Acorns’ Custodial Account
If you’re looking for a brokerage firm that offers custodial accounts, Acorns may be right up your alley. The company offers both UTMA and UGMA accounts that come with a host of benefits. Here’s the rundown:
Acorns offers a custodial account through its Family investment package. This subscription plan costs $5 per month. Although cheaper memberships are available through Acorns, they don’t have custodial accounts.
Besides a UTMA/UGMA account, Acorns’ Family investment subscription comes with a regular brokerage account connected to a round-up service that takes spare change from purchases and transfers it to the investment account.
More investment deposits can be earned through corporate partners that offer Acorns customers incentives for shopping with them. Currently, there are over 300 of them. Recurring investments are yet another perk of Acorns’ custodial accounts.
Besides these enticing benefits, the Family plan at Acorns also comes with an IRA and a checking account. The latter has an Acorns debit card that provides fee-free withdrawals at more than 55,000 ATMs nationwide.
Acorns permits multiple children to be added to its Family plan, which means multiple custodial accounts can be opened. There are no additional charges to open extra accounts within a single Family subscription. For example, you could have an IRA, a checking account, and a custodial account. The total price would still be $5 per month.
General investing education is a necessary benefit of Acorns’ custodial accounts. The brokerage firm partners with CNBC to produce both articles and videos on a variety of financial topics that will be of interest to guardians and minors alike. Examples of topics include:
· How to Start Investing With Very Little Money
· How Old Do I Have to Be to Invest?
· What Are Index Funds?
Because Acorns only offers automated investing, a custodial account cannot be opened in self-directed mode. A custodial account at Acorns has the same investments available as other account types. Because Acorns is robo-only, this selection is rather small: just 12 exchange-traded funds at this time.
Open Acorns UTMA Account
Open Acorns Account
Tax Status of Acorns Custodial Accounts
A UTMA or UGMA account will come with several advantages over regular brokerage accounts that can help paying taxes a little easier.
For instance, the first $1,050 per year in earnings in a custodial account are tax free. The next $1,050 in earnings are taxed at the minor’s rate, which is usually quite a bit lower than the custodian’s tax bracket.
Contributions to UTMA and UGMA accounts are made with post-tax dollars and are irrevocable. Interestingly, they can be used for any type of expense, not just for education. This makes custodial accounts notably different from 529 plans or other education accounts.
Opening a Custodial Account at Acorns
To open a custodial account at Acorns, just point your browser to Acorns.com and click on the green Get started button. (The custodian, not the minor, must be the one opening the account.) Be sure to select the Family subscription during the application process as the other two options don't offer custodial accounts.
Open Acorns Custodial Account
Open Acorns Account
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