New data from precious metals online firm BullionVault reveals that British parents and grandparents saving for their children and grandchildren are increasingly adding gold to their nest eggs, as economic uncertainty as a result of the pandemic continues urging UK savers to prepare against rainy-day risks ahead.

BullionVault has seen account openings for under-18 year olds shoot up since the pandemic began, with the number of new UK accounts opened for someone aged 0 to 17 increasing 569 per cent in 2020 from the previous year’s total.

That was ahead of last year’s wider 249 per cent jump in new UK account openings across all age groups.
While the level of new interest has eased back this year as the shock of the Covid Crisis has receded, the underlying trend for adding physical gold to children’s savings continues to grow.

Already in 2021, the number of new UK account openings for Under-18s has beaten the full-year pre-Covid average of 2015-2019 by more than 99 per cent. Again, that’s ahead of the wider underlying growth rate of 48 per cent.

Adrian Ash, Director of Research at BullionVault, says: “Gold is widely seen as the ultimate store of purchasing power, with a track record of holding value amid financial crisis and economic stress.
“Today’s rising inflation and ongoing uncertainty is encouraging more people to prepare for a rainy-day, and gold is finding strong demand from parents and grandparents wanting to shelter and grow the money they put aside for future generations”.

The firm writes that while many children’s accounts are opened with GBP1,000 to GBP5,000 as a lump sum investment, others make regular investments – some monthly, some every calendar quarter – of GBP50 upwards.

Allowing for BullionVault’s purchase and storage charges, putting GBP50 into gold every three months over the last 18 years would have turned GBP3,600 into GBP7,636, the firm says.