How your child's money is invested

The Family Investments CTF invests in stocks and shares. This is done to try and achieve long term capital growth while trying to protect your child's investment by spreading risk across a range of assets.

These assets are primarily shares of leading companies in the UK and worldwide, but also include some holdings in investments such as fixed interest securities and cash deposits (which are subject to less fluctuation).

Why we invest in shares

We believe that, in the long term, investments in shares will usually produce a better rate of return than a protected interest bearing cash deposit account.

Of course, investments in shares can go down as well as up, so it's possible that your child could get back less than is invested. This is why one of the government's rules for stakeholder CTF accounts require account providers to move the money gradually into lower risk investments in the later stages of the account (of course, it is important to remember that low risk does not mean no risk). This is explained below.

How we help protect your child's investment

On or before your child's 13th birthday our fund managers will start to move the investment from shares to lower risk investments, such as fixed interest securities and cash. They will continue doing this until your child's 18th birthday, so during this period a larger proportion of your child's investment will be in these more secure holdings.

This is done to help protect your child's savings over the latter part of the investment period, although of course there can be no guarantee.

Who will manage your child's investment

The investments held in Family Investments Child Trust Fund accounts are managed by New Star Asset Management - one of the UK's leading Asset Management companies. Founded in 2000, New Star has built its funds under management to £23.1 billion* and is backed by some of the world's leading institutions and private investors.

*Source: New Star Asset Management, 31 December 2007

For more information on New Star visit www.newstaram.com.

How do I get the most from my Child Trust Fund?