Best ethical Junior ISAs

A Junior ISA (JISA) is a great way to get your children interested in saving and investing from an early age. By choosing ethical investments for their JISA, it can also inspire them to make a positive difference to the world they will be growing up in.

According to Hargreaves Lansdown, by depositing £20 a week – less than the child benefit payment most people get for their first child – in a Stocks and Shares JISA from the week they’re born, you can amass an impressive £26,452 by the time they reach age 18 (assuming an average growth rate of five per cent on your investments).

That’s a pretty useful amount towards his or her further education or first home. Currently, the cost of tuition for the average university student in the UK is around £9,250 a year, while the average deposit on a first home is a shocking £62,470. With these costs rising fast, it pays to think earlier rather than later about the best way to meet them.

You can invest a maximum of £9,000 a year into a JISA, tax-free. Once you’ve opened the account, friends and family (and anyone who wants to) can deposit money into it too. Your child can access the pot once they reach the age of 18, and can start managing the portfolios themselves from age 16.

There are a number of online platforms where you can invest sustainably on behalf of children, while teaching them about overcoming environmental and social challenges in an age-appropriate way.

Here, we round up seven Good options for platforms offering ready-made portfolios for an ethical JISA (ie the investments are all picked for you, meaning minimum effort required):

Dedicated sustainable investment platforms/apps: 

The Big Exchange

Annual fee: 0.25 per cent
Fund management fees: Typically ranges between 0.8 per cent and 1.8 per cent, per year
Minimum investment: £25 per month or £100 lump sum

The Big Exchange, co-founded by The Big Issue, is an online investment platform which only lists funds that are proven to be making a positive difference to the planet and its people. All of its funds are actively managed, which means there is a human decision in every investment.

Every fund on the platform has passed an impact assessment so you can clearly see the type and level of positive impact they’re making to people and planet. Each one is awarded a gold, silver or bronze medal, with gold having the highest ability to bring about positive change. You can choose funds that tackle the issues you (and your child, depending on their age) care about most.

For more on The Big Exchange, see our full review.

Simply EQ

Annual fee: 0.99 per cent for investments up to £100,000, then reducing
Fund management fees: Typically ranges between 0.25 and 0.6 per cent per year
Minimum investment: £250 per month or a £1,000 lump sum

Simply EQ is an online and phone-based investment service from Good With Money ‘Good Egg’ company EQ Investors.

You can choose from Simply EQ’s ‘Positive Impact‘ or ‘Future Leaders’ portfolios for your child’s JISA. The Positive Impact portfolio actively screens for social and environmental impact and is designed to maximise profit while also making a positive difference to the planet and its people. Future Leaders “invests in the sustainable leaders of tomorrow.”

The fact that Simply EQ’s online portfolios are actively managed means they come with a slightly higher charge than competitors such as Wealthify, which invests passively through low-cost ETFs. It also means that you can feel a little more confident about the positive difference your money is making.

For more information on Simply EQ, see our full review

Robo-advisers offering ethical JISAs:

Annual fee: 0.6 per cent
Fund management fees: Average of 0.7 per cent (much higher than its standard plans at 0.16 per cent)
Minimum investment: £1

Wealthify, a subsidiary of Aviva, is a UK-based robo-advisor which invests in ETFs to keep investors’ costs low. It uses an automated process to create portfolios to suit a client’s appetite for risk.

When you sign up, you can choose one of five ‘ethical plans’. These aim to avoid companies involved in four main activities that are harmful to society and the environment. They are tobacco, arms, pornography and gambling. Wealthify also aims to limit profits received from oil and gas.

Instead, it proactively invests in companies that are committed to making a positive impact through their ESG practices. Find out more about Wealthify’s ethical plans here.

Traditional providers offering ethical portfolios for a JISA:

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