With 'going green' and ethical products becoming a key trend, many parents are interested in looking at some alternative, ethical gifts for kids.Ethical Child Trust Funds allow family and friends to invest safely in the stock market, benefiting from the growth that can incur - with the peace of mind that the fund is not invested in any 'unethical' causes.
Family Investments' Ethical Child Trust FundFamily Investments are launching an ethical child trust fund in November. Similar to Family's stakeholder CTF, the ethical CTF is expected to deliver a substantial financial windfall to kids by the time they reach eighteen (particularly if the account is topped up regularly by family and friends). As well as the usual tax-free benefits associated with CTFs, Family's ethical fund gives family and friends peace of mind that the companies their hard-earned cash are invested in are not involved in the trade of any of the following:
 alcohol
tobacco
export of arms
supplying ozone depleting materials
use of animal testing on cosmetics
use of intensive farming methods
extracting tropical hardwoods
trade in prohibited pesticides
waterway polluters
or have interests in countries identified as breaching human rights
A Gift for all the Family
Topping up a child's ethical CTF for Christmas is a safe way of exploiting the benefits of investing in the stock market, whilst protecting the long term safety of the fund - and, ensuring that your savings are not being invested in causes considered to be unethical.
Family and friends can help parents save for their child's future by topping up the ethical CTF on an ad hoc basis, particularly around Christmas and birthdays. Payments made in the early years can make a huge difference to the fund’s final value. Family Investments has calculated that the projected return on an ethical CTF that has been topped up with five single payments of £175 in year's one to five is £3,120, compared to a voucher only CTF which would be worth just £1,090 at age eighteen – an almost three-fold (290%) increase in the final value.
Family Investments' new ethical child trust fund will be available from November.
Green gifts can be found elsewhere on the web. For example, a cardboard recycled rocket toy (www.reestore.co.uk), a fairtrade football from Oxfam or an organic cotton fairtrade playsuit (www.littlegreenradicals.co.uk)!!
October 2006 |
