What Investment investigates how investment trusts can be used as a long-term savings vehicle.

Saving for children key investment concern and, while children can’t hold shares in their own right, you can designate them as beneficiaries of share investments by setting up a bare trust to be passed onto the child when they reach the age of 18.

Many saving schemes now run products branded specifically for saving on behalf of children. For example, Witan's Jump investment trust allows you to invest £25 a month or lump sums of £100.

Witan Investment Trust's head of marketing, James Budden, comments, ‘As a nation, we would appear to be placing greater emphasis on saving for the future needs of our young ones.  Regardless of the way the funds are ultimately used, the seed that long-term saving is a good thing is being planted, and the youth of tomorrow is being encouraged to think about and plan their own financial future.’

And while on the subject of investing for the future, a number of investment trust management groups, such as F&C, Edinburgh Fund Managers and Fleming Investment Trust Managers, also allow you to pay pension contributions into a trust and take advantage of the usual pension tax benefits.

Investment Trust Pensions are attractive to investors because they have a high degree of flexibility. There are no penalties for stopping, stating or varying the contributions or the retirement date. However, because of the nature of investment trusts, placing all of your pension eggs in one investment trust basket can be a risky strategy.

As Andy Parsons, investment adviser at The Share Centre, points out, ‘It is essential that investors consider the financial events that may occur throughout their lifetime, and that they understand where the finances to pay for these events will come from. A simple strategy is to ‘earmark’ certain savings investments for certain events and remembering not to access those monies until required. Failure to adopt these principles could mean hopes and dreams fade, whilst an increase in debt may potentially follow.’