Bulletins

Fidelity to offer investing accounts to teens

A laptop and a piggy bank
Image: Atomic Imagery via Getty Images

The company announced Tuesday that it will offer debit, investing and savings accounts to 13- to 17-year-olds whose parents have Fidelity accounts already.

Once their parents set up an account, teens will be able to buy and sell U.S. stocks and mutual funds with no account or commission fees. "There's been more interest, so we expect demand might be high," David Dintenfass, chief marketing officer for Fidelity, told The Wall Street Journal.

Fidelity previously ran a pilot program with 1,000 teen accounts and found that the majority traded large securities once or twice a month, Dintenfass said.

The accounts will come with guardrails: Teens will be prohibited from trading options or borrowing on margin, and their annual deposits will be capped at $30,000.

The move by Fidelity is part of a growing trend of banks and banking services directly targeting kids.

Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

fidelity
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Bulletins