Every parent wants to invest in their child’s future. For many parents, that means saving for college. Historically, this has been challenging and involved a lot of paperwork that takes hours to complete. Ksenia Yudina’s fintech startup UNest offers an alternative investment vehicle that’s easier and more flexible than a standard 529 college savings plan.
- Startup Savants is a business podcast that tells the stories behind up-and-coming startups.
- Ksenia Yudina joins Startup Savants to talk about his fintech startup UNest.
- UNest is a fintech app that makes it easier than ever before for parents to save and invest for their kids’ future.
A Better Way to Save for Children’s Future
During his interview with Startup Savants, Ksenia said his primary motivation for starting UNest was to make it easier for parents who wanted to save for their children’s higher education and other needs. When it comes to saving for college, parents are often hindered by an unnecessarily complicated process involving 529 savings plans.
A 529 plan is a tax-free investment account that’s meant to help save for higher education costs. However, it involves a lot of paperwork, and you can’t use the funds for anything except education expenses without taking a 10% penalty. “That’s a big limitation for a lot of people because they feel like it’s too restrictive,” Ksenia said.
Before starting UNest, he worked at Capital Group, the No. 1 provider of 529s and other custodial accounts. “I was helping a lot of clients … start saving and investing for their children, but the process was super complex and painful for us as financial advisors and for the clients,” she said.
He realized that although many of his clients and friends already used financial apps, none of them was specifically designed to help parents begin saving for their children’s future. Some of them began “asking for a simple solution to start saving for their kids because they were trying to make a difference and … avoid the student debt that they were exposed to,” she said. “I realized that I need to find a better way.”
An Easier 529 Alternative
The UNest app addresses these issues by eschewing 529 plans in favor of a type of custodial account called a UTMA. Like a 529, a UTMA is a federally sponsored, tax-advantaged investment account. However, it’s more flexible because you can spend the funds on anything that benefits a child, not just on education expenses.
A UTMA account is also easier to work with than a 529, Ksenia said during his interview. “We have a great partner on the back end who’s helping us with all taxes, communication, all of that stuff, but it’s a much, much easier platform to manage,” she said.
Clients can use the UNest app to receive gifts from family and friends who want to contribute to a child’s account, learn tips for building their nest egg, and earn rewards from top brands like DoorDash and Disney+. The app provides “bank-level security and encryption” to protect financial information.
Startup Savants Podcast
The Startup Savants podcast is a business podcast created by The Really Useful Information Company (TRUiC). Listeners can hear the stories behind startups, as told by their founders, that are in the midst of growing their companies.
Ethan, an entrepreneur, and Annaka, a branding expert, host the Startup Savants podcast. They bring disparate skills and life experiences to their interviews, providing listeners with important business insights and a holistic perspective on the startup ecosystem.
Hear from a variety of real startup founders from around the globe and with varying backgrounds, making their startup idea a reality. Learn from experts sharing their industry knowledge on venture capital, securing funding, and more on the Startup Savants podcast.
Final Thoughts
In his interview on Startup Savants, Ksenia Yudina discusses his journey in founding the fintech startup UNest. The UNest app provides a more flexible, less complicated alternative to complicated 529 plans to help parents save for their children’s future more easily and consistently.
You can find the Startup Savants podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
