Parents urged to give children the best financial start in life this Christmas

Barbie Princess Genevieve, Street Gliders and Star Wars Transformers are among the top most wanted children’s toys this Christmas and may cost parents a one-off sum of around £50. Alternatively, popular presents such as Apple’s iPod Shuffle and iPod nano will cost around £55 and £100, respectively. As parents think about Christmas present wish-lists and succumb to “pester power” to buy the latest toys and gadgets, JPMorgan Asset Management (JPMAM), the leading provider of investment trusts, says an alternative gift a child can receive is to be set up financially for a good start in life.

David Barron, head of investment trusts at JPMAM said: “Financial issues such as saving for school and university fees, getting on the property ladder or buying their first car, mean children may have more choices in life if some forward planning is done now on their behalf. The simple message is that parents need to start saving as early as possible in order to save enough to meet these costs. This Christmas, instead of spending the entire Yuletide budget on toys or clothes that children will grow out of, parents should contribute some money to their children’s financial future through a regular savings plan. For many people, buying presents is an exciting pleasure but reaping the long-term rewards from a regular savings scheme could be equally satisfying. Children won’t thank you now for it, but they will later.”

To help parents get their child or children off to a good start in life, the JPMorgan Share Plan offers an easy and flexible way to invest directly in its nineteen investment trusts. Parents can use the Share Plan to create and build their own balanced portfolio of investments covering the world’s leading stock markets, from the UK to Continental Europe, the US, Asia, Japan and emerging markets.

Illustrating the potential returns by regularly investing in a JPMorgan Share Plan, an investment of £50 per month in JPMF Claverhouse IT - which invests in UK large cap stocks and makes an ideal core fund in a balanced portfolio – might be worth £16,917 over 18 years. A regular investment of £100 per month in the same investment trust invested over the same period might be worth £33,885 over 18 years.

Barron continued: “Investors can invest as little as £50 per month per investment trust, equivalent to the price of an iPod Shuffle, or make a minimum lump sum of £500 per trust. Anyone can contribute to the JPMorgan Share Plan - parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, godparents, or even friends – and the Share Plan is an ideal way for other people to contribute to the financial future of the child in their life. Most of JPMAM’s investment trusts have annual management fees of 0.7% or less, significantly less than many other investment funds, and this is deducted from the trust’s assets, not directly from the investor’s investment - which means more for the child for later in life.”

Key features of investing in a JPMorgan Share Plan include :

Whatever the investment goal investors should be able to find an investment trust, or a combination of trusts from the range, that suits their investment needs

No limit on how many trusts that can be held nor how much money can be invested

Investors on behalf of children have full control over their investment and they can access their money at any time – it is not locked away until a particular point in time

Investors can decide when children should receive their money

JPMAM’s range of investment trusts are designed to keep investment costs as low as possible. A 1% transaction charge on purchases and sales applies (plus the usual 0.5% government stamp duty on purchases) which is capped at £50 per transaction per trust
Investors who are keen to start saving for children can find more information about the JPMorgan Share Plan at jpmorganinvestmenttrusts.co.uk.