This five step guide aims to help you find the right green and ethical Child Trust Fund account for your children.
Step 1 - Research
All child trust funds (CTFs) are required to publish their policy on social, ethical and environmental investments, if they have one. So, to find out how and where your provider is investing your child’s money, all you need do is ask.
A full list of providers, plus the types of accounts they provide and their contact details are available here.
Step 2 - Support
If you are happy with your current CTF provider’s policy on social, ethical and environmental issues, consider writing to it to support the work it is doing and encouraging other account holders to do so too. This may help it to maintain good policies in key areas,or encourage it to offer other green and ethical financial products.
Step 3 - Oppose
If your provider doesn't offer an ethical CTF option you could consider writing to it requesting that it does. This is particularly important if the CTF provider already manages an ethical fund but does not offer ethical CTF options. You can ascertain whether your provider offers other ethical funds by looking on the ‘saving and investments’ section of its website. Some of the larger fund management companies may offer ethical funds and this information should be easy to find on their websites.
Step 4 – Switch
If your current provider’s investment policy does not meet your green and ethical needs you might consider switching to a more suitable one.
YourEthicalMoney.org has identified a number of ethical providers you may want to investigate:
If you switch accounts you should consider writing to your old provider to explain why you switched to a new provider.
Step 5 - Stay informed
In addition to this website, further information on CTFs is available from the official government website: www.childtrustfund.gov.uk
Notes on using template letters
Templates are given as examples of what you may want to say to your Child Trust Fund account provider. It is advisable to send copies to both your branch and the provider’s head office. For a full list of relevant head offices click here.
Please amend templates as much as possible; financial institutions are more likely to take note of and respond to a personalised letter rather than one clearly downloaded from a template.
