Healthy

Healthy is the name you see when you save or invest with a long-established UK friendly society. It offers savings and investment products aimed mainly at families: a With-profits Junior ISA for children, Child Trust Fund management, an ethical stocks and shares ISA for adults, and a Tax Exempt Savings Plan. The society manages £202.8m in total assets¹, and it is a mutual, meaning it is run for its members rather than for outside shareholders.

The society's website, www.healthyinvestment.co.uk, is where its product terms, application forms and current figures are published¹. It also appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance². Healthy Investment does not give financial advice, so you make your own decisions about its products, and its current charges and limits are on its own website³.

What Healthy Investment offers

Healthy Investment's best-known products are its children's accounts. Its With-profits Junior ISA is a stocks and shares Junior ISA, invested in the Healthy Investment Ethical With-Profits fund, so the money is exposed to investment markets rather than sitting as cash³. It is available to any UK resident under the age of 18 who does not have a Child Trust Fund. Junior ISAs can only be opened by parents or legal guardians of children under 16, but once the account is open anyone can invest in it, which makes it a practical route for grandparents and other relatives to contribute³.

One restriction is worth knowing before you open the account: if you invest in a Healthy Investment stocks and shares Junior ISA for a child, you will not be able to invest for them in other stocks and shares Junior ISAs³. A child can hold one Junior ISA of each type, cash and stocks and shares, so choosing a stocks and shares Junior ISA with one provider uses up the stocks and shares slot. The general rules, including the annual allowance and how Junior ISAs work alongside Child Trust Funds, are explained in our guide to ISAs.

Alongside the Junior ISA, Healthy Investment manages both Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs and accepts transfers between them³. Child Trust Funds were the government savings accounts opened for children born between September 2002 and January 2011, and many are still sitting with the original provider. If you are not sure whether a child has a Child Trust Fund, that is the first thing to check, because a child who has one cannot also open a Junior ISA⁴.

For adults, the product range covers two savings and investment products: the Healthy Investment Ethical Stocks and Shares ISA and the Healthy Investment Tax Exempt Savings Plan. Both are covered in the next section. The society's wider savings products sit within the friendly society tradition, described later in this page, and the basics of saving for children are covered in our guide to savings accounts.

The Tax Exempt Savings Plan and the ethical ISA

Healthy Investment sells two adult products. The first is its Ethical Stocks and Shares ISA, an adult ISA that invests in the society's ethical with-profits approach, the same investment philosophy behind its Junior ISA³. The second is its Tax Exempt Savings Plan, a friendly society savings plan of the kind that mutual societies have offered for generations. The plan grows through bonuses, and bonus rates are not guaranteed and in exceptional circumstances could be nil³.

Because this site carries no product rates, fees or limits, the current charges, minimum contributions, terms and withdrawal rules for both products are on Healthy Investment's own website, www.healthyinvestment.co.uk¹. That is where to check today's figures before committing money, and where to compare the plan's terms against the ISA rules set out in our guide to ISAs.

Two general points apply to any investment of this kind. First, a stocks and shares ISA invests in markets, so the value can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you paid in; the industry's own guidance to new investors is blunt that investment is not suitable as a way to get out of debt⁵. Second, charges on with-profits and friendly society products are not always as simple as a single percentage fee, so it is worth reading the product terms on the provider's site and asking exactly what is deducted and when. The basics of how investing works, including risk and charges, are in our guide to investing.

Moving a Child Trust Fund or Junior ISA to or from Healthy Investment

Transfers are a big part of what Healthy Investment does, because it manages both product types. The government took legislative powers to enable the voluntary transfer of savings from a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA, which is what makes these moves possible at all⁶. Since then, families have been able to consolidate a child's savings where it suits them.

The rules that govern these transfers are strict. A child cannot have a Child Trust Fund and a Junior ISA of any type at the same time, so if you move a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA, the whole Child Trust Fund amount must be transferred⁴. You cannot split it, keep a bit behind, or move only part of the balance. A Junior ISA held with another provider can be transferred into the Healthy Investment stocks and shares Junior ISA without affecting the current Junior ISA tax year's allowance, which means moving providers does not eat into the amount you can contribute that year³.

There is one rule that catches many families out at maturity. Once the account holder turns 18, only they, the child as was, can instruct the transfer of a matured Child Trust Fund to an ISA, not the Registered Contact who managed the account while they were growing up. The matured fund can go to any ISA type with any other ISA manager, or to the Child Trust Fund provider if it offers ISAs⁸. In practice this means a parent cannot arrange the transfer on an 18-year-old's behalf: the young person has to sign the instruction themselves. Healthy Investment manages both Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs, so it can receive transfers in either direction, and its team can talk through the mechanics, though not advise you what to do³.

Who can open an account and how to apply

The Junior ISA is available to any UK resident under the age of 18 who does not have a Child Trust Fund³. That last condition matters more than many people expect: every child born between September 2002 and January 2011 was given a Child Trust Fund, so a child born in that window almost certainly has one, and a Junior ISA is not an option until that fund has been transferred or, after age 18, moved into an ISA.

Only a parent or legal guardian can open the Junior ISA, and only for a child under 16. Once the account is open, anyone can invest in it, so grandparents, godparents and other family members can all contribute to the same account³. The person who opens the account becomes the Registered Contact, responsible for managing it until the child takes over.

Applying is done online, and Healthy Investment gives a phone number, 0161 762 5790, for help while applying³. Before you start, it is worth having the child's details to hand and knowing whether they already hold a Child Trust Fund or a Junior ISA elsewhere, because the transfer rules above will shape what you can do. For the adult products, the ethical ISA and the Tax Exempt Savings Plan, applications and current terms are on the provider's own website¹.

Healthy Investment does not give financial advice

Healthy Investment is clear about its limits: it cannot offer advice on the product. Its own words are that it is happy to talk through the differences between its products with you, but the decision is yours³.

Healthy Investment product page³

This is a meaningful distinction for a consumer. Talking through how a product works, what it invests in and what the terms say is information; advice is a recommendation that a particular product is right for your circumstances, and only a financial adviser can give that. You can find a financial adviser through the FCA Register or the directory of authorised firms⁹. If you want a view on whether a with-profits Junior ISA suits a particular child, or whether a Tax Exempt Savings Plan fits alongside your other savings, that is a question for an adviser, not for the society's own staff. Free, impartial guidance is also available from MoneyHelper, the government-backed money guidance service, which can explain your options without selling you anything.

How to contact and manage an account with Healthy Investment

Healthy Investment's website is www.healthyinvestment.co.uk, and that is the hub for managing an account: product terms, application forms and current figures¹. For help applying for a Junior ISA, the society's phone line is 0161 762 5790³.

Day to day, a child's account is managed by the Registered Contact, the parent or guardian who opened it. Contributions can come from anyone once the account is open, and the society's team can answer questions about how the account works, though not advise on decisions³. As the child approaches 18, the handover of control becomes important: from that point, only the young person themselves can instruct transfers of a matured Child Trust Fund, so families should plan for the account to pass into the child's hands rather than expecting to keep managing it for them⁸. If you hold an adult ISA or savings plan, statements and account management are through the same website, and any change to your circumstances, such as a move or a change of bank details, should be notified to the society directly.

Complaints: 8 weeks for the firm, then the ombudsman

If something goes wrong, the process starts with Healthy Investment itself. There are rules that financial businesses must follow when they investigate a complaint: they should consider what has happened quickly and fairly, and keep you updated throughout the process. For most complaints, a business has up to 8 weeks to consider a complaint¹⁰.

Before bringing a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, the first step is a formal complaint to the company involved¹¹. The firm then sends a final response letter setting out its conclusions. If it does not send one within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the response, you can bring the complaint to the ombudsman¹¹. The ombudsman's process is straightforward from that point: your case will be assigned to a case handler who will get in touch when they start to investigate¹². The service is free to consumers, and its decisions can bind the firm where it upholds the complaint.

It is worth keeping a record of what you complained about, when, and what the firm replied, because the ombudsman's case handler may ask for more information as part of the investigation¹¹. Complaints about investments, including with-profits products, sit squarely within the ombudsman's remit, so a dispute about how a Junior ISA or savings plan was run is not something you have to settle with the firm alone.

A mutual friendly society: what that means for members

Healthy Investment is a friendly society, part of a tradition of member-owned financial institutions that predates most of the high street banks. The mutual model it follows is the same one building societies use: these institutions operate solely for the mutual benefit of those members and their communities¹³. There are no external shareholders taking a share of the profits, and the society exists to serve the people who save with it.

For a consumer, the practical differences are subtle but real. A mutual has no shareholder dividend to protect, so its incentives point towards its members rather than towards outside investors. Friendly societies like this one also occupy a particular niche: they are the traditional home of small regular savings plans and of products like the Tax Exempt Savings Plan, and they often have long histories under earlier names. The FCA Register shows this society was previously known as The Rechabite Friendly Society and, before that, The Independent Order of Rechabites Salford Unity Friendly Society, and it also trades as Red Rose Assurance¹. None of this makes a product right or wrong for you, but it explains the character of the firm: small, member-owned and long-established rather than a listed bank.

How your money is protected with Healthy Investment

Healthy Investment's products sit within the scope of the UK's compensation framework. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers a range of financial products if a UK-authorised financial firm fails, including deposits, insurance, investments, pensions and mortgage advice¹⁴. The society holds accepting deposits permissions and also appears on the Prudential Regulation Authority's list of UK insurers¹, so its products fall within the categories FSCS exists to cover.

What is protected, and by how much, depends on the product type. FSCS itself suggests three questions to ask any provider before you invest: is this investment product covered by FSCS, how much of my money is protected, and what would happen to my money if something happened to the provider¹⁵. Those are the right questions to put to Healthy Investment for each product you hold, because the answer differs between a savings plan, an ISA and an insurance-based product. For insurance, the protection levels are set by claim type: FSCS pays 90% of health insurance claims and 100% of whole of life assurance claims¹⁶, which is relevant given the society also provides insurance.

Two further points of general protection apply. Many investment firms hold customers' money in separate client money accounts, usually with UK banks, so the money is ring-fenced from the firm's own finances¹⁷. And the protection only reaches products the scheme covers: if you put money into investments outside the scheme, you will not be covered by the FSCS, unless the investment was the result of negligent advice from an independent financial adviser¹⁷. Asking the three FSCS questions above for each product is the way to know where you stand. More on your rights generally is in our guide to consumer protection.