They were designed to ensure children arrived at adulthood with a savings account and understood the importance of saving. All money earned in the CTF is tax-free, and when the account holder turns 18, the mature CTF can either be cashed in or transferred to an adult ISA. Many parents and caregivers did not set up their child's CTF, resulting in 1.7 million revenue-allocated CTFs being compulsorily assigned to a provider.
As the first Child Trust Funds matured in the autumn of 2020, the difficulties of reuniting these lump sums with their rightful owners came to the fore. The CTF (Child Trust Fund) Register is an innovative collaboration between CTF providers, The Tracing Group, and registered charity The Share Foundation ('ShareFound') to enable young people to find their CTF more easily.
The CTF Register brings together the expertise of The Tracing Group in tracing 'gone away' individuals and the insight of ShareFound, who have been supporting account administration and the financial education of children in care for the last 15 years. There is no cost to the young person for accessing the CTF Register. Young people aged 16 or over attempting to trace their CTF should check first with their parent(s)/guardian and, if they cannot help, click the find my CTF link to register for the search via ShareFound. In simple cases where the provider has joined the CTF Register, the ShareFound website will be able to return the young person's details of the provider holding their fund.
The CTF Register also plays a vital role for providers who must demonstrate their commitment to reuniting unclaimed assets and tracing gone away customers to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulator of financial services companies in the UK.
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