May 17, 2021

Foresters Financial joins new Child Trust Fund Register

Foresters Financial joins new Child Trust Fund Register

Foresters Financial is a founding member of the new Child Trust Fund (CTF) Register, an innovative collaboration between CTF providers, data management specialists The Tracing Group, and registered charity The Share Foundation (‘ShareFound’). The new CTF Register is free to use, enabling young people to find their CTF more easily.

“Reuniting lost child trust funds with their rightful owner is a key part of our work, and I’m thrilled to have so many of the CTF Providers engaged with the register so we can work together to bring more CTFs under the control of the young adults who need them,” said Gavin Oldham OBE, Chair of The Share Foundation.

Since 2005, ShareFound has been working with Government to support young people in care to access and make the most of their CTFs and Junior ISAs, acting as Registered Contact and providing financial education for young people, carers and local authorities, and a helpline for enquiries. ShareFound has extended its work to help disadvantaged young people, particularly those with one of the 1.7 million ‘revenue allocated’ CTFs compulsorily allocated to a provider when parents or carers did not engage in the account set up process following the birth of their child, to help them find their CTF account.

CTFs are long-term children’s saving accounts set up by the Government. They were designed to ensure children arrived at adulthood with a savings account and understood the importance of saving. CTFs were issued to almost all children born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011. All money earned is free of UK income and capital taxes, and when the account holder turns 18, the mature CTF can either be cashed in or transferred to an adult ISA.

Euan Allison, Chief Executive Officer at Foresters Financial says: “As we manage the largest amount of funds for children’s investments in the UK, we are delighted to be a part of this important initiative. As an organisation driven to share not shareholder driven, it is important to us that every teenager is able to access their savings and make choices when turning 18.”

The new CTF Register will bring together the expertise of The Tracing Group in tracing ‘gone away’ individuals and the insight of ShareFound, who have been supporting account administration and the financial education of children in care for the last 15 years. Young people aged 16 or over attempting to trace their CTF should check first with their parent(s)/guardian and, if they cannot help, visit https://findCTF.sharefound.org to register for the search. There is no cost to the young person for this service. In simple cases and where the provider has joined the CTF Register, the website will be able to return to them the details of the provider who is holding their fund.

The Share Foundation has been running the Department for Education’s savings/investment schemes for looked after children and young people since 2012 (Junior ISAs since 2012 and CTFs since 2017), during which time it has benefited over 165,000 young people. Before that, it was making additional voluntary contributions to the CTFs of looked after children: as from 2nd October 2017, The Share Foundation took on responsibility for the CTF scheme from the Official Solicitor in addition to the Junior ISA scheme.