Marsai Martin Explains Why She Hasn’t Touched Her Coogan Account, A Protected Savings For Child Performers

Marsai Martin has no intention of touching her Coogan Account anytime soon.

According to the City National Bank, a Coogan Account is a protected savings account created by a legal parent or guardian for child performers. Martin’s parents, Joshua and Carol, were adamant about creating an account for the actress, Martin told AFROTECH™.

Martin’s Career Growth

Martin, now 21, had an early start in the industry. She secured her first national commercial appearance at age 5, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. She was 10 when she landed her breakout role in ABC’s “Black-ish,” produced by Kenya Barris, notes Forbes.

Additionally, Martin made history as the youngest executive producer at 14 with the film “Little,” landing herself in the Guinness Book of World Records. She pitched the film at age 9 to Universal Pictures, and it made $48 million at the box office, according to Variety. She created it through her production company, Genius Productions, which she co-founded with her parents, per CBS News.

Since the start of her journey, Martin has trusted her family. She shared with AFROTECH™ that navigating business decisions in the entertainment space was easier for her thanks to the guidance of her mother, who came from the corporate world; her grandfather, who was a concert promoter; and her father, who was a car salesman.

“When I was younger, honestly, I was just me doing what I love. I was not really paying attention to how that was because I knew that they were navigating it,” Martin, a Plano, TX native, told AFROTECH™.

“When I got older, like, 17, 18, that’s when it was like, ‘Alright, here’s all the things that we’ve been working up towards, and this is what it is now.’ I think it’s been a whirlwind of conversations and understanding and building a team that also understands our goals and where we’re trying to go,” Martin continued.

Martin also told AFROTECH™ that her Coogan account is still intact but that she has no intention of touching it. She views herself as an “overall entertainer” and businesswoman who wants to explore more industries.

“It’s important to be able to know and understand saving and finances overall. I’m not planning on touching it,” she explained.

“But you just never know. I feel like with the things that I wanna do and the different industries I wanna tap into, there’s so many different business lanes and ventures I can jump into. With the family that I have, to just push through and achieve anything that comes to mind is very important. So we’ll see,” she added.

Expanding Her Reach

Martin has multiple income streams through her work as an actress, producer and creator of the Sai Summer Cookout — an annual event curated by Martin that aims to unite community in a meaningful way, according to the event’s website. Each year the Cookout travels to a new city. This year, Texas Southern University hosted the event on Aug. 31.

Martin is also a real estate investor, inspired by her mother’s property investments, she told AFROTECH™. Martin says she started investing in real estate at 18 and has a few places, including in Inglewood, CA, and Atlanta, GA. She has properties of her own and with family.

“As soon as I learned that my mom was doing it and I saw that whole process, I was like, ‘Pick me…What does that look like?’ Both of my parents have always been who inspired me to push through, take risks, and just go for it. If we want it, just go for it. So that was one of the things that I definitely took from them in the businesses that they were also building for themselves. And being into those meetings and having those conversations were very, very important to me. So, yes, I also invest. I am a newcomer in a sense, but, that’s also one of the things that I am very passionate about and excited to learn more about,” Martin shared.