My daughter has a Coverdell ESA with $640 in it. The account is at Sharebuilder and the positions are
AGG ISHARES BARCLAYS AGG BOND FUND $18.03
EFA ISHARES TR INDEX MSCI EAFE IDX $81.36
SPY S&P 500 INDEX SPDR $539.11

My question is, do any of those investments, all ETFs AFAIK, have an absolute (non percentage based) fee? Or a fee for low balances? (I believe some Vanguard funds, for instance, have fees below a certain balance.)

It would cost us $9.95 to sell each of the smaller positions. But if it's that or the money just getting eaten away in a year or two by fees, well, I guess paying 50% in fees is better than nothing.

With ETFs, you can buy just one share if you like, there's no minimum investment unless for some reason the brokerage has imposed one. You should check at http://www.savingforcollege.com/coverde ... providers/. But the ETFs by themselves do not carry a fixed fee.

I looked up these ETFs (you can do a simple Google search to find them) and it appears that their only expenses are the management expense ratio, which is a percentage, not a flat fee. It just acts as a small drag on growth.

The place where you usually find minimum balance fees is mutual funds, not ETFs.

Yes, I did search for them. I was just looking for reassurance I guess. I have already made mistakes with the account (for instance, the AGG position already has a 40% loss because ShareBuilder didn't work like I thought it would, and invested $8 minus a $4 investment fee every Tuesday for three weeks before I noticed.)

Okay, but be sure to check the link I provided above, because it shows any fees imposed by the broker.

Sharebuilder is not on that list, but their page regarding ESA's claims they don't charge fees:
http://www.sharebuilder.com/sharebuilde ... e=CHELP009