The news: Charles Schwab has launched a brokerage account for teens ages 13 to 17. The joint account—which is co-owned by a parent or guardian—lets teens trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and fixed income. It does not include options, futures, foreign exchange, or leveraged ETFs. The accounts are not eligible for margin.

Zoom out: Schwab is playing catch-up on supervised investing teens. Several fintechs and a traditional brokerage firm have current or planned investing tools for teens:

• Fidelity is Schwab’s closest competitor, having offered a brokerage account for teens ages 13 to 17, paired with parental supervision, since 2021.
• Step lets sponsored teens ages 13+ buy and sell stocks and ETFs inside its family finance app. MrBeast Industries recently announced that it would acquire the app.
• Kids banking app Greenlight offers family investing tools that let kids and teens invest with parental supervision.
• Last fall, Block teased investing products for children ages 6 to 12, alongside savings tools for parents of even younger children. It introduced a banking product for teens in 2021.

Implications for brokerage firms: Allowing parents to open joint brokerage accounts with teens opens up learning experiences and ultimately makes teens more likely to stay at the firm once they reach the age of majority. Brokerage firms’ historical approach to kids and teens investing has been to offer UTMA accounts, which did not explicitly involve child or teen beneficiaries.

Starting teens with lower-risk investments, as Schwab and Fidelity do, is a sound approach. But younger investors are already showing interest in high-risk alternatives, according to our September 2025 report Winning the Great Wealth Transfer in Wealth Management. To retain these customers into adulthood, brokerages will need to pair early access to a broader range of assets with education that builds understanding and risk awareness.