Comment by mothballed

Passing KYC for a brokerage is also a challenge nowadays, especially if your parents have the paperwork.

When I was a kid I walked into a bank, opened an account with no ID and no parent permission, and that was that (I encouraged a friend to do it as well, their overbearing dad raged at the bank after he found out but even then it wasn't closed). Can't imagine that's even possible anymore.

Of course it wasn't that long ago there were bearer shares. You could just hand a kid a physical piece of paper, and that was that, they owned part of the company. Bearer shares were another thing eliminated after the FATF went on their sadistic attack on privacy and self custody of many forms of financial instruments, eliminating one of the easiest ways for kids to handle investments directly in their hands.