I honestly haven't heard much about Wealthfront in 2019 or in 2020. They seem to have really slowed down their marketing, their growth, their PR, and their advertising. Wealthfront's quietness makes me wonder whether they are growing as fast as they want. They cut their affiliate program in early 2019 as well.
All the same, here is an overview of the company:
Wealthfront is the pioneer in the robo-advisory (digital wealth management) movement. Since they launched in 2011, Wealthfront has raised close to $130 million in private funding and have over $11 billion in assets under management as of 1H2019. They raised $75 million in Series E funding lead by Tiger Global in January 2018.
Wealthfront’s whole purpose is to provide low-cost investment advice and financial planning that was once only available to high net worth clients who were willing to pay 1% – 3% a year in annual fees. You can get started with Wealthfront with only $500 and the highest fee is only 0.25%.
The first $5,000 managed by Wealthfront is free with my special signup link.
Company Update 2019
Total Equity Funding: $205 million in 6 rounds from 38 investors
Headquarters: 900 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063
Description: Wealthfront is the only robo advisor who offers both automated investment management and financial planning, with over $5.5 billion in assets under management.
Founders:Â Dan Carroll, Andy Rachleff
Categories:Â Fintech, Financial Services, Wealth Management
Founded:Â Launched in 2011.
Contact: support@wealthfront.com
Employees:Â ~150
Sign up link with 5K managed for free:Â Wealthfront
Company Details
Wealthfront is an automated investment service firm that builds and manages personalized, globally-diversified investment portfolios. It provides data-driven, actionable recommendations to improve net-of-fee, after-tax, risk-adjusted returns.
With an annual advisory fee of 0.25%, users can monitor their real-time investment performance, review recent transactions, receive financial advice, and manage their deposits.
Comprehensive Wealthfront review here.
Wealthfront Update For 2019
Wealthfront continues to remain one of the leading digital wealth advisors today. They've grown their assets under management to over $11 billion, and continue to grow to help people easily invest their money in a risk-appropriate manner for a low cost.
The key for Wealthfront is to accelerate its assets under management growth by partnering up with larger financial institutions. They are very focused on the Business 2 Consumer route, which is great for everyday people like you and me. However, to really grow assets, they've got to tie up with institutions.
New Product Launch
Wealthfront launched Path, a new free automated financial planning experience for all clients to better plan for their financial future.
The product is similar to Personal Capital's award winning free financial tools, which I've been using every day since 2012.
Many clients don’t know what their financial goals should be, and even more don’t realize that the goals they’ve set with their current spending and saving patterns are actually unattainable.
Wealthfront built something more personal, connected and instant than any financial advisor could ever be. Path takes advantage of their team of PhDs to analyze your past behavior from connecting to your financial accounts, showing you what’s possible for your future.
As your financial advisor, it’s Wealthfront's job to sometimes be the bad guy and tell you that you can’t necessarily afford the lifestyle you want. So Wealthfront designed Path to first assess your basic financial health, before we let you imagine what’s possible.
They start with your needs before they get to your wants and wishes for one simple reason: If the foundation is shaky, then the rest is irrelevant.
Path let's you:
- Financially plan for your future
- Explore “what if” scenarios
- Highlight how much you need to save to reach your goal by a certain date
- Highlight how much you can spend to still be on track
- Model your investment forecasts
Wealthfront Is Cheap And Easy To Use
If you're looking for a low cost way to invest your money using the same sophisticated algorithms based on Modern Portfolio Theory used by the expensive money managers like Raymond James, BoA Merrill, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, you should sign up with Wealthfront. It's free and they'll produce a model portfolio for you to review.
Below is an example of a model portfolio they would create using low cost index funds for a person with a high risk tolerance. Every portfolio is build with Vanguard ETFs because they are best in class and have the lowest fees. All you've got to do is fill out a six question questionnaire and you'll get your own model portfolio to review.
In 2012, Sam was able to retire at the age of 34 largely due to his investments that now generate roughly $200,000 a year in passive income (50% from real estate). He spends time playing tennis, hanging out with family, consulting for leading fintech companies and writing online to help others achieve financial freedom.
About Financial Samurai: Based in San Francisco, FinancialSamurai.com was started in 2009 and is one of the most trusted personal finance sites today with over 1.5 million pageviews a month. Financial Samurai has been featured in top publications such as the LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.Â