What can you suggest as a suitable well-yielding investment for a 16 year old?

Q.

My mother started a bank account when each of her grandchildren were born, which she gradually built up to $1,000 which was given to the grandchildren at their 21st birthday. My mother is now in an assisted living hostel with serious dementia and, my brother, the sole power of attorney, decided that he did not want the responsibility of the trust funds and distributed them. We have insisted that our son invests the money at least until he is 21, we are trying to instil a saving mentality and are trying to find a suitable investment for him. Initially, we tried to invest the money with ING Direct and sent the cheque we had received from my brother to them with the appropriate forms. They returned the application claiming that they could not accept a cheque from anywhere but the bank account that our son nominated as his operating bank account. But my son does not have a cheque account. We sent ING a bank cheque from the branch where our son's account is maintained but even that was not good enough. I have looked at the major banks and the pittance that they offer for sums less than $10,000 is a disgrace and the building societies are not much better. What can you suggest as a suitable well-yielding investment for a 16 year old in these circumstances?

You should get the son to endorse the cheque over to you and then bank it in your own account. You could then transfer it to an account of his and from there he could open one of the online accounts with organisations like BankWest who are currently paying better than seven percent.