Important information - investment values and income from investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest.
Junior ISAs are well into their teenage years. Introduced on 1 November 2011, they have helped thousands of families build tax-free savings pots for children.
A lot has happened in the past 15 years. A pandemic, inflation shocks, trade wars and real conflict have buffeted the stock market. But investors who stayed the course have been rewarded.
The annual JISA limit started at £3,600 and now sits at £9,000. If you had maxed out the allowance every year and invested the money in a global tracker fund, your child’s pot could have grown to a staggering £232,000. In total, you would have contributed £90,000 of this - investment gains would have done the rest.
Not many families can contribute thousands of pounds every year. But even relatively small amounts can make a big difference. If you had invested £1,000 in a global tracker fund 15 years ago and left it, reinvesting any dividends, your child’s pot would have increased more than six-fold to £6,619.
For context, if you had bought £1,000 of Premium Bonds instead, and reinvested your winnings, you could have around £1,345 today. This assumes your return matched the average prize fund rate over the period.
Real life scenarios
So that’s the theory. But Fidelity has also followed the stories of real-life investors. We analysed 1,700 JISAs which customers opened during the product's first tax year in 2011/12 and which are still active on the platform.
More than four in ten now contain at least £27,000 - equivalent to a 10% deposit on the average UK home. Meanwhile 15% hold at least £65,800, which could cover the cost of three years at university.
At the upper end, more than one in five accounts is worth at least £50,000 and almost one in ten has reached six figures.
What Fidelity’s longest-running active Junior ISAs could cover today
| Illustrative milestone | Amount | Share of active accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding | £20,600 | 50% |
| 10% house deposit | £27,000 | 42% |
| £50,000 pot | £50,000 | 22% |
| Three-year university costs | £65,800 | 15% |
| Six-figure pot | £100,000 | 9% |
What are people investing in?
Time and regular contributions do a lot of the heavy lifting in investing. But where you put your money matters too. Below are 10 of the best-selling JISA funds of the year so far. Global trackers dominate the list, but active funds such as Fidelity Special Situations are also proving popular.
- Fidelity Index World Fund
- Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund
- HSBC FTSE All World Index Fund
- UBS S&P 500 Index Fund
- Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator Adventurous Fund
- Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity Fund
- Legal & General Global Equity Index Fund
- Fidelity Index US Fund
- Fidelity Special Situations Fund
- Fidelity Multi Asset Open Growth Fund
Based on net sales from 1 January 2026 to 29 October 2026
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Important information - investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. Junior ISAs are long term tax-efficient savings accounts for children. Withdrawals will not be possible until the child reaches age 18. A Junior ISA is only available to children under the age of 18 who are resident in the UK. It is not possible to hold both a Junior ISA and a Child Trust Fund (CTF). If your child was born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 the Government would have automatically opened a CTF on your child’s behalf. If your child holds a CTF they can transfer the investment into a Junior ISA. Please note that Fidelity does not allow for CTF transfers into a Junior ISA. Parents or guardians can open the Junior ISA and manage the account but the money belongs to the child and the investment is locked away until the child reaches 18 years old. Reference to specific securities should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell these securities and is included for the purposes of illustration only. This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.
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