Minor Account Journey in Glide
Last updated: September 23, 2026
Product terminology: Banks generally use “certificate of deposit” (CD); credit unions use “share certificate.” This guide retains exact product labels and core terms such as “share,” “Share ID,” and “membership level” where they identify specific fields or records.
This guide explains how a minor (youth) account is opened in Glide and the configuration options available to your institution so you can decide which parts of the flow to enable, disable, or adjust.
Most settings in this guide note where they apply: the self-service digital channel, the staff-facing dashboard, or both. Use that to understand exactly what changes when you turn an option on or off.
For deeper detail on two specific topics, see the companion articles:
What is a minor account?
A minor account is an account opened on behalf of someone under your institution's defined age limit (18 by default). Because a minor cannot legally open and manage an account on their own, every minor account involves two people.
Role | Who they are | What they do |
|---|---|---|
Joint owner | The parent or guardian | Completes full identity verification, manages the application and the account |
Minor | The child / youth | Is the account holder, but does not log in to onboarding themselves |
A few important consequences of this model:
The joint owner is fully identity-verified (via Plaid IDV), just like an adult applicant.
The minor goes through a lighter check — a watchlist screening plus an optional identity document upload, rather than full IDV.
The minor cannot log in to the onboarding experience. The joint owner manages everything on their behalf.
Both the joint owner and the minor are submitted together and move through review together.
Terminology note: Glide can refer to these accounts as "Minor" or "Youth" depending on your institution's preference. Your configured terminology is used consistently across the applicant experience.
The applicant journey, step by step
Below is the default end-to-end flow a joint owner sees when opening a minor account in the applicant portal. Several steps can be turned on/off or reordered for your institution (see the configuration section).
1. Account & product selection
The applicant selects the minor/youth account type, then chooses their savings product(s). Depending on your settings, checking and share certificates may also be offered here.
2. Joint owner information & verification
The applicant is told that information about the parent/guardian will be collected first. The joint owner then provides their email and completes identity verification. This creates the joint owner on the membership and opens the initial account(s).
3. Joint owner employment
The joint owner provides employment details.
4. Additional questions (optional)
If your institution uses custom application questions, the joint owner answers them here.
5. Minor information
The joint owner provides the minor's details — name, contact information, and optionally school name.
6. Minor address & residency
The minor's address is collected, along with residency/citizenship status if your institution collects it.
7. Minor legal information
The joint owner provides the minor's date of birth and SSN. This is where Glide:
Confirms the minor is within your allowed age range, and
Runs a watchlist screening on the minor.
This step also drives age-gated checking — based on the minor's age, Glide decides whether to offer a checking account next. (See Age-Gated Checking Accounts for Minor accounts.)
8. Minor identity document (optional)
The joint owner uploads an acceptable identifying document for the minor. Whether this is required, and which documents are accepted, is configurable. (See Minor Account Document Collection.)
9. Eligibility, funding & disclosures
The applicant confirms eligibility, makes an opening deposit if required, and reviews disclosures.
10. Review & submit
The joint owner reviews the full application and submits. At this point both the minor and the joint owner move into a pending state and await your team's review.
Opening a minor account from the dashboard
Your team can also create minor applications directly from the dashboard, collecting the joint owner and minor information together in one form. This is useful for in-branch and over-the-phone account opening.
A few options behave differently or exist only on the dashboard — these are called out in the configuration tables below. Access to view, create, and manage minor applications is controlled by employee permissions.
Configuration options
This is the menu of choices your institution can make.
The Default column shows how each option ships before any customization. The Where it applies column tells you which surface each setting affects:
digital channel — shapes the self-service onboarding experience only.
Dashboard — affects staff-created applications only.
Both — a policy/eligibility rule enforced no matter how the application is created.
Availability & eligibility
Option | What it controls | Default | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
Maximum age | The age cutoff for a minor account (supports fractional ages, e.g. 22.5 for extended youth programs). The digital channel blocks an out-of-range DOB; the dashboard form validates the same limit. | 18 | Both |
Terminology | Whether the experience uses "Minor" or "Youth" language. Drives wording in the applicant experience and dashboard messaging. | "Minor" | Both |
Checking accounts (age-gated)
In the digital channel, checking is age-gated: the minimum checking age, "offer at any age," and trigger-product settings all apply based on the minor's date of birth. In the dashboard, checking simply appears if either the digital channel checking toggle or the dashboard checking toggle is on — the age-gating logic is a digital channel concept.
See: 📄 Age Gated Checking Accounts for Minor Accounts for more information.
Document collection
The digital channel and dashboard-side ID requirements are separate toggles, so you can require an identity document in one channel but not the other.
See: 📄 Minor Account Document Collection for more information.
Option | What it controls | Default | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
Require minor ID (digital channel) | Whether the joint owner must upload a minor identity document during onboarding. | Off (optional) | Digital |
Require minor ID (dashboard) | Whether staff must attach an ID when creating a minor application. | Off (optional) | Dashboard |
Accepted documents | The list of acceptable identifying documents shown to the applicant (e.g. license/ID, passport, birth certificate, Social Security card, student ID). | Standard list | Digital |
Skip identity step | Remove the minor identity document step entirely from onboarding. | Off (step shown) | Digital |
Information collected
Option | What it controls | Default | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
School name | Collect the minor's school. Driven by the same underlying setting on both surfaces, so turning it on affects the applicant information step and the dashboard form. | Off | Both |
Additional questions | Use custom application questions, and optionally show them only on minor applications. Rendered in the joint owner step in the digital channel and in the dashboard minor form. | Off | Both |
Skip minor email | Whether an email address is collected for the minor. | Off (email collected) | Digital |
Products & features
Option | What it controls | Default | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
Share certificates | Allow minors to open share certificates. Offered in both creation paths. | Off | Both |
Additional joint owners | Allow further joint owners on a minor account beyond the primary joint owner. | Off | Both |
Debit card | Offer a debit card for minors, with an optional separate application requirement. The card is offered during the digital channel. | Off | Both |
Skip account preferences | Skip the account-preferences step for minors. | Off (step shown) | Digital |
Key things to remember
A joint owner is always required and is fully identity-verified.
The minor never logs in — the joint owner drives the whole experience.
The minor gets a lighter check (watchlist + optional document) rather than full identity verification.
Checking accounts support age-gating in the digital channel, based on the minor's date of birth and your configured minimum age.
Both people are reviewed together — submitting moves the minor and joint owner into pending status until your staff approve or reject.