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You want to give your child a great financial future. You’re starting to put money aside, and you’d love for the people who care about them to be part of it.
Maybe you’re planning a baby shower. Maybe relatives are asking what to give for the holidays. Or a grandparent would like to give a little each month.
You’ve come across Greatest Gift and custodial accounts, often called UGMA or UTMA accounts. Which do you need? And if you already have an investment account, what would GG add?
Greatest Gift helps you share your child’s goals and invite friends and family to give toward them. A custodial account gives you a place to save and invest that money. You can start with GG before choosing an account, or use it alongside one you already have.
With a GG financial gifting registry, you can show people what you’re saving for. Maybe a college fund, a first car or a trip your child has been dreaming about.
Monthly Gifts and Gift Matching give them more ways to help you build momentum, one gift at a time.
You can transfer GG gifts to custodial accounts at Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Vanguard. If you already use one of them, you can keep your investment account and use GG to invite others to support your child’s future.
Here’s how GG fits alongside a traditional custodial account at Fidelity, Charles Schwab or Vanguard. We’ll also look at newer providers with gifting tools below.
A custodial account lets an adult manage money and investments for a child. You’ll often see these called UGMA or UTMA accounts.
The money belongs to the child. An adult manages it until the age when the child must take control, which depends on the account and state rules.
Once you put money in, you can’t take it back for yourself. While your child is a minor, money withdrawn must be used for their benefit. The account can also affect taxes and college financial aid.
That account can help you build savings over the years. GG helps you get others involved in building them.
Our guide to popular UTMA account options includes Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Vanguard. For more on how the accounts work, see Fidelity’s custodial-account guide.
You’re putting $100 a month into your child’s custodial account. That’s $1,200 a year from you.
A grandparent and a godparent would like to help, but they aren’t sure how. You can share a GG page that explains what you’re saving for and gives them a way to send gifts.
For example:
We’ve started investing for Leo’s future. If you’d like to help, you can send a gift here or give a little each month. We’ll put it toward the savings we’re building for him.
You can share the page when your child is born, for a holiday or just when someone asks how they can help. You don’t need a party or a special occasion to get started.
As gifts come in, you can transfer them to your child’s custodial account. Your own savings keep going, now with some help from people who care about your child.
Imagine a grandparent and a godparent each give $20 a month. Five people send $40 for the holidays, and five give the same amount for a birthday or another milestone. Someone also matches the holiday gifts.
Total gifts from others: $1,080 before fees.
With just one occasion instead of two, the same monthly gifts and $200 match would add up to $880 before fees.
In the two-occasion example, your $1,200 in contributions plus $1,080 from others comes to $2,280 before gifting fees and any membership or investment costs. That’s almost twice what you put aside on your own, without increasing your monthly contribution.
This example assumes everyone gives as planned and the $200 match is completed. It counts only the money given, with no investment growth included.
Neither monthly giver has to find a large amount to give at once. Together with the holiday gifts and a match, those small gifts add up to more than $1,000 for your child before fees.
The baby shower is next month. You know you’d like to start saving, but you’re still deciding between a 529 plan and a custodial account.
Before the baby is born, you don’t have their Social Security number yet. A custodial account needs the child’s identifying information, so you can’t open it for them at that point. See Schwab’s account-opening requirements.
You can create a GG registry now and share it with guests. You don’t need to choose an investment provider before receiving gifts.
When you’re ready to transfer the gifts, you’ll need a supported financial account. The gifts aren’t invested while they’re waiting in GG.
You don’t have to figure everything out before getting started. Let people help now, then choose where to save or invest the gifts.
Our guide to asking for money as baby shower gifts has wording you can use.
You might want gifts celebrating a new baby to help with more than one thing: college savings, investments and activities as they grow.
You could put some toward a supported 529 plan, some toward your child’s custodial account and save some for a trip or music lessons.
You can share all those goals on one GG page. When you transfer the gifts, you choose how much to put toward each destination.
Money you transfer to a custodial account then follows that account’s rules. For lessons or a trip, you might choose your checking account instead.
Some relatives love picking out a present. Others would rather help with college savings or put something aside for later.
A registry shows them what you’re hoping to do for your child. A greeting, photo or video can make their money gift feel personal, too.
They can see what their gift will help with. You choose where to save, invest or use the money.
A birth, baby shower, holiday or birthday can get things started. GG also gives people ways to keep helping between those occasions.
In the example above, a grandparent and a godparent each give $20 a month. Together, that’s $40 a month, or $480 over a year before fees.
With Monthly Gifts, the giver chooses how much to give and for how many months. The first gift is sent right away, with the rest sent monthly. Future gifts can be canceled.
A grandparent can get it set up once and keep helping throughout the year.
An aunt could offer to match gifts up to $200 per month.
During the holidays, five people each give $40. She matches their gifts with another $200. Together, they’ve given $400 toward your child’s future before fees.
The yearly example above includes just that one month’s match.
You can invite anyone to match: a grandparent, godparent, family friend or even an employer.
Seeing that their $40 could become $80 toward your child’s goal may encourage someone to chip in.
These tools are part of GG+, the optional membership for parents who want to be intentional about building wealth for their kids. You can create a gifting page and receive one-time gifts without a membership.
It’s easier to keep going when you have help. Your custodial account is where you invest; GG helps you bring more people into the future you’re building.
Some newer providers, including UNest and Acorns Early Invest, offer gift links alongside their investment accounts.
UNest lets parents create a personalized gift page. Friends and family can contribute without opening a UNest account, and the money goes into the child’s investment account. See UNest’s gifting explanation.
Acorns Early Invest offers a link for gifts into the child’s investment account. It also advertises a provider-funded 1% contribution match, subject to its terms. That’s a different feature from inviting someone to match gifts through GG. See Acorns Early Invest.
GG adds Monthly Gifts from friends and family and the option to invite someone to match what others give. You also choose where the gifts go afterward, rather than sending every gift into one app’s account.
Fabric offers a UGMA investment account, but its help center says gifting is currently paused, with no announced return date. Friends and family can send money to the parent, who then contributes it from their linked bank account. See Fabric’s current gifting guidance.
If your provider already has a gift link and you want all gifts going into that account, it may cover what you need.
If you want to use GG alongside one of these newer apps, check whether that account is supported as a transfer destination.
Yes. Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Vanguard are among GG’s transfer destinations.
You can collect monthly gifts, gifts for a new baby or holiday contributions, then transfer the money you want to invest to your child’s account. Other gifts can go to another supported destination for a different goal.
Once the money reaches the investment account, follow that provider’s process for investing it.
If you’re still deciding where to start, our guide to saving for your child’s future walks through the next steps.
In the $880 example, two people give monthly, five people give for one occasion and someone adds a $200 match.
If you choose to pay $5 a month for GG+, that’s $60 for a year. Assuming everyone gives through bank payments and you make one transfer to a supported long-term savings account, standard sending and transfer fees would be about $13. Monthly Gifts processing charges also apply.
After membership and gifting costs, that’s roughly $800 more for your child’s future, before any investment costs. Alongside the $1,200 you’re putting aside yourself, you’d have about $2,000 to save and invest.
An extra $800 can be a real step forward. That’s the opportunity: give people who want to help an easy way to do it, and put their gifts toward your child’s future.
Creating a basic GG account and gifting page is free. Sending fees are 1% for bank payments and 3.5% for credit cards. Transfers to supported long-term savings accounts cost 0.5% plus 25¢; transfers to a regular checking account cost 5%.
The example assumes $0 optional platform contributions. Costs will vary with payment methods, how often you transfer and the membership price you choose. See GG’s fee information.
Your investment account may have its own costs. Fidelity and Schwab advertise no custodial-account maintenance fees, though investment expenses or other charges can apply.
Use a custodial account when you want to save and invest money that belongs to your child. It gives you a place to manage those investments until they take control.
Add Greatest Gift when you want others to be part of building your child’s future. Share their goals and give people an easy way to help, whether it’s a holiday gift, a little each month or a match.
Start with GG if you want to collect gifts now and choose the savings or investment account afterward.
You don’t have to build it all on your own. Small monthly gifts, help during the holidays and someone offering a match can add up alongside what you’re already saving for your child.
I love how easy it is to give a meaningful gift to the kids and tots in my life!
It means a lot to me that I can contribute to their future, and Greatest Gift makes the experience seamless and fun.
Alana S.
Our son just turned two. We created his gifting page with Greatest Gift and shared it on the birthday evite. The results were amazing! We received 12 gifts that will be going to his college fund and savings.
Love this platform.
Daniel A.
We have a 2-year-old and another baby on the way, and we love Greatest Gift’s discover section. I look forward to learning about the right financial tools to help build their future and set them up for success financially.
Hillan K.
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