Welcome
We’re going to take you through the set-up of your online account.
This will allow you to see how much is in your child’s Child Trust Fund (CTF) and how it’s performing, manage your personal details and make payments quickly and easily.
What happens next?
From the age of 16, your child can take over managing their CTF.
At 18, they’ll be able to access the money and choose what they want to do next.
Have you thought about how your child could use their CTF?
A lump sum can open doors for your child at the start of their adult life, but parents and teenagers both worry about CTFs being wasted.
Talking to them now can help your child start to think about how they could make the most of their money and stop this from happening.
Help them to picture the value
It can be hard at 18 to picture what a lump sum is really worth but, without a plan, money can quickly dwindle away to nothing.
Once your account is set up, work out much money they're likely to have and think about what it could buy them.
This can be a good way to start the "what next?" conversation.
The money in their CTF might pay for:
a term of tuition fees
a flight to Australia
a second-hand car
a season travel ticket to get to an apprenticeship
Or it could be the start of saving for something bigger, like a first home deposit.
Get them thinking about their priorities
Ask your teenager to consider:
The sort of career they might like,
Where they'd like to live,
If they’d like to continue learning after school,
Any business ideas they might like to pursue.
Their answers might give them a clearer idea of how best to use their CTF.
Know the options yourself
When your child turns 18, they'll be able to decide what to do with the money they have invested:
Keep saving it with us, for example in an ISA or Lifetime ISA
Take some of it and invest the rest
Take all of it out
Remember it’s ok to do nothing
It’s normal to change your mind, especially at the start of adulthood. Even when they turn 18, there’s no pressure for your teenager to decide immediately how to make the most of their CTF.
The most important thing is that the money is there when it’s needed and we make it easy to move it into an adult account while they weigh up their options.