Wealthfront Automated Wealth Management and Investing Service
Video Review from Wealthfront Account User The video review I’m including below of Wealthfront is a detailed review from an actual Wealthfront user, a vlogger who calls himself Wander001, who has been been using Wealthfront for over 3 years. In his review, he explains his experience using Wealthfront’s cash accounts as well as their robo-investment services, including going into detail about how he set up his Wealthfront account and various aspects of his savings account and investing.
The world of personal finance and wealth management has seen a lot of changes over the past couple of decades. Technology and innovation have made it so that financial products services are much more accessible to a wider range of people.
Wealthfront is an investment service based in California that has grown out of the financial innovation made possible through technology and communication. Wealthfront was started in 2008 as an automated investment firm, and has since grown into a mostly self-service online portal that manages over $11 billion (as of 2019) in assets from people who use its service which has been referred to as “robo-investing”.
People looking to build wealth can use Wealthfront both to plan their wealth growth strategy and invest in various financial instruments offered by Wealthfront, ranging from high yield online cash savings accounts to automated long-term retirement-focused investments.
Wealthfront integrates a suite of investment and planning advice and strategy with financial products intended to allow people to invest for short- and long-term purposes without having to hire professional financial advisers, whose recommendations are often known to be made based on maximizing commissions rather than the best interests of the investor.
Wealthfront Reviews
Editorial Reviews
NerdWallets’ editorial team gives Wealthfront a perfect 5/5 rating based on 15 factors that include account fees, minimum investment requirements, level of customer support, investment options, and Wealthfront’s mobile application capabilities. The only cons identified by NerdWallet for Wealthfront are that there are no large-balance fee discounts and investors aren’t able to buy fractional shares.
DoughRoller’s Kevin Mercadante rates Wealthfront 9.6/10 based on similar factors to those used in NerdWallet’s editorial review. Cons listed by Mercadante for Wealthfront include limited access for small investors and a $500 minimum for investment accounts.
Customer Reviews
Consumers who left reviews about their experience with Wealthfront on the ConsumerAffairs.com website gave it an overall 3/5 star rating based on 14 total reviews when this article was written. Wealthfront does not participate in the ConsumerAffairs accreditation program.
Negative reviews of Wealthfront from ConsumerAffairs listed issues that included poor investment performance, customer service unresponsiveness, and pushing a leftist political agenda.
Opening a Wealthfront Account
To gain access to Wealthfront’s wealth planning services and investment products, you first need to set up an account with them, which is done online through a sign-up wizard that asks you several questions, including your birthdate and some questions about your fluid wealth assets (cash, stocks, etc.), risk tolerance, and preferences for investing. Once you’ve answered those questions, it creates a diversification plan that you can proceed forward with and create an investment portfolio or change according to or independent of recommendations.
If your intention is to simply open a savings account with Wealthfront, the process is simpler, leaving out the questions about risk tolerance and diversification.
As soon as you’ve set up your Wealthfront account, you’ll be asked to link an account you have with an existing bank to your Wealthfront account in order to fund the new account. Wealthfront allows you to go through their connection system and use your bank online login to link whichever accounts you have associated with that bank.
Wealthfront Management Fee Rates
Investment Accounts
Wealthfront charges a management fee of 0.25% for investment accounts. That percentage is in the low range for administration costs of mutual fund and other similar types of accounts, which can be as little as 0.25% or much as 1.5% of the value of the funds being managed.
High Yield Savings Accounts
For Wealthfront savings accounts, there are no administration fees, regardless of how much you have deposited in your account or what your average monthly balance is.
The combination of not having administration fees and receiving a significant return on your cash makes this kind of savings account very attractive as an alternative to traditional savings accounts at local brick and mortar banks, which typically have interest rates that are a fraction of what’s offered by online banks.
