Do you have a child trust fund? Switch now

Merryn Somerset Webb explains why parents should take advantage of the new rules to convert their Child Trust Funds into Jisas.

I have a long list of gripes against various political administrations (past and present) in the UK. But much nearer the top of the list than you might expect is Child Trust Funds (CTFs). These were introduced back in 2002 and were an immediate irritation.

That's partly because it seemed a bizarre waste of taxpayer money to hand out cash to every single newborn regardless of need; partly because the charges allowed on the investments were too high; and partly because CTFs were to be shut down when each child hit 18 and the money to be handed over to that child to spend on (presumably) a few cocktails in Ibiza.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.