Loved Investing stands out as a distinctive investment platform that brings families together around investing and financial education.
This innovative brokerage app allows you to manage your own investments while establishing custodial accounts for your children. Kids gain visibility into their growing accounts and can make investment requests, while family members enjoy the ability to gift shares to each other. The platform operates completely commission-free with no subscription fees or trade charges.
Is Loved the right fit for your family’s investing needs? This comprehensive Loved Investing review explores everything you should know about this family-focused investment app.
Loved Investing Pricing Structure
The Loved Investing platform operates entirely free of charge, with no subscription fees, membership costs, or trade commissions when you execute investments.
Investment Options Available Through Loved
Through Loved Investing, you gain access to thousands of US companies and ETFs. The platform supports fractional share investing with a minimum investment of just $1.
Additionally, the platform offers five pre-built portfolios ranging from conservative (100% bonds) to aggressive (100% stocks) for goal-based investing. Unfortunately, these portfolios lack detailed prospectuses, leaving investors unclear about their specific underlying assets.
Key Features of Loved Investing
Interactive Custodial Accounts
Loved’s standout feature involves investing for your child’s future through highly interactive custodial accounts. You can establish accounts not only for your own children but for any child in your life. The setup requires only basic information: name, birth date, and social security number. This flexibility makes Loved perfect for creating investment accounts for nieces, nephews, or friends’ children.
These accounts surpass traditional minor investment accounts in engagement. While you maintain complete control over transfers and trades, you can provide children with login credentials to monitor their portfolio growth. Kids can also submit investment requests within their accounts for your review and approval.
This approach enables children to engage with investing from a young age, witnessing compound growth firsthand while selecting investments under parental guidance.
Structured Goal-Based Investing
The platform facilitates investment goal creation for major milestones like home purchases or retirement. When establishing goals, you can select from five pre-built portfolios or construct custom portfolios using individual stocks and ETFs. By inputting your target amount and timeline, Loved calculates recommended monthly contributions.
However, the goal system has notable limitations. You’re restricted to just two goal types – home buying and retirement – with no custom goal options or ability to create multiple goal-focused portfolios. Furthermore, goals mandate immediate funding or recurring transfer setup, preventing you from creating empty goal portfolios for future funding.
Family and Friend Investment Network
Loved’s collaborative approach sets it apart from traditional solo investing platforms. While each family member maintains individual accounts, you can connect with relatives and friends within the app. These connections provide visibility into account balances, holdings, daily performance, and investment goals. The platform includes integrated chat functionality for investment-related discussions.
Though this transparency may not suit everyone’s preferences, it excels for educating children about market dynamics. Kids can observe various portfolio performances across different market conditions while engaging in educational conversations through the chat feature.
Stock Gift Exchange
Among Loved’s most compelling features is the ability to transfer stocks and ETFs between network members. This functionality enables stock gifting to family and friends, including children. While you can schedule recurring birthday stock gifts, the platform doesn’t support recurring gifts for other occasions.
User Experience and Interface
Loved operates exclusively through mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms. The interface proves generally intuitive, though some technical issues persist. Portfolio swiping occasionally displays mismatched text and portfolio information. A helpful feature allows family connection through your phone’s contact list, streamlining network setup.
Loved’s Competitive Position
Loved occupies a unique niche in family-focused investing. While numerous brokerage apps offer custodial accounts, Loved differentiates itself through interactive child engagement. This approach makes investing concepts like compound interest more tangible for young users.
The family connection system also breaks new ground by promoting investment transparency and enabling easy communication. Children can naturally ask questions through the chat feature, while stock gifting creates novel opportunities for early financial education.
As a relatively new platform, Loved continues refining its offerings. The goal-setting tools need enhancement, and the pre-built portfolios require better documentation. Greater flexibility in recurring investments and stock gifts would also improve the user experience. Despite these areas for improvement, Loved delivers innovative family-centered features unavailable elsewhere.
Ideal Users for Loved Investing
Loved excels for families prioritizing children’s financial education. While the platform provides commission-free adult accounts, it lacks sophisticated investment tools that serious adult investors typically require. Adults seeking comprehensive investing platforms might prefer alternatives like Acorns, Personal Capital, or Worthy Bonds.
The platform shines when you want modest personal portfolios alongside custodial accounts for children, all connected through the app’s social features. This setup allows kids to observe investment growth, learn from your investment decisions, and engage in ongoing financial discussions.
Non-parents will find Loved valuable for supporting nieces, nephews, or friends’ children through custodial accounts or stock gifts, providing early-life financial advantages.
Advantages
- Custodial accounts available for any child, including extended family
- Interactive child access with investment request capabilities
- Complete commission-free investing without account fees
- Family and friend portfolio visibility with goal sharing
- Stock gifting functionality
Drawbacks
- Insufficient documentation for pre-built portfolios
- Limited flexibility in goal-oriented investing features
- Minimal investment tools and analysis capabilities for adults
