As a Senior Leader at bp, you’ve built a successful career that gives your family opportunities you likely didn’t have growing up. With this comes the responsibility of planning for your children’s financial future. Whether it’s school fees, university costs, or helping them buy their first home, these decisions require the same strategic approach you bring to your professional role.
The challenge is getting the timing right, being tax-efficient, and giving your children the best possible start without putting your own financial security at risk.
Three key areas to plan for
Most Senior Leaders face three big financial commitments with their children: education costs, university expenses, and property help. Each needs a different planning approach and timeline.
How to fund school fees
Private education costs around £19,000 per year on average. Ideally, you’d keep at least three years’ worth of fees in easily accessible cash, but other commitments don’t always make this practical. This might involve strategically selling some of your bp shares over time to fund fees. What matters most is treating fees with the same importance as your mortgage – budgeting properly and making sure they’re a priority in your financial planning.
School fees typically go up by 3-5% every year. Factor this into your plans from the start, and think about what happens if things change. Could you afford fees if your bonus was much smaller?
Building a university fund
University costs go far beyond tuition fees – accommodation, living expenses, and not earning while studying can easily reach £15,000-20,000 per year.
Starting a Junior ISA when your children are young can create a big fund by university age. The annual allowance of £9,000 means serious tax-free savings by age 18, especially with investment growth over 10-15 years – the same compound growth principles we explored in our pension planning case study.
This creates an excellent chance to teach your children about investing. By involving them in understanding how their Junior ISA works and how compound growth builds wealth over time, you’re giving them valuable financial education.
Many Leaders arrange for their children to have a financial planning session when they turn 18 – an investment in their financial education that often proves invaluable throughout their lives.
Helping with first homes
With the median house deposit for first-time buyers at £48,350, an amount that would take many years to save on typical graduate salaries, helping children buy their first home has become almost essential for many families.
As a bp Senior Leader, you likely have the ability to gift significant amounts to your children. The current annual gifting allowance of £3,000 per parent (£6,000 per couple) can be topped up by larger gifts, as long as you survive seven years for inheritance tax purposes.
However, don’t rush into property purchases based on where you think your children should live. Many don’t know where they want to settle until their late twenties. Rather than buying property too early, think about building a property fund that gives them flexibility to make the right choice when they’re ready.
While trusts can be powerful tools, they’re not always the right solution. The tax implications can be complex, ongoing costs high, and flexibility limited. Look at simpler gifting strategies first.
Finding the right balance
Planning for your children’s financial future goes beyond just numbers. Many Senior Leaders struggle with questions about how much support is right and how to keep their children motivated and independent.
Giving financial support doesn’t mean removing all challenges from your children’s lives. Many successful families use a matching approach – supporting children who show responsibility and effort, rather than giving unconditional financial backing.
The most important rule is making sure that helping your children doesn’t put your own financial security at risk. The best thing you can do for your children is not become a financial burden to them when you’re older.
Getting started
If you’re thinking about your children’s financial future, start early but stay flexible – even small regular investments for children can grow substantially over time. Fit children’s planning into your overall financial strategy so it works alongside rather than against your retirement planning and share option management.
The goal is giving your children the security and opportunities that your success has made possible, while keeping your own financial future secure.
Can you think of a colleague with young children who’s wrestling with these decisions? Share this article with them – sometimes seeing the strategic approach can help clarify what feels like an overwhelming set of choices.
Want to learn more about how we help bp Leaders optimise their finances? Explore our bp services page here. If you’d like to discuss your specific situation, you can get in touch with our team directly.
While we have extensive experience helping bp employees and alumni optimise their benefits, Emery Little operates independently and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the bp group, including BP Pension Trustees Limited, on behalf of the BP Pension Fund. This allows us to provide objective, independent guidance focused solely on your best interests.
