The Brief
The brief describing those who are eligible simply states:"Anyone under 75 unless they are in a Company Pension earning more than £30,000 per annum, or they are a Controlling Director."
(Note: Earned Income is income from employment, not from investment).
So who would this include?
To put this in perspective, it probably includes all of the following people:
- The retired
- Housewives, or Househusbands
- Children
- Students
- People in the civil service, the National Health Service, most people who work for the government, state industries and local authorities
The Government has issued decision trees to help investors decide upon the suitability of Stakeholder for themselves.
Who should consider it?
In general it should be considered by everyone who actually has the amount of capital available to invest in it. Parents will consider it for their children, grandparents will consider it for their grandchildren, working spouses will consider it for their non-working spouses. All of these people will consider it for themselves. Even those with AVCs should consider Stakeholder.
Buy one for your children or grandchildren
This must be the ultimate deal:
- For every £1,000 you invest for a child it is grossed up by 22% (that is £282.65 extra)
- The biggest advantage is they can not get at it until they are 50 - no matter what their lifestyle, until that age no one else can get hold of it either. If they died before they are 50, the fund value is returned to their estate.
- Funding the maximum £3,600 gross (£2,808 net) for a new-born until their 20th birthday could result in a pool of money 5 times larger at age 50 than if they funded themselves the same amount between the ages of 30 and 50 - yes really, because the money stays invested for thirty years longer. *
Who can invest more than £3,600?
If you have earned income, you can invest more in Stakeholder and Personal pensions as follows:
