In this section, you will find information about the Court Funds Office Investments and current rates of interest.

Please note that interest rates are not fixed and are set by the Lord Chancellor.

Further information can be found on the Court Funds Office interest rates frequently asked questions (PDF 0.6mb)

Children's Investments

All equity investments on behalf of the child are held in the name of the Accountant General of the Senior Courts.  The rules of court mean that when a child reaches 18 years of age, the equity investments must either be sold or transferred into their name.  However, we cannot transfer the equity investments into anyone else's name.

If the child sells the equity investments, we will send them a cheque for the total amount of the sale within five working days of us receiving the cash proceeds from the brokers. This process can take up to 2 weeks.

If a child wants to keep some or all of the equity investments, we can arrange to transfer them into the child's name. This can take slightly longer - about 2 to 3 weeks from receiving the instructions.

Important note

If there was a Legal Aid charge in the case, the Court Funds Office need to confirm that it has been satisfied.  This may delay payments by approximately 3 days.

If the child has either a:

• Capital Growth Account (substantial amount of equities and a smaller amount as a cash deposit in the Special Account) or
• Capital Growth with Income Account (even balance between equities and cash deposit in the Special account) their shares in the Equity Index Tracker Fund cannot continue to be held by Court Funds Office once the child reaches 18.  They must either be sold and the child receives the proceeds or they have the stocks and shares transferred into their name

When we write to the child prior to their 18th birthday, they will be given the option of whether they wish their Equity Index Tracker Fund shares to be sold or transferred into their name.  On receipt of the completed Form 203 we will either:

Sell the shares - proceeds from the sale will be made within five working days of us receiving the cash proceeds from the brokers which can take up to 2 weeks, or

Arrange to transfer the shares into the child's name. This can take approximately 6 to 8 weeks from receiving the child's instructions.

Any monies held in the Special account will still be paid out on receipt of a correctly completed Form 203 or payment instructions from the court.  We aim to process the payment within 5 working days.  A cheque will then be sent to the bank or building society specified on Form 203.  Please contact the relevant bank or building society for information on their cheque clearing times.

Equity index tracker fund

The Equity Index Tracker Fund (EITF) is a simple and cost-effective means of investing in the stock market over the medium to long term. The fund invests directly in Legal & General unit trusts which track each of the world's major markets with 70% held in the UK and 30% held overseas. The Strategic Investment Board, which advised the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on investment strategy and performance monitoring, recommended the EITF as a cost-effective way of investing in equities.

If you would like to find out the current unit value of the EITF, please click here (this is a link to the Financial Times (FT) Online website.  It shows the previous day's unit price at close of trade - please note that the price can be read using the following example:    Bid (GBX)  936.0000  - should be read as £9.36 per share).

Further Information

Index trackers invest in a representative sample of all the companies that make up the index they are tracking. The intention is simply to deliver the return of the index being tracked. Index trackers can be a cost effective way to achieve a well-diversified portfolio and: 

• They provide the potential for reliable growth by closely mirroring stock market performance
• Independent studies have shown that, over the longer term, index funds have outperformed the majority of active equity funds the lower level of share trading compared with actively managed funds reduces costs
• Low fund management fees are charged as a result of greater efficiency

The EITF has 70% of assets invested in UK companies, and 30% invested in overseas companies. This split achieves a broadly diversified investment with a heavier emphasis on the UK

• It is available exclusively to clients of the Ministry of Justice, and holdings may be retained by ex-clients
• The EITF has a lower management charge than is generally available to private investors
• The investment strategy was adopted on the advice of the Strategic Investment Board
• The value of an investment and any income received from the EITF can fall as well as rise, is not guaranteed and you may not get back the amount of your original investment
• Exchange rate variations may cause the value of an investment in this fund to increase or decrease.

Please note that the value of the investments in the EITF may go down as well as up.

Legal & General (Unit Trust Managers) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of investment business and is authorised under FSMA 2000 for the establishment, operation and winding up of unregulated collective.

Download the latest Equity Index Tracker Funds factsheet

Interest rates

CFO operates two interest bearing accounts with different rates of interest - the basic account and the special account. Interest rates are set by the Lord Chancellor.

CFO's current rates are:

Basic account rate 0.3%

Special account rate 0.5%

Basic interest is applied to County Court and High Court matters (litigation involving adults only). 

The Special rate is paid to Court of Protection Clients' accounts and Children's Funds accounts.  Both rates are variable and may change following a direction from the Lord Chancellor.

For more information on our interest rate changes, we have provided a leaflet with details the rates for both our 'basic' and 'special' accounts since the 1st of October 1965.

Downolad rates for basic and special accounts.

How we calculate interest

To calculate the interest accrued on money held in court follow the guide below.

Interest is calculated by multiplying the amount held on account by the current interest rate (a percentage), multiplied by the number of days accruing interest. The total is then divided by 365.

Where a = amount held on account
Where i = current interest rate (in a percentage)
Where n = number of days accruing interest

Interest = (a x i% x n) / 365

Note - money starts to accrue interest on the date that it is placed on the account, but does not receive interest on the day it is taken out.
For example, if money is invested on the 1st of a month and withdrawn on the 31st, it accrues 30 days of interest.

Example:
On the 1st July £10,000 will be invested in a special account where the interest rate is 0.5% and will be withdrawn on the 30th July; 

Interest accrued = (10,000 x 0.5% x 29) / 365  or

Interest accrued equals ten thousand pounds multiplied by half a percent multiplied by twenty nine days. The total is then divided by 365 days.

Interest accrued = £3.97