Wealthfront ProsInvest Your First $5,000 Free: If you're on the fence about Robo-Advisors, Wealthfront is a great place to test the waters with a small amount of money because it's free. This is also really great for beginner investors and students who simply don't have a lot to invest yet.
To liquidate your account, log in and click the “Transfer Funds” button at the top of the dashboard, select “Take money out” and then the “Withdraw the entire account balance” option. You will receive your funds via bank transfer (ACH). Please note that liquidating your account may incur taxes.
The refreshingly low fees make Wealthfront a great spot for simple needs, like growing savings or planning for retirement. But the perks multiply once you hit higher investing levels; Wealthfront's tax reduction strategies for large accounts is impressive.
The Wealthfront Cash Account earns 0.35% APY, over 5x the national average per FDIC.gov. And it comes with checking features you need like setting up direct deposit, the ability to pay your bills, and a debit card to access your money quickly.
Set up direct deposits to get paid two days early.You can have your paycheck deposited directly into your Wealthfront Cash Account and receive your money up to two days early. Not only is this convenient, but it gives you more time to earn interest.
Can I open multiple Individual Cash Accounts? Starting May 2020, you can only open one Individual Cash Account. This limit only applies to Individual Cash Accounts.
Our account minimum is $500, which entitles you to a periodically rebalanced, diversified portfolio of low cost index funds enhanced with our daily tax-loss harvesting service (for taxable accounts).
Are you able to open up a multiple accounts at Wealthfront, like one for personal investment, one for roth IRA, and one for SEP IRA? Sure you can.
"In the unlikely event Wealthfront were to cease doing business, your account would be held by our brokerage partner until you transferred your account to a new broker or chose to liquidate your account to receive a check. During this period your account would not be managed by our brokerage partner."
Compare to Other Advisors
| Account Minimum $500 | Account Minimum $0 | Account Minimum $0 |
| Promotion $5,000 amount of assets managed for free | Promotion Up to 1 year of free management with a qualifying deposit | Promotion Free career counseling plus loan discounts with qualifying deposit |
1. We protect your cash with FDIC insurance through our partner banks. Your cash is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Wealthfront uses multiple partner banks to ensure FDIC coverage of up to $1 million for your cash deposits.
Wealthfront and Vanguard are both competitive in the industry when it comes to fees, but here again, Wealthfront has the edge. Wealthfront's fee structure is simple: 0.25% of your portfolio, assessed monthly. There are no fees charged for cash balances.
Interest accrues daily and is credited to your account monthly. This account doesn't work like a traditional savings account, though. Instead, Wealthfront takes the money you deposit and sweeps it to one of many unaffiliated participating banks. These banks hold your money and pay Wealthfront interest.
Cash Account is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“Wealthfront Brokerage”), a member of FINRA/SIPC. FDIC insurance coverage is limited to $250,000 per qualified customer account per banking institution. Wealthfront uses more than one program bank to ensure FDIC coverage of up to $1 million for your cash deposits.
We do not allow our clients to use their Wealthfront-related brokerage account to hold securities other than the ones we choose and manage. If you have a taxable account with Stock-level Tax-Loss Harvesting or Smart Beta enabled we'll purchase individual securities to replicate S&P 500 index.
You open an IRA with a financial institution (such as Wealthfront or another robo advisor, stock brokerage, bank, etc., that offers these types of accounts). You can contribute to a Roth IRA even if you're over age 70 1/2 as long as you're still earning income.
In general, Betterment is the best option for investors just starting out in that you don't need much to get started and you can get human support at a still-low fee of 0.40%. Wealthfront, by contrast, seems like the better choice for investors who don't feel the need for human hand-holding.
This choice does nothing to keep your allocations in the right balance. But, with the addition of software, Wealthfront can smartly take a dividend payment you receive from a stock ETF that has risen substantially and invest it in a bond ETF that appears to be priced too low, for example.
Working with a robo-advisor provides a low-cost solution to investors who are just getting started. Lower costs mean more money to invest. The fees from robos can be less than human advisors, although this difference can be less than you think. Fees are also low because robos typically invest in index funds and ETFs.
“Plaid Direct” lets apps like Venmo, Wealthfront, Acorns or Betterment plug in directly to each other and if they want to, bypass the banks. It's especially useful for so-called challenger banks like Chime.
But, as with human advisors, the robo returns are wide-ranging. During the first six months of the year, the best returns came from the taxable account at Wealthsimple.
| Robo-Advisor | Wealthsimple |
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| Equity | -7.70% |
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| Fixed Income | 13.00% |
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| Overall Return | 0.40% |
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