Shepherds Friendly Investments Review
This Review
- Overview
- Shepherds Friendly Range
- Products Explained
- Fees & Charges
- Performance
- Why Shepherds Friendly?
Written by:
Alicia Hempsted
Content Manager at Drewberry
⏰ 10 min read
Founded
1826
Company Overview
Shepherds Friendly is a mutual insurer and friendly society. Founded in 1826 as a sickness and benefits society, Shepherds Friendly has grown to become one of the oldest and best-known mutuals in the UK.
As well as insurance, Shepherds Friendly offers investment and saving products designed to help you and your children save for your futures. Shepherds Friendly ISAs offer tax-efficient savings from just £30 per month.
Shepherds Friendly offers products specifically to help your own and your child’s savings grow: a Stocks and Shares ISA, Junior ISA, Young Saver Plan, and Junior Money Maker.
When you invest with Shepherds Friendly, your money is managed and invested on your behalf by their fund manager, placed into an investment fund comprised of a variety of assets to make the most of your money.
Reviewing the Shepherds Friendly Range
Shepherds Friendly Stocks & Shares ISA
- Open a Stocks & Shares ISA and start investing and saving from just £30 per month, or open an ISA with a lump sum payment from £500.
- Earn tax-free returns on investments of up to £20,000 per tax year.
- Shepherds Friendly have rated their Stocks and Shares ISA as 3 out of 7 on the Summary Risk Indicator (SRI), making it a ‘medium-to-low’ risk investment.
- Open a new ISA or transfer an existing one.
- Your Help to Buy or Cash ISA can sit alongside a Stocks and Shares ISA.
- This is a capital-at-risk product, so the value may fall as well as rise. You could get back less than you invested. ISA rules apply.
- HM Revenue & Customs may change the tax status of an ISA in the future.
Shepherds Friendly Young Saver Plan
- Start your tax-efficient savings from just £7.50 per month.
- Young Saver Plans have flexible premiums that can be reviewed and changed at any time to suit your financial situation.
- This savings plan is available to any child under the age of 16. When the child reaches 11, parents/ guardians have the option to withdraw up to 25% of the funds in their child’s Young Saver Plan.
- Young Saver Plans include a tax-free sickness benefit. If the child falls ill and is unable to attend school for a minimum of four weeks, a sickness benefit of up to £400 will be paid out per week to the guardian or parent to help with any costs.
- This is a capital-at-risk product, so the value may fall as well as rise. You could get back less than you invested.
- HM Revenue & Customs may change the tax status in the future.
Shepherds Friendly Junior ISA
- Open a Junior ISA and start investing and saving from just £10 per month. Otherwise, open an ISA with a lump sum payment of as little as £100.
- The Shepherds Friendly Junior ISA offers flexible payments that you can alter at any time or even stop or start your payments to suit your financial situation.
- When your child reaches 18 they can either withdraw from their Junior ISA tax-free or transfer their money to a Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA and continue saving.
- Shepherds Friendly have rated their Junior ISA as 3 out of 7 on the Summary Risk Indicator (SRI), making it a ‘medium-to-low’ risk investment.
- This is a capital-at-risk product, so the value may fall as well as rise. You could get back less than you invested. ISA rules apply.
- HM Revenue & Customs may change the tax status of an ISA in the future.
Shepherds Friendly Junior Money Maker
- Start your tax-efficient savings from £100 per month.
- Save in regular set amounts of £100, £125, £150, £175, or £200 per month up to a maximum of £2,400 per year.
- Open a Junior Money Maker Plan for any child under 11 and start saving for their future. The plan aims to provide your child with a tax-free lump sum between the ages of 18 and 21.
- A ‘Holloway’ plan that provides both savings and sickness protection, Junior Money Maker plans include a tax-free sickness benefit. If the child falls ill and is unable to attend school for a minimum of four weeks, a £200 sickness benefit will be paid out per week to the guardian or parent to help with any costs.
- Shepherds Friendly have rated their Junior Money Maker as 3 out of 7 on the Summary Risk Indicator (SRI), making it a ‘medium-to-low’ risk investment.
- This is a capital-at-risk product, so the value may fall as rise, you could get back less than you invested.
- HM Revenue & Customs may change the tax status in the future.
Shepherds Friendly Investment Solutions Explained…
Stocks & Shares ISA
- Save up to a maximum of £1,270 per month or invest lump sums at any time with the exception that you do not exceed your annual ISA allowance. As of the 2018/19 tax year, this annual limit stands at £20,000.
- If you choose to invest lump sums, your first deposit must be a minimum of £500 and subsequent payments no less than £100 per payment.
- Withdraw from your Shepherds Friendly Stocks & Shares ISA at any time, although it is important to keep in mind that making withdrawals too frequently will reduce the value.
Junior ISA
- Your allowance is set by the government; as of the 2018/19 tax year, the allowance for a Junior ISA stands as £4,260.
- You can pay into your plan via regular monthly payments, one-off lump sums, or a mixture of both.
- Flexible savings options mean that you have absolute control about when and how much you save.
Young Saver Plan
- Save money with a Young Savers Plan by paying in regular monthly payments via Direct Debit up to a maximum allowance of £1,200 per year.
- Monthly payments start from as little as £7.50 up to a maximum of £100 per month to grow your children’s savings tax-efficiently.
- Additional payments are not permitted under this plan and monthly payments cannot be stopped until the plan matures.
- If the child is ill for four weeks or more and unable to attend school, the Shepherds Friendly Young Saver plan will pay out a sickness benefit of up to £400 per week. This is to help parents and guardians cover the cost of the child’s care during their illness or take time off work to look after them.
Junior Money Maker
- Save with a Junior Money Maker plan by making payments on a monthly basis via Direct Debit.
- You must choose the amount you’re paying into the plan at the outset. Additional payments are not permitted under this plan, but monthly payments can be reduced to the minimum of £100 a month at any time.
- Your Junior Money Maker allowance is limited to a maximum of £2,400 per year.
Shepherds Friendly Fees & Charges
Stocks & Shares ISA
Fees currently stand at 3% as an initial plan charge in addition to an annual management charge of 1.5%.
Junior ISA
With this savings plan for your child, you will be charged a 1.5% annual management fee which will be deducted before your bonus has been announced.
Junior Money Maker & Young Saver Plan
With any of these children’s savings plans, you will be charged a 2.5% annual management fee which will be deducted before your bonus has been announced.
Shepherds Friendly fees are not guaranteed to stay the same and may change during the duration of your plan.
Is Shepherds Friendly Right for Me?
- Many Shepherds Friendly investment plans offer flexible payment options. All of their children’s plans allow you to change how much pay provided you stay within the limits given. You can also choose to stop and start your premiums if necessary.
- The Shepherds Friendly Junior ISA allows you to change between making regular payments and paying in lump sums.
- Sickness Benefits on the Young Saver Plan and Junior Money Maker will pay out after 4 weeks of consecutive incapacity once you have owned the plan for a minimum of 6 months. There is no limit to how many of these weekly benefits you can claim, although after 26 weeks of claiming the sickness benefit will be reduced by 50%.
- Any money you invest in a Shepherds Friendly ISA or savings plan is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
You can’t choose your investments or level of investment risk with Shepherds Friendly – for that, you’ll need to select another investment provider.
Anything Else I Need to Know About Shepherds Friendly?
- Your payments are invested in Shepherd Friendly’s With-Profits Fund, which holds a mix of assets including cash, bonds, gilts,and stocks and shares. You cannot manage your own investments with a Shepherds Friendly ISA or savings plan.
- Bonus rates with Shepherds Friendly ISA and savings plans may vary from year-to-year. This is because your annual bonus will reflect the performance of investments over the previous year and sometimes a bonus may not be paid out at all if investment performance is poor.
- Adult Savings plans are eligible for UK residents over the age of 18. Junior ISAs are only available to the guardians or parents of children under the age of 18, while the Young Saver Plan and Junior Money Maker plans can also be owned by extended family and friends, provided they have parental consent.
- In poor investment conditions, Shepherds Friendly may apply a market value reduction (MVR) to ensure that the surrender value of the policy is not unfairly higher than the market value of its assets.
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