Joint Account with Minor

Hi,

I am thinking of setting up a joint account with a niece (who is a minor). The plan is that I would build up a sum over 10 years to contribute towards third level education. My questions are:

1. Can I create a joint account (with the consent of the parents),
2. I would like to maintain control of the account until my niece reaches 18, is this standard?

The Bank of Ireland Junior saver account that I had checked out had a horrific rate of interest (even though I appreciate that they are low at the moment). I would be interested in getting some semblance of compound interest from the get go

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

With a 10 year time horizon, I would look at investing the monies. Standard Life do a prepackaged bare trust product which is neat from a tax perspective. You can contribute up to €3k per annum (and so could your spouse/partner if relevant). You can also seed it with up to €30,150 if your niece's Group B threshold is still intact. Tax on any investment return is taken care of at fund level and doesn't create any reporting obligations for anyone (unless the gift excluding the €3k per annum is at a level of 80% of the relevant threshold in which case a CAT return must be done for the child).

Thank you for the suggestion Gordon, I will definitely take a look at the Standard Life product.

I will be contributing less than the small gift exemption limit per annum. I just want to ensure that there's no tax implications when access to the account is handed over when my niece reaches 18.

EBS have a 2% child saver account for this purpose. I'm opening one my nephew

That's not bad username123. Does it require a Current A/C with them?

No you don't need current account:
[broken link removed]

Excellent username, thank you.

€5000 max and they have got quite strict in that lately and will not allow any lodgements once this has been reached. Best rate around. Next best (with convenience for us)was UB at 1.5%.

I think I'll start off with EBS with a view to transferring the balance to the trust product (as suggested above) if it reaches the max amount down the line.