What to do with your child trust fund

If you don't invest your child's trust fund vouchers within 12 months, the government will do so on your behalf. So avoid more Treasury bungling and see our list of the best funds.

Following the bungled auction of our gold reserves, nobody in their right mind would entrust investments to the Treasury. But with a quarter of child trust fund (CTF) vouchers still not invested, many parents are doing just that. If you don't invest the vouchers within 12 months, the Government will do so on your behalf. There are now about 555,000 CTF accounts invested by the Government, according to The Daily Telegraph.

All children born after 1 September 2002 are entitled to a £250 voucher from the Government to pay into a child trust fund; low-income families receive £500. The Government voucher can then be topped up by £1,200 a year tax-free by family and friends, so when the child turns 18, they'll have a lump sum that's avoided capital gains tax. Assuming that you trust your offspring not to blow the lot on nights out or a new car the money will be in their name, so this is definitely something to consider this could be useful for funding university, or rolling into an Isa to keep growing.

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