What kind of underlying assets are suitable for children's investments?

Building a children's investment portfolio is no different to building one for an adult - it should be balanced and well diversified, using asset classes appropriate to the length of the investment period

Over the past few years a heightened public and media awareness of the need to start making adequate financial provision for a child's future has developed. In response, the government introduced the Child Trust Fund (CTF), the long-term tax-free savings and investment account for children born on or after 1 September 2002. It was intended that the CTF would encourage investment into a variety of asset classes, although currently most of the CTFs opened have been cash based. However, as well as the CTF, there are a number of products built around a variety of asset classes that are suitabl...