{"id":1611,"date":"2011-12-01T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T08:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2022-11-02T20:07:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T03:07:32","slug":"introducing-online-financial-advisor-built-silicon-valley-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/introducing-online-financial-advisor-built-silicon-valley-silicon-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Wealthfront, The Online Financial Advisor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we\u2019re unveiling our Online Financial Advisor service, which for the first time makes sophisticated investment advice accessible and inexpensive.<\/p>\n

Six months ago, we started hearing complaints from our Silicon Valley-based customers about the wealth managers lined up in their lobbies. These \u201csuits\u201d were taking advantage of the new wealth being created by the surge in IPOs. But our friends in technology companies didn\u2019t trust the financial advisors, because of their high fees and biased advice. They started asking us if we could manage their entire portfolios in a quality way, but without all the costs.<\/p>\n

When we heard this, we realized that our local customers wanted exactly what we wanted for ourselves. As software engineers, we wanted good, rigorous investing advice, wrapped in a low-cost, convenient package. We also wanted an interface that was, in the words of our CTO David Fortunato, \u201cclean, pretty and fun to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge for yourself what we created: www.wealthfront.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Also check out our engineering blog<\/a> where we talk about how we built the service. We use Ruby-on-Rails<\/a>, HTML5, SVG<\/a>, and jQuery<\/a> on the frontend, Java<\/a> and R<\/a> on the backend, all using Continuous Deployment<\/a> in a highly-regulated environment.)<\/p>\n

Our Online Financial Advisor service delivers on everything you\u2019d expect from a Silicon Valley company:<\/p>\n

Implements best practices<\/h1>\n

Our service is built on the foundation of Modern Portfolio Theory<\/a> (MPT), the approach favored by most every academic and investment professional to optimize a portfolio\u2019s expected returns for any given level of risk. Historically, rigorous MPT-based financial advice has been available only through high-end financial advisors.<\/p>\n

We design a portfolio for you that is diversified across asset classes, to lower your risk without sacrificing your returns. Through our service, your money is invested in low-cost, index-oriented ETFs, often from The Vanguard Group.<\/p>\n

Costs less<\/h1>\n

We\u2019ve turned the financial advisor business model on its head by requiring only a $5,000 minimum and not charging an advisory fee on your first $25,000 under management. Then we only charge 0.25% on the amount over $25,000. That\u2019s at least 75% less than what traditional advisors charge. We do not accept compensation from anyone other than you, so you can be assured we will not steer you into a higher-priced investment because we get a kickback.<\/p>\n

Offers convenience<\/h1>\n

Unlike traditional Wall Street firms that focus solely on lining their pockets, we aim to delight our customers, with an efficient and simple-to-use service. We know you don\u2019t want to be bothered with a lot of investment decisions, so we use advanced algorithms and comprehensive research to limit the number of questions we need to ask to provide you a compelling, personalized plan.\u00a0 We continuously monitor your portfolio and periodically rebalance it to maximize your expected returns without exceeding your risk tolerance.<\/p>\n

Provides transparency<\/h1>\n

As software engineers, we believe information wants to be free and that you should pay only for convenience. That\u2019s why we provide your investment recommendation before you even give us your email address. We only charge if you want us to manage your portfolio for you.\u00a0 We also explain why<\/em> we made our investment recommendations; something that we believe has never before been done.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re building our business with an open-source approach. If you want to become a customer, great. If not, we\u2019re happy to help you do it yourself using our website, our online tools and the information on our blog.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been a regular reader of these pages, you know we are no fan of most financial services companies. They win business by inspiring fear and make profits with hidden fees. We want to be part of the social movement toward better, transparent investing. We believe that\u2019ll benefit us in the end, and, more importantly, you.<\/p>\n

Please let us know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we\u2019re unveiling our Online Financial Advisor service, which for the first time makes sophisticated investment advice accessible and inexpensive. Six months ago, we started hearing complaints from our Silicon Valley-based customers about the wealth managers lined up in their lobbies. These \u201csuits\u201d were taking advantage of the new wealth being created by the surge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1282,1278,1360],"tags":[1290,1617,1386,1618,1324],"coauthors":[99],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","category-planning","category-product-news","tag-andy-rachleff","tag-online-financial-advisor","tag-silicon-valley","tag-software-development","tag-vanguard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIntroducing Wealthfront, the Online Financial Advisor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wealthfront announces its low-fee online financial advisor service, which for the first time makes sophisticated investment advice accessible to everyone.\" \/>\n<meta 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