called ‘subscriptions’) must be transferred to us in full.
- If the child has both types of Junior ISA, and there’s money from previous tax years available that you’d like to transfer over, you can choose how much of this you’d like to partially transfer between the two different Junior ISA types (i.e. moving deposits from previous tax years between a Junior Cash ISA to Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, or from a Junior Stocks and Shares to Junior Cash ISA).
- These rules around deposits that have been made in the current tax year don’t apply to the Child Trust Fund in the same way. If you’re transferring from a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA, the child’s full Junior ISA allowance of £9,000 for the tax year is available to them, no matter how much has been deposited into the CTF during that tax year. After that tax year, they will have only the £9,000 allowance available to them as standard.
- As Child Trust Funds are no longer available to new customers, the entire fund must be transferred and the account will then close.
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How to find a Child Trust Fund
Although Child Trust Funds (CTFs) have been phased out and replaced by the Junior ISA scheme, many CTFs have been lost over the years since the first eligible children were born in 2002. But it’s important to track these down, as there could be a decent sum of money in there due to the interest that could have compounded over the years.
If you’ve lost your CTF details or want to check if one exists, here’s how to find a lost Child Trust Fund:
- Head to the Gov.uk website to track the CTF provider’s details down;
- You’ll need the child’s full name (including any previous names), address and date of birth. You can also include the child’s National Insurance number if they’re 16 or older.
- Once you have the provider’s details, you can contact them about:
- Updating the personal details of the parent/guardian and the child, if these have changed;
- What the balance currently is;
- What the Child Trust Fund provider’s current fees are;
- Whether they have a charge for transferring into a Junior ISA;
- What their current interest rate is to see if it’s competitive enough for your child’s needs, and whether it’s fixed or adjusted for market changes.
Looking to start a new Junior ISA?
We understand that daydreaming about your child’s financial future shouldn’t have to be taxing.
We established our tax-efficient Junior Stocks and Shares ISA to help build your child’s ‘future fund’. A way to take the heavy lift out of building their first nest egg.
Whether it’s money you hope will help them fund their ambitions, or a means to teach them about money management as they grow, with a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA you can create a structured pathway that puts them on the right first steps.
Follow the link below and play around on our sliders to see how much our Junior Stocks and Shares ISA could help your little one’s wealth to grow.
Friends and family contribution
Add a personalised touch to gift giving with a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA from Wealthify.
From Aunty Mary’s annual birthday cheque – to Grandpa Dave’s regular pocket money – you can invite family members or close friends to become contributors to your child’s Junior ISA.
With the Junior ISA allowance currently set at £9,000 per tax year, you could invite your loved ones to financially help your little one – and even include a heartfelt message to let your child look back on and smile.
Free Junior ISA guide
Junior ISAs come with a set of rules from HMRC, and there are different types you can open. In this useful Junior ISA guide, you'll find out:
- The difference between a Junior Cash ISA and Junior Stocks and Shares ISA
- How much you can pay into a Junior ISA
- How many Junior ISA accounts you can open
- How to transfer a Junior ISA
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Junior ISA Transfer FAQs
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.
The Child Trust Fund scheme was set up to encourage parents to save or invest for their children.
For children born between 1st September 2002 and 2nd January 2011, many parents or legal guardians who were in receipt of Child Benefits would have either received a voucher to open a Child Trust Fund on behalf of their child, or HMRC may have set one up on their behalf instead.
Junior ISAs were rolled out as the replacement scheme of the Child Trust Fund in 2011.
It’s important to understand that the money within a Child Trust Fund belongs to the child, not the parent or legal guardian. The child will be entitled to the full amount from their 18th birthday.
Once you have the Child Trust Fund provider’s details, you can contact them directly to query about claiming and/or give them direction about how to best manage the money from there. (i.e. Transferring it to a Junior ISA account or holding it where it is.)
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:
- Are under the age of 18
- Are residents of the UK, or are dependants of a crown employee (e.g. army employee based overseas)
- And don’t already have a Child Trust Fund (CTF).
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.
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.
For Junior Cash ISAs:
Transferring a Junior Cash ISA to a new provider typically takes up to 15 days.
For Junior Stocks and Shares ISAs:
When transferring a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA, or moving money between two different types of Junior ISA, you should expect the transfer to take a bit longer. But the provider should keep you informed during this process. If they don’t, get in touch with them.
For Child Trust Funds:
Transfers of a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA are typically completed in 30 days. (But remember that the Child Trust Fund account will then close as the scheme has been replaced by the Junior ISA scheme instead.)
The Child Trust Fund belongs to the child, and not to the parent or guardian. The child can access the funds in full from their 18th birthday.
However, when the child is between 16-17 years old, they also have the choice of:
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Taking over the management of the Child Trust Fund, removing the responsibility from the parent/guardian;
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Or letting the parent/guardian continue to manage it for the child until they turn 18.
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.
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.
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: Junior ISA family friends.
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.