Have you ever wondered what you should do if you want to teach your kids about the stock market?
Don’t worry, other people have solved that problem by creating something known as a custodial account.
What is a custodial account?
A custodial account is an account a parent or guardian sets up in a child’s name to either teach them about the stock market, or to set aside money for them for when the child gets older.
This helps young kids get used to interacting with the stock market, that way when they are older, they have an experience advantage. Some of us didn’t start investing until our mid 30’s, so an extra 20 years of investing experience, and compound interest, would be useful.
Not many online brokerages offer custodial accounts, but here are some of the ones we have tried, and ranked according to quality:
#1 M1 Finance
4.4/5 Stars
M1 Finance is a really easy to use investing app that’s focused around passive investing.
The app has users create “Pies”, which makes it easy to understand how your portfolio is getting split between different holdings, which is perfect for showing kids visually what their portfolio is doing.
M1 Finance Fees
While M1 Finance is the only free investing app on this list, the ability to open custodial accounts for kids is only available to M1 Plus users, which requires you to pay $125 per year (~$10.42 per month).
#2 Stash
4.4/5 Stars
Stash is a really easy to use and understand investing app, and the intuitive nature of it is great for teaching young investors the ropes.
Buying and selling stocks is easy, and Stash offers fractional shares and a Dividend Re-Investment Plan, which helps make investing fairly passive, if that’s what you prefer.
Although Stash is a little more expensive than the competition, it is a really good app if your child wants to be hands-on with the stock market. Acorns is a little cheaper and is a great passive investing app, but it doesn’t allow people to dig deeper into the stock market like Stash does.
Stash Fees
Stash has different pricing plans starting from $1 per month, to $9 per month, but to open a custodial account you’ll need to subscribe to Stash Plus, which is the $9 per month tier.
#3 Acorns
4.4/5 Stars
Acorns is a very passive investing app that won’t give your kids very much hands-on experience with the stock market, but it WILL allow them to easily set aside money to invest and they can see the basics of how the stock market works.
Passively investing into ETFs is fairly safe and easy, and your kids should have no problems understanding how it all works.
Acorns Fees
Like Stash, Acorns has multiple pricing tiers depending on your investing needs.
The basic account fee for Acorns is $1 per month, but to have access to a custodial account, you’ll have to pay $5 per month, which is Acorns’ highest pricing tier.
Acorns is well worth it if you just want to show your children how compounding works and teach them how to invest regularly.
Other investing apps with custodial accounts?
If you know of any other investing apps with good custodial accounts, and if you think they’re better than the ones we listed here, let us know in the comments!
We hope this article helped you find the right investing app for you and your children, have a great day.
