Scottish Friendly Junior ISA is easy but far too expensive

A while ago I saw on Linkedin that Scottish Friendly just won best Junior ISA in the Moneyfacts awards, which is great, but I just wanted to have a quick look at it, just in case there were better junior ISAs out there, quickly, just before you started investing your hard-earned cash for your children with them.

Now it always gripes me when you type into Google a brand’s fees and you are not presented immediately with the relevant information. Yes, I know search engines are messing around with generative AI at the moment, which is supposed to do that. But if a provider does not display it’s fees, then Ai cannot provide an answer.

For example, if you type in “Scottish Friendly JISA fees,” the first thing that happens is that Google asks you to double-check if you meant “Scottish Friendly ISA fees,” presumably because more people search for info on ISAs for themselves rather than JISA data. Selfish. Give the poor little kids half a chance at spending their JISA winnings (which they, and only they, can withdraw when they turn 18) on a heroic gap year around Asia.

But, what you actually get is the wrong information from Google’s AI bot. Now, as I sort of probably know how to use Google better than other people, I didn’t just ignore this. I clicked the “Show more” toggle and clicked the “thumbs down” icon to indicate that this was not helpful information. After all, bad things happen when the good do nothing…

So what’s happened here is that as Scottish Friendly do not clearly display the costs of their Junior ISA, Google cannot display them. A Scottish Friendly JISA does not cost £10 a month or £50 as a lump sum. That is the minimum amount you can contribute to a child’s JISA (of it’s £9,000 annual allowance).

So why don’t Scottish Friendly display their fees so that people can easily see how much it costs?

Well, the simple answer is becuase it’s pretty expensive.

It took me about 5 click-throughs to different pages to find the fees, and even then, I had to sift through the “Key Information Document” a very boring PDF which is required to be online by the regulator.

Now, there are two types of JISA with Scottish Friendly, a ready-made portfolio and a DIY one. The ready-made one gives you just one fund to invest in. The My Ethical Select (Junior ISA), which is actually just the Vanguard ESG Developed World All Cap Equity Index Fund (UK) that in turn, invests in, (as of 31st August 2024) 4,377 stocks, mainly in America (74.3%) and its top ten holdings are:

1. Apple Inc: 5.23%
2. Microsoft Corp: 4.88%
3. NVIDIA Corp: 4.47%
4. Amazon.com Inc: 2.61%
5. Meta Platforms Inc: 1.80%
6. Alphabet Inc: 1.50%
7. Alphabet Inc: 1.29%
8. Eli Lilly & Co: 1.28%
9. Broadcom Inc: 1.17%
10. JPMorgan Chase & Co: 1.01%

So it’s not really that ESG. But, whatever, we all know that ESG is just greenwashing and a phrase that people use based on the lightest criteria to make investors feel better about themselves.

Now, if you don’t want to invest in that, you can go for the Scottish Friendly DIY option, which Scottish Friendly call “My Select (Junior ISA)”, which gives you the option of investing in 9 different funds of different risk/reward, all of which connect to other Vanguard funds. Which are:

Hardly DIY, in my mind DIY means self-select or execution only where can invest in individual stocks, markets and ETFs to decide how little or much risk you want to take.

Now, there is nothing wrong with applying risk to your children’s investments because they have one of the most significant advantages for investors: time. But it’s good that you have the option to reduce that risk if you want to reduce the likelihood of their investments being worth less than they started with by investing in penny stocks for their 18th birthday.

So, what’s my point here? Well, it’s that with the exception of a few of the “My Select” funds, which have just been given a slightly easier-to-understand names, you can buy these funds, especially the ready-made JISA much cheaper elsewhere.

I know I haven’t yet told you how much they cost with Scottish Friendly yet, that’s becuase I like to create some drama around the big reveal. But if you got bored of reading this a while ago and have already scrolled to the end, in much the same way you have to do when looking up a recipe these days (after having read the chef’s life story), here is how much it costs to run a JISA account with Scottish Friendly: 1.5%.

Which is taking the mick, my old charaid.

You can buy these funds on Hargreaves Lansdown for free, in their free Junior Stocks and Shares ISA. It’s not often I hail HL as the cheaper option, but make hay while the sun shines. On AJ Bell they are 0.25% and with Interactive Investor you get a free JISA if you have an active adult account with them.

So what’s the lesson here? It’s that if an investment account does not clearly display their fees front and centre they are probably charging too much.

You can see how cheap other Junior ISAs cost compared to the 1.5% that Scottish Friendly charges in the comparison table below, or go to our JISA comparison for more information.

JISA Provider	JISA Fees	Market Access	Customer Reviews	More Info
	Account: £0 Share Dealing: £3 Fund Dealing: £3 FX: 0.02%	Stocks ✔️ Bonds ✔️ Funds ✔️ Portfolios ✔️	4.3 (Based on 1,119 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0% Share Dealing: £0 Fund Dealing: £0 FX: 1% - 0.25%	Stocks ✔️ Bonds ✔️ Funds ✔️ Portfolios ✔️	4.2 (Based on 1,094 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.25%- 0% Share Dealing: £5 - £3.50 Fund Dealing: £1.50 FX: 0.75% - 0.5%	Stocks ✔️ Bonds ✔️ Funds ✔️ Portfolios ✔️	4.4 (Based on 934 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.6% Share Dealing: n/a Fund Dealing: n/a FX: n/a	Stocks ❌ Bonds ❌ Funds ❌ Portfolios ✔️	4.6 (Based on 2,564 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.75%- 0% Share Dealing: £3.95 Fund Dealing: £3.95 FX: 0.7%	Stocks ✔️ Bonds ✔️ Funds ❌ Portfolios ✔️	4.4 (Based on 235 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.5% Share Dealing: n/a Fund Dealing: n/a FX: n/a	Stocks ❌ Bonds ❌ Funds ❌ Portfolios ✔️	4.9 (Based on 631 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.5% Share Dealing: n/a Fund Dealing: n/a FX: n/a	Stocks ❌ Bonds ❌ Funds ❌ Portfolios ✔️	3.3 (Based on 3 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk
	Account: 0.3% Share Dealing: £10 Fund Dealing: £4 FX: 1% - 0.15%	Stocks ✔️ Bonds ✔️ Funds ✔️ Portfolios ✔️	4.5 (Based on 125 reviews)	See JISA Capital at Risk

Richard Berry

Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.

Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.

Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.

Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.

You can contact Richard at richard@goodmoneyguide.com

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