How to Track Investment Accounts for Multiple Kids

Why track accounts separately for each child?

Once you're saving for more than one child, keeping everything organized gets harder.

You might have a 529 for each child, custodial investment accounts, and savings accounts at different institutions.

A household finance app may combine those accounts into your overall net worth. That can be useful for your finances, but it doesn't answer a basic question: what does each child have?

Tracking accounts by child gives you that view.

Why are your kids' balances different?

Two children can have different balances even if you've contributed the same amount each month.

Age is one reason.

Suppose you started investing $100 per month when each child was born. Your 12-year-old has received contributions for twice as long as your 6-year-old. The older child's money has also had more time to compound.

Other differences can matter too. One child may have received gifts from grandparents, or their accounts may hold different investments.

So a higher balance doesn't tell you how much you've contributed to each child.

Should you compare balances or contributions?

They answer different questions.

Balance tells you what the account is worth today. Contributions tell you how much money has been added.

If you want to understand why two balances are different, look at both.

You can also compare investment growth separately. This gives you more context than putting two account balances next to each other.

Why assign every account to a child?

It can help you catch basic mistakes.

When you review accounts by child, you may notice:

• An account you forgot about
• A recurring contribution that stopped
• An account assigned to the wrong child
• A 529 opened by a grandparent that you weren't tracking

These can be harder to notice when every account appears in one household total. It's especially useful if your children have accounts at several financial institutions.

Should siblings see each other's balances?

You can decide how much financial information you want to share between your children.

For younger kids, separate views can keep the conversation focused on their own money. Instead of comparing themselves with a sibling, they can learn what their accounts are for and how they've changed.

You can still keep the full family view for yourself.

What if your kids are different ages?

Your children may not have the same types of accounts.

A teenager with earned income may be eligible for a custodial Roth IRA. A younger child may have a 529 and a custodial brokerage account instead.

Their goals can also be different. One child might be approaching college while another has more than a decade before graduation.

Tracking each child separately lets you see those differences without trying to fit every account into the same structure.

If you're deciding which account types make sense for each child, a financial advisor or tax professional can help you compare the options.

Where MemoryBank fits

MemoryBank organizes the accounts you've already opened around each child. You assign each connected account to a child. You can see all your kids from the parent dashboard, while each child gets their own view. You can see how the family view works.

That means your child's dashboard can include accounts from different institutions without combining them with a sibling's accounts.

MemoryBank is not a brokerage. It cannot receive, keep or transfer securities. You still use your brokerage, bank, or 529 provider to manage the money.

What should you do next?

Make a list of every account you've opened for your kids.

Then add the child's name next to each account and check:

• Current balance
• Total contributions, if available
• Whether recurring contributions are still working
• Which child owns or benefits from the account

Once everything is organized by child, you'll have a much clearer picture of what you've saved and where it is.

Frequently asked questions

Can one app show accounts for several kids at different brokerages?

Yes. That's the main reason families look for one, since no single brokerage can see accounts held anywhere else. Coverage varies by institution, and any account that can't be linked automatically can usually be entered by hand and updated when statements arrive.

Should I contribute the same amount to each child?

That's a family decision rather than a rule. What's worth knowing is that equal monthly contributions don't produce equal balances, because the older child's money has been invested longer. If you want the balances to end up closer together, the contributions usually have to be unequal. A financial advisor can help you think through the trade-offs.

How do I make it fair between siblings?

Fairness is easier to explain in terms of contributions than balances. Two children can have the same $100 a month going in and still see very different totals, purely because one started earlier. Showing both numbers gives a child something to understand rather than something to resent.

Do all my kids' accounts need to be at the same institution?

No. Accounts can sit at different brokerages, banks and 529 providers, and many families end up that way after a grandparent opens something or a state plan is chosen for its tax treatment. Keeping them in one view is a separate problem from keeping them in one place.

Can another parent see the accounts too?

Yes. MemoryBank lets the account owner invite a co-parent, who then has full access to the same family view. It's built for two parents sharing one set of kids rather than for handing out limited or view-only access to extended family.