Another aspect I wonder is if KESB lets child move out of Switzerland. In case they have double citizenship especially.
Thanks a lot, I did not know you can separate financial guardianship. It does make sense for us.
unfortunately, AML and other rules make things quite cumbersome. normally they do checks on opening, but some do on withdrawal and of course there are annual checks too. now when i open a new account, i always to some kind of test withdrawal to catch any issues to avoid hiccups if urgent funds are required in the future.
I saw AJBell has a kids account and handles the trust for you too. All in GBP unfortunately, but an easy option.
I should clarify that the parents' guardianship nominations were done under US law.
My sibs separated the two guardianship aspects when I looked into the issue and learned that my niblings would not be allowed to move to Switzerland to live with me, despite my being their guardian. Normal family reunification would apply, and guardianship is not considered a parental relationship.
The simple solution was then to appoint me as financially responsible for the children, while they lived with a trusted friend in the US.
I don't know how that would play out in Swiss law. I imagine it would be possible, but if you anticipate that cross border issues around guardianship might spring up, best to seek legal advice.
I did this with my kids; although I just opened an ordinary bank account and put money in it. BUT, here we are 18 years later and I transferred almost all of the money I saved for my daughter to her brothers account, he is few years younger JUST before she turned 18.
I did so because although it wasn't a huge amount of money, some 8K her priorities as a student beyond studying are makeup, eating out and boys. I didn't save 8K over 18 years for my daughter to buy makeup, eat out with her friends and party; I saved it for things like rent deposit, her first car, new wardrobe for work, etc etc investments in other words.
So save money for your kids, but not in a fund that you don't retain full access to right up to the day they turn 18, just in case like me you need to hold onto that money for just a little longer until they really grow up; 18 is just a number, most of us I dare say are not grown up when we get there.
yup. that's the challenge. at 18 you have different concerns. it would be nice to have a fund that could be used only for, say, university. and then other fund that becomes available at, say, age 30.
Let me share what I did so far:
- through my 2nd pillar, there is death pension for wife and kids
- life insurance (through my company) equal to my yearly salary
- my wife has also life insurance (3rd pillar)
- since their birth, we put all family allowances into kids' bank accounts (in their names), until we realized it is not optimal that we basically loose control over it and the money doesn't work, so couple years ago we switched to...
- we put family allowances into dedicated Degiro account (on my name), where buy stocks for them once per month / every 2 months. Buy and hold strategy, big companies, mostly from Swiss stock exchange.
Like this, when they are 18, the total bank account in their names + value of shares, should exceed 60 kCHF (assuming only that shares will not loose value) with 10-25% in the bank account on their names.
The idea was to give them some head start into life (studies, travel, car or keep the investments), but it can also serve as an extra cushion in case of our death.
It is not ideal (especially the part which is blocked in bank accounts), but hopefully it gives some ideas and you can also learn from my experience.
The other topic, I need to now tackle is guardianship in case of parents' death - I didn't settle that.
Thanks. I do have insurance through work (though obviously, I have to have a backup plan in case I stop working for whatever reason).
And was thinking of whether to add some additional insurance of disability insurance.
There's a risk I'll be subject to UK IHT so I'd like to get a good chunk of the the IHT net which is why I don't simply want to hold everything in my name and transfer when the kids are older.
As said, money is one thing. But especially if you live abroad, it is essential to find someone who sould step in in an emergency, and who agrees to take over the kids if anything happened to both of you, and nominate them officially as their to be carers- to prevent social services from taking the kids to institutions or foster carers. This has to be done officially.
We have agreed to return to the UK to do this until the GCs have finished their Education up to A-Levels- unless THEY choose to come and live here, where private edu will be provided as they are too old to make the swap (in the middle of GCSEs and A Levels currently)- just in case. The GCs are old enought to be consulted and they know this is the case. We would be there within hours should be ever have to.