Wealthfront Review [2023]: Automated Investing with an Advisor’s Touch

New and experienced investors alike face many of the same challenges when learning how to invest. And a common question is, how do you know where to invest your money?

You can pick individual stocks, but you should really know a lot about the company you’re investing in. You can stick with an index fund, but will that provide the most value? Or you can choose Wealthfront.¹

Wealthfront makes it possible to invest in a diversified portfolio of funds, customized according to your goals as an investor. With minimal fees and no guesswork into which investments you should choose, Wealthfront brings a lot to the table.

We’ll cover all these details in this Wealthfront review. So let’s take a look to see whether this investment platform might provide the experience you’re looking for.

What is Wealthfront?

Wealthfront is a robo-advisor that gives investors the ability to save for the future, even if they don’t have the time or money for hands-on investing. Wealthfront’s automated planning and investing build a custom investment portfolio of low-cost, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) designed to maximize returns while remaining balanced to reflect your level of risk. You can also further customize your portfolio or build your own from scratch. 

Wealthfront is the first service to combine exposure to cryptocurrency with automated investment features like dividend reinvestment and tax-loss harvesting. You can now add Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) to your Wealthfront portfolio. Wealthfront also offers access to innovative opportunities such as ARK ETFs, socially responsible investments, and cannabis ETFs.

With an advisory fee that’s just a fraction of the price of the industry average and a minimum investment requirement of $500, signing up with Wealthfront is an affordable way to begin investing.

In addition to its brokerage accounts, Wealthfront offers free financial planning tools, a handy mobile app, and a cash account so you can plan and save for what’s important. Wealthfront's cash account offers an APY of 5.00%.² It also offers ATM access and a debit card and has no account fees. Unlike traditional savings accounts, which are typically insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC, the Wealthfront cash account offers up to $8 million in FDIC insurance for solo accounts and up to $16 million for joint accounts.

If you have a Wealthfront portfolio of at least $25,000 in a taxable account, you can also borrow against a portfolio line of credit with no credit check. Interest rates on the line of credit range from 7.15% – 8.40% (as of Mar. 24, 2023). 

Wealthfront: The basics

Investment account minimum	$500
Management fees	0.25% annual advisory fee
Fund fees	0.06% to 0.13%
Account types available	Traditional IRA Roth IRA SEP IRA 401(k) Rollover 529 College Savings Individual Joint Trust
Asset classes	U.S. stocks Foreign stocks Emerging market stocks Dividend stocks Real estate Treasury-inflation protected securities Municipal bonds Corporate Bonds U.S. government bonds Emerging market bonds Natural resources
Features	Automatic rebalancing Tax-loss harvesting Free financial planning
	Visit Wealthfront

How does Wealthfront work?

With Wealthfront, you can invest in one of their recommended portfolios, adjust one of the recommended portfolios, start a new portfolio and build it yourself from scratch, or bring an existing portfolio over from another brokerage firm. You can even choose to invest in particular categories like socially responsible investing (SRI), technology ETFs, or healthcare ETFs.

If you use a Wealthfront portfolio, you should know that they use software that automatically builds a diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs across 11 global asset classes. Your investment portfolio is customized according to your level of risk and is monitored and automatically rebalanced to maximize long-term returns. These low-cost ETFs come with an expense ratio between 0.06% and 0.13%. An expense ratio is an annual fee charged by the company that runs the investment fund.

Instead of an investment strategy based on emotion — think fear, greed, and overconfidence — Wealthfront uses its proprietary suite of rules-based investment strategies, known as PassivePlus. 

In general, rules-based investment strategies seek to follow various predetermined investment rules. Through a software-driven approach, Wealthfront can automate these strategies to make them more affordable for users. Wealthfront charges an advisory fee of just 0.25%, compared to the industry average of 1.06%, according to the most recent report on The State of Retail Wealth Management by PriceMetrix.

The software also continuously monitors your investment portfolio to minimize your taxes and maximize tax efficiency. When an investment is underperforming and declines in value, selling at a loss can offset taxable capital gains or up to $3,000 (for a married couple filing jointly) of ordinary income, which can reduce your overall tax bill. 

The money received from the sale of the investment is then used to purchase a similar investment so your risk and potential returns of your portfolio are unchanged. This is known as tax-loss harvesting. 

Unlike traditional investment platforms that may offer tax-loss harvesting once a year, Wealthfront offers daily tax-loss harvesting. According to an analysis done by Wealthfront, taking advantage of their tax-loss harvesting feature could more than make up for the cost of your advisory fee. 

In fact, on average, Wealthfront was able to harvest losses ranging from 9.53% to 18.26% of their clients' portfolio values between January and October of 2020, depending on the client's chosen risk score. That means, for example, that clients with a risk score of 8 earned an average estimated after-tax benefit of 6 to 13 times the Wealthfront advisory fee.

Who can use Wealthfront?

Wealthfront is a robo-advisor, which makes it best for hands-off investors. Although a good option for beginner investors who don’t want in-depth control over their portfolio allocation, experienced investors can also benefit from Wealthfront’s automated investment management. 

The Wealthfront cash account, 529 college savings plan, retirement accounts, helpful planning tools, and advanced tax optimization strategies make it even more appealing. If you are looking for guidance from a financial advisor, a platform like Betterment may be a better fit.

Due to financial regulations, you must meet the following requirements to open an account with Wealthfront:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Have a U.S. Social Security number
• Have a permanent U.S. residential address
• Currently reside in the U.S.

How much can you earn with Wealthfront?

Wealthfront is an investment platform, and all investments involve some degree of risk. Although returns are impossible to predict, your investments will perform depending on how much risk you’re willing to tolerate. In general, the more risk you’re willing to take, the greater the potential return. Wealthfront shares its historical returns, but past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Maximizing your earnings with Wealthfront

Returns are almost impossible to predict, but Wealthfront helps to maximize your earnings in the following ways:

• A diversified portfolio: Wealthfront invests your money across many global asset classes so your money is diversified. This should help reduce the overall volatility of your portfolio. Although a diversified portfolio might underperform the top-performing asset class, not all your eggs are in one basket. If you invest in one asset class and that asset class underperforms, you have no other investments that can offset the loss. You can also choose to invest in innovative industries like cannabis, self-driving cars, and cryptocurrency.
• Minimal fees: High fees can eat into gains quickly. With Wealthfront, fees are minimal. You’re charged an annual advisory fee of just 0.25%, and Wealthfront only invests in low-cost ETFs.
• Minimizing your taxes: Wealthfront checks your portfolio and automatically makes adjustments to lower your tax obligation. By reducing the taxes you pay, you have more money to invest and grow. You can also further optimize your tax savings by taking advantage of the new U.S. Direct Indexing feature that allows you to invest in individual stocks.
  
• Automated transfers: Wealthfront's technology makes depositing money into your accounts automatic and simple. You can link an external checking account or your Wealthfront Cash Account and tell Wealthfront what the threshold is for the maximum balance you want to keep in that account. When your balance exceeds that amount, Wealthfront will automatically transfer the excess money into your chosen Wealthfront account. You can set it to transfer to a 529, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Cash Account, or Taxable Investment Account.

How to stay safe investing with Wealthfront

When you sign up for an account with Wealthfront, you choose what level of risk you’re willing to take and Wealthfront customizes your portfolio accordingly. All investments come with risk, but everyone’s situation is different, and everyone has a different investment timeline.

If you’re young and have time on your side, you can afford to take on more risk for greater potential returns. Although you might see higher losses, you typically have more time to rebound from them. If you’re planning to retire in the near future, however, it’s generally recommended to reduce the risk in your portfolio, as you’ll soon be relying on this money.

Common questions about Wealthfront

How to sign up for Wealthfront

It takes just a few minutes to sign up for an account with Wealthfront. Here’s how:

Step 1: From the Wealthfront homepage, click “Get Started” in the top right corner. 

Step 2: From there, choose whether you want to start with investing or start with banking, which involves setting up a cash account. If you click "Start with investing," Wealthfront asks what you're investing for. Your options are general investing, retirement, and education. 

Step 3: The next page will ask you  whether you want an individual, joint, or trust account. 

Step 4: From there, Wealthfront asks you for your personal information to help you set up a secure account.

Other investment apps to consider

Wealthfront provides clients with an automated, hands-off, and tax-efficient approach to investing. This, along with Wealthfront’s free planning tools and low advisory fees, makes it an appealing passive investment service. However, it might not be right for you. If that’s the case, you may want to consider another investment service.

As mentioned above, Stash is an investing app that provides a more hands-on approach to investing, if that’s the type of investment strategy you’re looking for. With two subscription options ranging in price from $3 per month to $9 per month, you can choose the one that best aligns with your financial goals. With Stash, you can invest in individual stocks, as well as ETFs. Stash also offers the option to invest in fractional shares of companies, which means you can get started with any dollar amount.

Or maybe you’re eager to start investing but don’t want to get started in stocks. In that case, you may want to consider Fundrise. With Fundrise, you can get started investing in low-cost, diversified portfolios of real estate projects that Fundrise manages on your behalf. Depending on your experience, Fundrise offers five account levels to choose from. But if you’re just getting started, you can start investing in real estate with Fundrise’s Starter Account for just $10.

See more of our picks for the best investment apps.