Childrens Mutual Child Trust Fund Review

Overall Rating

None

shockingly poor performance

I have invested £7 month in 2 policies with The Childrens Mutual; ie £840 into each. After 10 years, each has returned £887. An increase of £47. The company claim on the website increased performance over a building society. I do not think so!

My complaint has just today been concluded with a lesson in how 'The Childrens Mutual' invests our money. No apology for their pathetic performance. That's just the way it is. I invest heavily in Units and Shares, and with my limited skill I could have got more from a £7 month investment.

Lesson learned! Do not believe the hype on their web site, and keep a close look annually on how these companies are performing.

I would not recommend putting away money for your kids into 'The Childrens Mutual'.

Members' Comments onmcartney's Review

• cuyocksol on 10th May 2007

  But what type of account did you open - a Stakeholder?

• mcartney on 28th May 2007

  The policies I had were called The Tunbridge Wells Traditional Youngster Bond.

• ndeezy on 4th Mar 2008

  I disagree with this review because...
  
  mcartney is not reviewing the actual CTF (seeing as he's had the plan for ten years and the CTF has only been in operation since 2005).
  
  He's obviously had a with-profits plan with The Children's Mutual, and had a bad experience with that. However, The Children's Mutual stakeholder CTF is an entirely different beast and should be reviewed on its own merits.
  
  You can check the fund level at any point with The Chldren's Mutual. I've only had my Child trust Fund with them for a few months but intend to do quarterly checks with a phone call to their call centre.

• mcartney on 4th Mar 2008

  My childrens policies are with profits, but also called trust funds. Tunbridge Wells Equitable are the ' Friendly Society ' concerned.
  The funds were managed by the same bunch of people that tell us how wonderful all their investments are.
  Check their web site.
  I am still angry and the facts detailed in my first post are accurate on the performance of the funds. If you think my return was reasonable, then you deserve the same and will probably get about the same return.
  Warning again. DO NOT INVEST WITH TUNBRIDGE WELLS EQUITABLE.

• ndeezy on 5th Mar 2008

  but the review is for the "Child Trust Fund", the government led initiative whereby every child born after September (?) 2002 gets at least £250, then a further £250 at age seven. Although your product might've been billed as a trust fund, it's not THE Child Trust Fund.
  
  As far as I can see having read other reviews and comparison site the TCM CTF comes out rather well on past performance.
  
  I realise none of this helps you and that you've had a rubbish performing fund, but these type of with-profits plans have had bad press generally and I've been burnt by them too (never again!). The TCM CTF is a stakeholder account managed by Insight Investment and looking elsewhere it seems to be doing fine at the moment, even with the shaky market. As long as it out-performs cash funds over the next 18 years I'll be happy and hopefully my daughter will have a decent fund to help her in adult life.

• mcartney on 6th Mar 2008

  Fair point. I state the exact fund concerned and as the same company manage both the latest type of fund and my older funds, then this seemed the correct place to air my grievance.
  I hope you have more success. Good luck.
  
  

• paulwilliams21223 on 24th Apr 2008

  We just received our yearly update to find our sons balance down from 400 to 367, I think pathetic is the word to describe their performance this last year. Although we were up by about the same amount last year so that's 0% over the last 2 years! I think their performance should be more clear on their web site so you know what to expect. For us it was a mistake and we are moving - would anyone in the right mind gamble their child's money - I bet online gambling sites could promise similar returns!

• mcartney on 24th May 2008

  My advice is to invest into well managed funds, like Fidelity or Artemis. These managers know how to invest.

• ndeezy on 27th May 2008

  I wish I didn't receive an alert every time a response to a comment comes in as I feel compelled to respond so here we go....
  
  First up, I work in financial services, but don't claim to be an expert - my own finances are testement to this. However, The Childrens Mutual's accounts are put into a managed fund, the market is not good at the moment so anything equities-based showing growth is manna from heaven. Values of funds can and will go down over periods of time but this is an 18 year investment - famine is followed by feast (unless we go into a deep, dark, global recession). It's partly about knowing when to fund the account and when to keep your powder dry.
  
  Cash-based accounts are ones I'd consider for the safety factor but I'd move back into a stakeholder as soon as I thought the market was going to bottom out in order to maximise gain during periods of strong stockmarket growth. Moving now probably won't help much in the long-term but at least you will have the security and a guaranteed growth and that's completely understandable.
  
  I'm keeping mine where it is and topping-up with debit card payments when the market is poor in order to buy funds at a low price per unit as well as having a small direct debit.

• mcartney on 29th May 2008

  Last response from me. Do as you wish, but the facts are, that my investment was utterly dreadful. I am now investing with well managed funds. These are not being sold as childrens trust funds and perform superbly. The childrens trust funds that Tunbridge promote, use the Tax benefits as their selling point.
  But their performance failings far outway any tax benefits. Look at other funds performance before making your choice.