Custodial accounts

A custodial account enables an adult to open an account on behalf of a minor, who otherwise does not have the capacity to enter into a legal contract to open a brokerage account. Alpaca currently supports two custodial account types: Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) and Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA). As part of the offering, Alpaca will custody the account, generate monthly custodial account statements, and handle all annual tax reporting. Please be aware that all tax reporting will be based on the minor's information. Furthermore, a minor cannot use or trade in a custodial account as they are only the beneficiary. Custodial accounts do not support shorting, margin, or pattern day trading. Each of the account opening steps are the same as standard brokerage accounts that Alpaca offers, and any KYC checks will be run on the adult. This documentation will serve to highlight any notable differences between the account opening processes.

Custodial Account Object

Minor identity object

Creating a Custodial Account

POST /v1/accounts

The custodian, or adult associated with the account, will submit an account application with the required information and a signed custodian customer agreement. This will create a custodial account for the adult on behalf of the minor, whose information will be submitted in the minor_identity section.

If you utilize Alpaca for KYCaaS, we will perform the necessary checks and approve the account once we have determined the custodian information is legitimate. Please refer to the Events API for account status changes and any KYC updates that require you to take further action.

Note: All account statuses and their definitions can be found here.

Sample Request

{
  "account_type": "custodial",
  "contact": {
    "email_address": "[email protected]",
    "phone_number": "555-676-7788",
    "street_address": ["20 N San Mateo Dr"],
    "city": "San Mateo",
    "state": "CA",
    "postal_code": "94401",
    "country": "USA"
  },
  "identity": {
    "given_name": "John",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "date_of_birth": "1990-01-01",
    "tax_id": "676-55-4321",
    "tax_id_type": "USA_SSN",
    "country_of_citizenship": "USA",
    "country_of_birth": "USA",
    "country_of_tax_residence": "USA",
    "funding_source": ["employment_income"],
    "annual_income_min": "30000",
    "annual_income_max": "50000",
    "liquid_net_worth_min": "100000",
    "liquid_net_worth_max": "150000",
    "total_net_worth_min": "10000",
    "total_net_worth_max": "10000",
    "liquidity_needs": "does_not_matter",
    "investment_experience_with_stocks": "over_5_years",
    "investment_experience_with_options": "over_5_years",
    "risk_tolerance": "conservative",
    "investment_objective": "market_speculation",
    "investment_time_horizon": "more_than_10_years",
    "marital_status": "MARRIED",
    "middle_name": "M",
    "number_of_dependents": 5
  },
  "disclosures": {
    "is_control_person": false,
    "is_affiliated_exchange_or_finra": false,
    "is_politically_exposed": false,
    "immediate_family_exposed": false
  },
  "agreements": [

         {
      "agreement": "customer_agreement",
      "signed_at": "2025-09-11T18:13:44Z",
      "ip_address": "185.13.21.99"

   }
  ],
  "documents": [
    {
      "document_type": "identity_verification",
      "document_sub_type": "passport",
      "content": "/9j/Cg==",
      "mime_type": "image/jpeg"
    }
  ],
  "trusted_contact": {
    "given_name": "Jane",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email_address": "[email protected]"
  },
  "minor_identity": {
    "given_name": "Jimmy",
    "family_name": "Doe",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "date_of_birth": "2015-01-01",
    "tax_id": "676-54-4321",
    "tax_id_type": "USA_SSN",
    "country_of_citizenship": "USA",
    "country_of_birth": "USA",
    "country_of_tax_residence": "USA",
    "state": "CA"
  }
}

A copy of the custodian customer agreement and the custodial account disclosure are available upon request - please reach out to Alpaca for more information.

Note: Revisions follow the RR.MM.YYYY format (RR denotes the revision number); the request payload must include the latest customer_agreement (rev ≥ 18) with the revision explicitly specified.

Response model

{
  "account": {
    "id": "0d18ae51-3c94-4511-b209-101e1666416b",
    "account_number": "9034005019",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "currency": "USD",
    "last_equity": "1500.65",
    "created_at": "2019-09-30T23:55:31.185998Z"
  }
}

Error Codes

Updating an Account

PATCH /v1/accounts/{account_id}

This operation updates custodial account information. In addition to what is listed for traditional brokerage accounts, the minor identity information is modifiable.

Response Parameters

Minor Identity parameters

Response

If all parameters are valid and updates have been made, it returns with status code 200. The response is the account model.

Error Codes

Appendix

**Sample Monthly Statement: **