Premium Bonds shake-up to give perk to £1m jackpot winners

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Lucky Brits who win £1 million on National Savings and Investments (NS&I) Premium Bonds will be able to receive financial advice on what to do with their fortune, reports The Mirror. Premium Bonds are a monthly lottery-style draw with two jackpot wins of £1 million.

Some 21 million people in the country own at least one. However, bad decisions regarding cash won can be easily made, and the new idea is to help more people spend their money in an informed way.

From April 1, anyone who wins £1 million will be able to get financial advice from any certified or chartered financial planner. These advisers will charge a fee, which varies depending on the firm.

For the past eight years NS&I has been signposting jackpot winners to one firm, Matrix Capital, but now wants to give customers more choice. NS&I will refer interested jackpot winners to a list of 8,000 qualified advisers.

NS&I head of intermediary relationships Andrew Pike said: "NS&I would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Matrix Capital for providing an excellent service to the Premium Bonds jackpot winners throughout the life of our partnership. There is no doubt that this has resulted in many positive outcomes for jackpot winners."

Since the first draw in June 1957, NS&I has drawn 552 million prizes with a total value of £22.6 billion. The way Premium Bonds work is that instead of earning interest, you are entered into a monthly prize draw where you can win between £25 and £1 million tax free.

This means your chance of winning is completely down to chance - and you may not win anything at all. Whenever you want to, you can get all your original stake back from NS&I, though it may take a few days.

The minimum amount you can have invested in Premium Bonds is £25, and the maximum is £50,000. People with the lowest holdings at NS&I have a one-in-1,380 chance of winning something every month.

The vast majority of the prizes each month are for £25. Customers can choose to have their prizes paid straight into their bank account, or have them automatically reinvested into new Premium Bonds.