Junior stocks and shares ISAs for a US citizen child
This is the hard one. Of the 29 platforms checked here, 17 sell a Junior stocks and shares ISA, and only 3 will open one for a US citizen child: Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Brokers and Halifax Share Dealing. Even then, what the child can hold inside it matters more than the wrapper.
Most platforms bar US persons from every account in their general terms, and the Junior ISA is no exception. Sometimes the bar catches the child, who owns the account: Fidelity, Vanguard, NatWest, Beanstalk and IG test the child's own citizenship. Sometimes it catches the parent, because the platform makes the registered contact hold an ordinary account there first, and that account is closed to US persons: Nutmeg, Moneyfarm, Freetrade and Bestinvest work this way. AJ Bell, Moneybox, Wealthify and Interactive Investor catch both.
Where only the parent is barred, a parent who is not a US citizen could apply for a US citizen child. It does not last: a Junior ISA turns into the child's own adult ISA at 18, under the same terms that shut US persons out, so expect the account to have to move or close then.
The three that open each come with a condition. Hargreaves Lansdown's Junior ISA terms test only that the child lives in the UK; a US citizen files a paper W-9 rather than the online W-8BEN before buying US shares. Interactive Brokers asks any US person for an IRS Form W-9 when the account opens, and an ISA there can hold only investments the ISA rules allow. Halifax Share Dealing's Junior ISA runs on its own terms, which set no US test even though its ordinary share dealing terms do, so confirm by phone before applying, as with the rest of the Lloyds group.
Opening the account is only half of it. The IRS ignores the wrapper and treats the child as owning each investment directly, so UK funds and the Irish or Luxembourg companies behind UCITS ETFs are PFICs (passive foreign investment companies). Gains on them are taxed under a punitive default rule, as ordinary income at top rates with an interest charge, and each needs its own Form 8621. Shares in ordinary companies are not PFICs, though a listed investment trust can be one. The accounts below show which can hold single company shares. Saving for a US citizen child covers the child's own US return and reporting.
If the account already holds an index fund
The problem does not wait for the child's 18th birthday. The child owns the fund now, so each year it needs a Form 8621 unless all the child's PFICs are worth $25,000 or less at the end of the year and nothing was sold or paid out above the fund's usual amount. A child with no US return to file sends the form straight to the IRS. The tax itself arrives when the fund is sold, whenever that is. The gain is spread across every day it was held: the part falling in the year of sale is ordinary income, and each earlier year's part is taxed at that year's top rate with interest added. The longer a fund sits in the account, the more of the gain carries that charge.
There is no index fund that fixes this inside a Junior ISA. UK and Irish index funds and ETFs are PFICs, and US-domiciled ETFs, which are not, are blocked for UK retail investors because they publish no key information document. Within the wrapper, the holdings that avoid PFICs are shares in individual companies. The registered contact can move a Junior ISA to another provider, so a child whose platform sells only funds can transfer to one below that opens for a US citizen child and holds company shares. Selling the fund to buy shares is itself a PFIC sale, taxed as above, but the charge is smallest while the holding is young.
The other route sits outside the child's account: a parent who is not a US person invests in their own stocks and shares ISA, where a UK fund carries no US tax, and gives the child money later. It stays the parent's until it is given, and it uses the parent's allowance rather than the child's. A US citizen who receives more than $100,000 in a year from a parent who is not a US person reports the gift on Form 3520.
Momo checked 29 providers. 17 offer a Junior stocks and shares ISA; 12 no longer do. Of those 17, 1 will take you outright and 2 attach conditions. 14 refuse. Last checked .
The accounts you can open
Read the "what you can hold" column before the fees. A US person is taxed punitively on non-US pooled funds, which the IRS calls PFICs, and nearly every ordinary UK fund and UCITS ETF is one. Unlike a pension, none of this is protected by the US-UK tax treaty, so an account offering only ready-made fund portfolios is open to you and close to useless to you.
Annual fee is shown as each provider charges it. Percentage charges and flat fees sort separately because they are not the same measurement: a percentage grows with your holdings and a flat fee does not, so above a certain balance the flat fee wins.
You can hold individual shares
Direct holdings in single companies, which is the way round the PFIC problem: the tax penalty falls on pooled funds, and a share in one company is not one.
| What you can hold as a US person | The catch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax Share Dealing Updated Source: Halifax Junior Stocks and Shares ISA Terms and Conditions, Section 4.1 and 4.2, effective 20 January 2025, read 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | Halifax Junior Stocks and Shares ISA (opens in a new tab) | not itemised in the Junior ISA terms themselves; the general Halifax Share Dealing customer admin fee is £36 a year (£3 a month) | £9.50 online dealing commission per trade on the general Halifax Share Dealing schedule; regular monthly investing has no dealing commission | funds, UK and international shares | — |
| Hargreaves Lansdown Accepts with conditions US persons: a paper W-9 in place of the online W-8BEN before buying US shares Updated Source: HL terms and conditions (sections A2, A15 and C1) and overseas share dealing page, 2026-09-12 (opens in a new tab) | HL Junior Stocks and Shares ISA (opens in a new tab) | free to hold funds, UK shares, investment trusts, ETFs, bonds and gilts | online dealing free (funds, UK and overseas shares, ETFs, bonds and gilts); £29 by phone or post; FX conversion fees on overseas shares | funds, shares, ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, ready-made options | — |
| Interactive Brokers UK Accepts with conditions US persons: a US person completes an IRS Form W-9 at account opening Updated Source: IBUK Junior Investment ISA addendum and IBKR US tax information page, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | IBUK Junior Investment ISA (stocks and shares) (opens in a new tab) | no custody fee; minimum monthly activity fee of £1 | commissions from £3/€3 per trade for UK and most European stocks; US stocks from USD 0.005 per share | Qualifying Investments only (as defined by ISA Regulations and made available by IBUK); cash only, no margin | — |
An institution's name opens its page on Momo, with every account checked for it across the site. Account names link to the provider's own site. No link on this page is paid. How Momo makes money.
Who will not take you
Checked and confirmed to refuse US persons, so you can skip the application. The reason matters: some bar US citizenship outright, others require that you are tax resident in the UK and nowhere else.
| Institution | Why | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| AJ Bell AJ Bell's own site (opens in a new tab) | AJ Bell's terms bar an application for a Junior ISA from a US citizen or US tax resident, which catches the parent applying as registered contact, and the same clause lets it close the Junior ISA if the child is or becomes a US citizen. A US citizen child cannot hold this account whichever parent applies. Source: AJ Bell terms and conditions, clauses 1.3, 1.4 and 25.4, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Beanstalk Beanstalk's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches the child, not the parent. The Beanstalk JISA conditions require the child not to be a US Person, but set no such test on the registered contact, whose only general requirement is being 18 or over; a US citizen parent is not the problem here, but a US citizen child cannot hold this account. Source: Beanstalk terms and conditions and Junior ISA key features, issued 06/04/2025, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Bestinvest Bestinvest's own site (opens in a new tab) | Bestinvest's eligibility page sets the same three conditions for opening any account, including a Junior ISA opened by a parent or guardian on a child's behalf: be 18 or over, UK resident, and a non-US citizen. It confirms this bites on the parent specifically, since it runs its anti-money-laundering checks on a Junior ISA against the parent's own country of birth. Bestinvest attributes the bar to its custodian, SEI, not complying with US tax reporting. The published pages are silent on a US citizen child whose parent is not American. Source: Bestinvest 'Who can open a Bestinvest account?' and Junior ISA help pages, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Fidelity Fidelity's own site (opens in a new tab) | Fidelity's client terms say the products and services are not offered to US persons, a term that leads with any citizen of the United States, and the same terms state that Junior ISA investments must remain beneficially owned by the child. The bar catches the child directly as the account's beneficial owner, whichever parent applies as registered contact. Source: Fidelity Doing Business with Fidelity client terms, clauses 1.3(e) and 13.3(c), 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Freetrade Freetrade's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches the parent. A Freetrade JISA can only be opened by a Registered Contact who already holds a Freetrade GIA, and every Freetrade account requires the holder not to be a US Person under FATCA. The Named Child's own eligibility criteria set no separate citizenship test. Source: Freetrade general terms and conditions, sections 7.2 and 7.2.7, and JISA terms, section 3.1, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| IG IG's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches the child by name. IG states plainly in its own help centre that children who are US nationals, including dual UK/US nationals, are not eligible for its Junior ISA; the parent faces no such bar and only needs an existing IG account. Source: IG Junior ISA help centre article "What is a Junior ISA?", 2026-09-12 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Interactive Investor Interactive Investor's own site (opens in a new tab) | The Junior ISA is legally owned by the child, and opening one first requires the parent to hold their own qualifying ii account, both governed by the general terms of service alongside the Junior ISA's own terms. Those terms of service require confirming you are neither a Canadian resident nor a US person, a confirmation neither a US citizen parent nor a US citizen child can truthfully give. Source: ii terms of service, clauses on account types, 14.3 and 20.2, and the Junior ISA product page, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Moneybox Moneybox's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches both parties. The Junior ISA terms make the registered contact confirm the child is not a US person, and the registered contact must already be a Moneybox customer, which the general terms close to all US persons including US citizens. Source: Moneybox personal terms and conditions, sections 3.1 and 6.3.1, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Moneyfarm Moneyfarm's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches the parent before the child is even considered. Opening a JISA requires the parent to already be a Moneyfarm client, and Moneyfarm stopped accepting new US persons as customers in 2021 over the FATCA reporting burden. Source: Moneyfarm Junior ISA FAQ and main FAQ, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| NatWest NatWest's own site (opens in a new tab) | Unlike NatWest's adult Stocks and Shares ISA, which sets no citizenship test, the Junior ISA agreement makes the registered contact confirm that the child is not a United States Person, US citizen or Green Card holder, and to report if that changes. The test runs on the child's own status, so a US citizen child is barred even if the parent applying is not. Source: NatWest Invest Junior ISA terms and conditions, clause 27.3, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Nutmeg (J.P. Morgan Personal Investing) Nutmeg (J.P. Morgan Personal Investing)'s own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches the parent. The registered contact must open a general investment account and meet the conditions for every customer, which include that J.P. Morgan does not provide portfolios or services to US persons. The Junior ISA section sets no separate US test for the child, but the account becomes an adult ISA in the child's name at 18, under those same terms. Source: J.P. Morgan Personal Investing terms and conditions effective 3 November 2025, sections 1.1, 1.2 and 26, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Scottish Widows Scottish Widows's own site (opens in a new tab) | Scottish Widows does not sell a Junior ISA on its direct retail site; the only one is the Junior ISA on Scottish Widows Platform, and unless otherwise agreed it is only available through a financial adviser. The Platform's own terms bar the registered contact from opening a Junior ISA if they are a US person, so a US citizen parent is refused even though the child is the account holder. Source: Scottish Widows Platform Terms and Conditions, clause 1.3, and Junior ISA key features, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Vanguard UK Vanguard UK's own site (opens in a new tab) | Vanguard's client terms define Junior ISA as one of the products these terms cover, and the same terms bar US persons from its accounts and funds outright, defined to include any US citizen. The Junior ISA is held for the child's benefit, so the bar catches the child directly, whichever parent applies as registered contact. Source: Vanguard UK client terms, clause 1.3.3 and definitions, August 2026, read 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Wealthify Wealthify's own site (opens in a new tab) | The bar catches both parties. The general eligibility clause that governs every investment product closes the door to any parent who holds a US passport, and the Junior ISA appendix separately requires the child not to be a US Person. Source: Wealthify terms and conditions, clauses 2.1 and Appendix 2 paragraphs 1.1 and 9.1, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) |
No longer offering this, or never did
Nothing to do with your citizenship: these are providers that do not offer a Junior stocks and shares ISA to anyone in the UK. Several are still recommended in forums and guides, which is why they are listed rather than left out.
| Provider | Why not | Last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Aviva Aviva's own site (opens in a new tab) | Aviva does not run its own Junior ISA. Its children's savings guide and its own pension and ISA pages all point a parent who wants one to a Junior ISA from its partner Wealthify instead, rather than to any Aviva-branded product. Source: Aviva 'Ways to save money for your children' page, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Barclays Smart Investor Barclays Smart Investor's own site (opens in a new tab) | Barclays does not sell a Junior ISA of either kind. Its own Junior ISA guide says plainly that it does not offer one, cash or stocks and shares, and Smart Investor's account list runs to the adult Investment ISA, Investment Account and SIPP with no junior product among them. Source: Barclays 'Guide to Junior ISAs' page and Smart Investor accounts page, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Chip Chip's own site (opens in a new tab) | Chip sells no Junior ISA. Its full product list, savings and investing alike, names a Smart Cash ISA, a Stocks and Shares ISA, a SIPP and fund investing, with no junior product and no mention of the word junior anywhere on the site. Source: Chip site navigation and homepage product list, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| CMC Invest CMC Invest's own site (opens in a new tab) | CMC Invest sells a Junior Cash ISA, not a Junior Stocks and Shares ISA. Its own account listing names five products: Junior Cash ISA, Flexible Cash ISA, Flexible Stocks and Shares ISA, SIPP and GIA, and the Stocks and Shares ISA has no junior equivalent among them. Source: CMC Invest site navigation and price plans, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| HSBC HSBC's own site (opens in a new tab) | HSBC says so on its own children's savings and Junior ISA guide pages: it does not offer a Junior ISA of either kind, cash or stocks and shares. HSBC InvestDirect, its share dealing service, is adult-only, requiring the applicant to be at least 18. Source: HSBC UK 'What Is A Junior ISA?' guide and 'Saving For Children' page, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| InvestEngine InvestEngine's own site (opens in a new tab) | InvestEngine sells no junior product. Its accounts page and main navigation list only a Stocks and Shares ISA, a personal pension, a General Investment Account and a Business Account; a dedicated Junior ISA or Junior SIPP page does not exist on the site (both return a 404). Source: InvestEngine accounts page and site navigation, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| iWeb iWeb's own site (opens in a new tab) | iWeb no longer exists as a separate brand: its dealing accounts moved to Scottish Widows Share Dealing, run by Halifax Share Dealing Limited. That service sells only an adult Stocks and Shares ISA and Share Dealing Account, its eligibility test opens at 'at least 18 years old', and no Junior ISA appears in its product range or the wider Scottish Widows navigation. Source: Scottish Widows (formerly iWeb) Stocks and Shares ISA page and site navigation, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Legal and General Legal and General's own site (opens in a new tab) | Legal & General's Junior ISA is closed to new money. Its own overseas-investor notice says it stopped accepting payments into the Stocks and Shares ISA or Junior ISA in April 2022, for UK and overseas residents alike, and its investment platform pages are now framed around existing customers rather than new applications. Source: Legal & General 'Information for overseas investors' notice, November 2023, read 2026-09-12 (opens in a new tab) | |
| PensionBee PensionBee's own site (opens in a new tab) | PensionBee sells no ISA of any kind, junior or adult. It is a pension consolidation and drawdown business only; its "savings and investments" section is an educational blog hub, including an article titled "What is a Junior ISA?", but the site's actual products are Combine, Contribute, Withdraw, pension drawdown, pension annuity and its pension plans. Source: PensionBee savings and investments hub and site navigation, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Plum Plum's own site (opens in a new tab) | Plum sells no Junior ISA. Its site navigation lists a Cash ISA, a Lifetime ISA, an investments product and a pension, with no junior product among them. Even if one existed, the general Plum terms bar any US Person from a GIA/ISA Platform Product outright. Source: Plum site navigation and Plum terms and conditions clause on GIA/ISA Platform Products, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Rathbones Rathbones's own site (opens in a new tab) | Rathbones publishes no off-the-shelf Junior ISA. It is a discretionary wealth manager reached through an adviser conversation, with managed portfolios typically starting at £150,000; dedicated /isa, /junior-isa and /pension pages all return 404, and its individuals and families page describes a client-story-led process rather than a self-serve account application. Source: Rathbones wealth management, individuals and families page, and site structure, 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) | |
| Trading 212 Trading 212's own site (opens in a new tab) | Trading 212 sells no Junior ISA. Its own help centre article on ISAs lists the Junior ISA as one of the general UK ISA types but then states plainly that Trading 212 itself offers only a Cash ISA and a Stocks and Shares ISA. Source: Trading 212 help centre, "What are ISAs?", 2026-09-11 (opens in a new tab) |
New and changed accounts, monthly.
Providers change who they will take, and nobody tracks it. Momo does. One email a month with what moved, plus the occasional note on tax and money for US citizens in the UK.
How Momo handles your address: privacy policy.
Common questions
Is a UK index fund in a Junior ISA a problem for a US citizen child?
Yes, and it does not wait until 18. The child owns the fund now, and a UK or Irish index fund is a PFIC, so it needs a Form 8621 each year unless all the child's PFICs are worth $25,000 or less at the end of the year and nothing was sold. When the fund is sold, the gain is spread across every day it was held and each earlier year's part is taxed at that year's top rate with interest added, so the charge grows the longer it is held.
Is there an index fund a US citizen child can hold in a Junior ISA without the PFIC problem?
No. UK and Irish index funds and ETFs are PFICs, and US-domiciled ETFs, which are not, are blocked for UK retail investors because they publish no key information document. Inside a Junior ISA the holdings that avoid PFICs are shares in individual companies, though a listed investment trust can itself be a PFIC. A Junior ISA is still usable for a US citizen child; what goes in it has to change.
Can a parent who is not a US person invest for the child instead?
Yes, in their own name. A parent who is not a US person can hold UK funds in their own stocks and shares ISA without US tax and give the child money later. It stays the parent's until it is given and uses the parent's allowance, not the child's. A US citizen child who receives more than $100,000 in a year from a parent who is not a US person reports it on Form 3520.
Why this is the rule
Saving for a child
How the US taxes a Junior ISA, a junior pension and a Child Trust Fund held by a US citizen child in the UK, and how a 529 plan compares.
TaxPFIC
Almost every UK-domiciled fund is a PFIC, taxed by the US at punitive rates with heavy filing. This is why US citizens hold individual shares, not UK funds.
AccountsStocks & shares ISAs
Most UK funds in a stocks and shares ISA are PFICs, which the US taxes punitively. Which providers accept US citizens, and why the wrapper rarely helps.