Which providers offer a Junior SIPP?

If you've been hunting around platform websites trying to find clear information on Junior SIPPs, you're not alone — a handful of providers offer this, and the differences between them aren't always obvious. Here's what you need to know.

First, a quick reality check on fees

The annual limit for a Junior SIPP is £3,600 (including 20% tax relief from the government — so you actually pay in £2,880 and the government tops it up). That's a relatively small pot in the early years, which means percentage-based platform fees take a bigger bite than they would on a larger adult pension. Keeping costs low matters here.

The main providers

Four platforms consistently come up as consumer options for Junior SIPPs:

AJ Bell is regularly rated the best value Junior SIPP on cost. It charges 0.25% a year on the first £250,000, capped at £10 a month if you're holding shares or ETFs. Share deals cost £5 each (or £1.50 for regular investing). On a small portfolio, 0.25% is manageable.

Fidelity is the cheapest headline option — it charges no platform fee at all on junior accounts. You still pay the fund's own ongoing charges (set by the fund manager, not Fidelity), and share dealing costs apply, but there's no annual service fee on top. For a parent drip-feeding small amounts, this is worth paying attention to.

Hargreaves Lansdown is the biggest platform in the UK with the broadest investment range, but it's the most expensive of the three at 0.35% a year on funds up to £250,000, capped at £150 a year for shares. Share deals cost £6.95 online, and fund deals are £1.95 each. You're paying for the name and the research tools as much as anything.

Bestinvest is a lesser-known option but worth a look — it offers a Junior SIPP with relatively low entry amounts and a decent fund range.

The investment strategy question — and the honest answer

This is where the market falls a bit short, and it's a fair frustration. A child born today won't be able to access their pension until their late 50s at the earliest — that's potentially 55 to 60 years of investment growth. In theory, that extraordinary time horizon should mean a very growth-focused, equity

-heavy strategy from the outset, with de-risking not even on the radar for decades.

In practice, none of the main providers has built a Junior SIPP investment strategy that specifically reflects this. What they offer instead:

AJ Bell gives you full DIY control — thousands of funds

, shares, , and Investment Trusts — with its own Balanced fund as a starting point for parents who don't want to pick. There's no automatic de-risking built in unless you set it up yourself.

Hargreaves Lansdown offers its Ready-Made Pension Plan within the Junior SIPP, which starts growth-focused and gradually shifts to lower-risk assets as retirement approaches. In theory, this sounds sensible; in practice, for a child's account, the cautious "de-risking" stage won't activate for several decades — so you're essentially just getting the growth phase anyway. It's a more guided option than AJ Bell, but not specifically designed around a child's timeline.

Fidelity takes a guided DIY approach — tools like its Retirement Builder and Select 50 expert-picked fund list point you in a direction, but there's no ready-made default for the Junior SIPP specifically.

The honest editorial view is that a simple, low-cost global index fund — available on any of these platforms — would serve most children's Junior SIPPs well. A global index fund tracks thousands of companies across the world's major stock markets, keeps costs low, and plays to that long time horizon without needing much active management or intervention.

A good example is the Fidelity Index World Fund (available on all three of the major platforms above), which tracks the MSCI World Index — that's roughly 1,500 of the world's largest companies across 23 countries — and has an ongoing fund charge of just 0.12% a year. Combined with Fidelity's zero platform fee on junior accounts, a parent investing solely in this fund would pay only that 0.12% in total annual costs. This is a reasonable option.

Other similar options to consider include the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund and Legal & General's Global Index Trust, both of which follow a comparable approach at a similarly low cost.

None of this is a personal recommendation — the right fund depends on your own circumstances and attitude to risk -, but it illustrates the kind of low-cost, globally diversified building block that many long-term investors start with.

The bottom line

If keeping fees as low as possible is the priority, Fidelity wins on platform cost. If you want a slightly broader range of tools and guidance, AJ Bell at 0.25% is close behind and is consistently rated best value in best-buy tables. Hargreaves Lansdown is fine but you're paying more without getting a meaningfully better investment strategy for your children in return.

All three let you open and manage the account online, and all accept contributions from third parties — so grandparents and family can pay in too.

Please note: this article is intended as general guidance and is not financial advice. It covers the most widely recognised direct-to-consumer providers and is not a whole-of-market comparison. Your circumstances will be unique to you — a regulated financial adviser can help you make the right choice for your family.