UNest Review: Invest For Your Kids' Future, But Fees Apply

You might like UNest if you want to be able to choose between different investment portfolios based on risk tolerance and other factors. This makes it easy for beginner investors to get started without having to research individual stocks and companies.

What is UNest?

UNest is an investment account that’s designed to help build savings for your child’s future. The company was founded in 2018 by Ksenia Yudina and is based in California. Its mission is to reimagine how families save and invest for their kids and to make investing more accessible for families of all backgrounds and incomes.

UNest offers investment accounts, known as custodial brokerage accounts, that parents can use to save for their children’s future without the limits of other types of accounts. Its platform relies on AI to help provide personalized advice and optimized investment portfolios.

UNest’s mobile app is available on iOS and Android devices through the Apple App Store or Google Play and has a couple of different account types to choose from. The app has hundreds of thousands of downloads across the two platforms, with an average rating of 4.7 stars on Apple and 3.9 stars on Google.

UNest features and services

UNest is designed to help you save and invest for your child’s future. It does that primarily through a custodial brokerage account but comes with other helpful features.

Custodial brokerage account

UNest offers a custodial investment account that’s called a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) account. A UTMA account is one you manage for your child until they reach the age of majority, which is either 18 or 21 in most states.

At that point, your child’s account is turned over to them, and they can use the funds for whatever they want, whether it’s paying for college, buying a home, starting a business, traveling the world, or something else.

Custodial account vs. 529 plan

UTMA accounts are a good alternative to 529 plans, but with some major differences. While both accounts are used to invest for your children’s future, a 529 plan is specifically designed for college savings, while an UTMA account can be used for anything.

529 plans have more tax advantages, including tax-free earnings and withdrawals, but you’ll pay taxes and penalties on withdrawals used for anything other than educational expenses. On the other hand, earnings from a UTMA account are taxable, but at your child’s tax rate instead of your own.

While a 529 plan is a great option when you know you want the money you’re saving to be used for your child’s education, an UTMA is a better option if you want to save more broadly for your child’s future.

Customizable portfolio options

UNest differs from a traditional brokerage like Fidelity or Charles Schwab in that you can’t just choose any investment you want. Instead, you choose from nine different pre-built portfolio options. UNest offers the following portfolios:

• Conservative: This portfolio consists of fixed-income and bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and is designed for those with the lowest risk tolerance. Unlike the age-based portfolios, this one doesn’t adjust its holdings based on your child’s age.
• Age-based: UNest has three age-based portfolios: conservative, moderate, and aggressive. Each one includes a mix of fixed-income and equity investments and gets more conservative as your child gets older.
• Socially responsible: UNest has three socially responsible age-based portfolios. They mimic the other age-based funds but invest in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investments.
• Aggressive: This portfolio consists entirely of equity ETFs and is designed for those with the highest risk tolerance. Unlike the age-based portfolios, this one doesn’t adjust its holdings based on your child’s age.

UNest rewards

UNest offers ways to add cash to your UNest account when you purchase products and services from more than 100 brands, including Disney+ and Nike. Rewards are based on either a percentage of your purchase or a flat dollar amount.

You can check available offers in the UNest app. It typically takes 30 to 40 business days for rewards to post to your account. This could be an easy way to boost your account balance if you’re already planning to make a purchase with a UNest partner that has an available offer.

Friends and family gifting

Friends and family members can contribute to your child’s custodial account through the UNest gifting platform. Here’s how it works:

1. A friend or family member picks an occasion
2. They choose how much money to gift and add a message
3. They select a payment method and complete the transaction
4. They share the gift code with you to redeem it in the UNest app

This gifting platform isn’t necessarily any better than a friend or family member giving you cash. But at least it basically gives them a guarantee that the money will be going toward your child’s custodial account.

Family protection

UNest offers two additional services to help protect your family’s finances: life insurance and identity protection.

UNest’s life insurance policies are offered by Wysh Life Insurance, a UNest partner. Wysh will recommend a coverage amount based on your family’s needs, and you can adjust your coverage amount at any time.

UNest also offers identity protection through its partner Aura. It provides protection for up to five adults and unlimited children. It comes with fraud alerts, VPN, a password manager, antivirus software, and more. Finally, it has up to $1 million of coverage to replace identity theft losses.

UNest plans and pricing

UNest has two different plans to choose from, depending on how many custodial accounts you want to open. Here’s how those plans break down:

In addition to their similarities, these two account types have a few things in common. Features available for all UNest accounts include:

• Online account setup and management
• Bank-level encryption
• Automated investing
• UNest rewards
• Friends and family gifting
• Access to UNest Support

FAQs

UNest alternatives

If you want to open a custodial account for your child but aren’t sure if UNest is right for you, there are plenty of other options to consider. Many popular brokerages offer custodial accounts alongside other investment accounts. Here are a few of our favorites.

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab offers 529 plans and custodial accounts if you specifically want to put money away for a child. A 529 account could make more sense than UNest because it comes with tax advantages — which could include state tax deductions or credits — for funds you plan to put toward school-related expenses.

A Schwab custodial account provides more flexible and customizable investment options than a UNest account. This includes being able to buy and sell individual stocks and choose which mutual funds or ETFs to put money into. And there aren’t any subscription or maintenance fees to worry about.

Read our Charles Schwab review.

Fidelity

Like Charles Schwab, Fidelity is a major brokerage firm that offers custodial accounts with no management fees that allow you to choose your own investments. They offer a broader range of investment choices than UNest, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs.

There are a few benefits that make Fidelity stand out for parents. First, in addition to choosing your own investments, you can opt for a robo-advisor, which builds you a customized portfolio and charges no advisory fees for balances under $25,000.

Fidelity also offers a teen brokerage account for kids 13 through 17. It puts your kids in the driver’s seat more than a traditional custodial account, so it could be a good option as your child gets older. However, it doesn’t give the parent as much control as an UTMA account would.

Read our Fidelity review.

Acorns

Acorns offers a custodial account, known as Acorns Early, that’s just as easy to open and manage as UNest’s. Like UNest, Acorns invests custodial account funds into its managed portfolios. All custodial accounts use the “Aggressive Portfolio,” which may not be ideal for particularly risk-averse families. However, Acorns has other similar features, including bonuses when you spend at certain retailers and the ability for friends and family to gift funds.

As an added bonus, Acorns offers a 1% match on your contributions when you invest in your child’s Acorns Early account.

Acorns’ pricing works a bit differently from UNest because it offers more than just custodial accounts. To access Acorns Early, you’ll need the most expensive plan, which is $12 per month. However, that plan comes with lots of other features, including:

• Taxable brokerage account
• Spare change round-ups
• Acorns Later retirement account
• Acorns checking account
• Kids bank account

Read our Acorns review.

Bottom line

UNest is a great option if you want a flexible investment account for your kids. Funds in custodial accounts can typically be used for anything, which differs from other options, such as 529 accounts, where the funds are meant to be used for school-related expenses.

It’s easy to get started with UNest because you can use a mobile app to open and manage your account. But you might feel limited with its potentially inflexible investment options compared with a custodial account from major brokerage firms. You also have to pay a subscription fee to use UNest, which isn’t the case for all custodial accounts.

To learn more about different investment options, check out our list of the best investment apps.

Learn More

4.6

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score products and companies on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence our ratings.

Automatic Round-Ups can help you save faster

Up to 3% IRA match with Acorns Gold plan

Earn bonus investments by shopping with specific retailers

High annual percentage yields (APYs) with checking and savings accounts

Paid Non-Client Promotion

FinanceBuzz doesn’t invest its money with this provider, but they are our referral partner. We get paid by them only if you click to them from our website and take a qualifying action (for example, opening an account.)