Wealthfront is a low-cost robo-advisor platform that stands out for two things: tax-efficient investing and an attractive high-yield cash account. With a low 0.25% annual fee, automated portfolio management, and unique features like daily tax-loss harvesting, Wealthfront is a strong choice for hands-off investors.

But its lack of human advisors and conservative allocations may not fit everyone. In this space, the big players are Betterment, SoFi Wealth, and Wealthfront. See how Wealthfront compares and whether it makes sense for you to invest.

What Is Wealthfront?

Wealthfront was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. While it began purely as a robo advisor platform focused on automated investing, it has expanded its offering and now provides a high-yield cash account and self-directed investing tools. Today, the company serves over 1 million clients and has approximately $90 billion in assets under management (AUM).

What Does It Offer?

Wealthfront offers a cash account, automated index investing, retirement accounts, and self-directed investing and tax-loss harvesting tools. Here's a closer look at its key products.

Wealthfront Cash

The Wealthfront Cash Account is a high-yield cash management account that blends features of a savings and checking account. It currently offers a base APY of 3.30%, with a promotional boost of up to 4.20% for three months for new clients who set up direct deposit.

There are no account fees, no minimum balance requirements, and withdrawals are free. You can pay bills and make deposits via the mobile app, and Wealthfront will reimburse two out-of-network ATM fees per month. Clients have access to over 19,000+ fee-free ATMs.

Cash Account Features:

• Monthly Fee: $0
• Savings APY: 3.30%
• Promotional APY: Up to 4.20% for 3 months
• Fee-Free ATMs: 19,000+
• ATM Fee Reimbursements: 2/month
• Withdrawals: Unlimited
• Bill payments: Yes

The Cash account allows Wealthfront customers to easily move money between savings and investing, and is ideal for anyone who is looking for a low-cost online savings account that offers a high-yield.

Wealthfront Invest

Automated Index Investing

Wealthfront's most popular product is its automated investing platform, which allows you to build diversified portfolios using low-cost index exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Portfolios are automatically rebalanced and include tax-loss harvesting features that can help you improve your after-tax performance.

Wealthfront is transparent about its fees. It charges an annual advisory fee of 0.25%, with no trading or account maintenance fees. If you're comfortable with a hands-off, automated investing approach, you can save a lot of money versus traditional financial advisors, who often charge fees of 1% or more.

Retirement Accounts

Wealthfront offers a range of retirement accounts, including traditional, SEP, and Roth IRAs. All of these accounts are managed through the same automated investing platform as your taxable Wealthfront accounts. This means that you get the same portfolio construction, rebalancing, and tax optimization features. I should point out that Wealthfront does not offer custodial accounts or solo 401(k)s.

Stock Investing Account

If you want more control over your portfolio, you can build your own portfolio by purchasing individual stocks and ETFs. Unlike Wealthfront's robo advisor, this is a self-directed account, but it's still focused on a long-term investment strategy, and not active trading. While there are no trading or account fees, it lacks some features that support active trading, such as advanced charting tools.

The account seems positioned somewhere between a robo-advisor and a self-directed brokerage, such as Schwab, Fidelity, or Robinhood. You still have control over the investments you buy, but Wealthfront steers you toward a long-term investing strategy.

Tax-Loss Harvesting with Wealthfront

Wealthfront's tax-loss harvesting features are prominently displayed on its website. Here's how its simple, 3-step process works:

Step 1: Wealthfront continuously scans your portfolio for investments that have dropped below what you have paid for them.

Step 2: When it notices an opportunity, it sells that investment to lock in the loss, then immediately replaces it with a similar one to ensure your portfolio stays on track.

Step 3: Come tax time, the losses that were captured can be used to offset any capital gains, or reduce ordinary income. This helps to lower your overall tax bill. Over time, this can help to improve your after-tax investment returns, without a change to your investment strategy or timing the market.

Note: Tax-loss harvesting only applies to taxable (non-registered) accounts.

Are There Any Fees?

Wealthfront charges 0.25% per year for all of its portfolios. There are no account or trading fees. If you want to start an automated savings plan, you can link your Wealthfront account directly to a checking or savings account.

Wealthfront supports the following types of investment accounts:

• Traditional IRAs
• Roth IRAs
• SEP IRAs
• IRA transfers
• Rollover 401(k)
• 529 plans for college
• Individual and joint taxable brokerage accounts

What Other Features Does It Offer?

Wealthfront’s newest features include a portfolio line of credit. Here's a closer look at how it works:

Portfolio Line Of Credit

If you’ve got at least $25,000 in a taxable brokerage account, you’re eligible for a portfolio line of credit worth 30% of your account value. The loan is secured by your account, so the rates on the loan are often below most home equity lines of credit. You can pay back the loan on your own schedule, but interest accrues until the loan is paid in full.

This sounds like a great loan, but I’m skeptical about borrowing against assets in general. If you’ve got investments in a taxable brokerage account, and you need money to start a business or buy a car, you should probably liquidate the account to pay for your needs.

Still, it should be noted that Wealthfront's interest rates are highly competitive. Depending on your account size, your rate could be as low as 4.72%. If you're considering this option, you should compare it to a similar service called M1 Borrow.

Related: Best Portfolio Lines of Credit Options

How Does Wealthfront Compare To Betterment And Vanguard?

Wealthfront is not the only robo-advisor in town. However, it's now one of the largest, and that's due in part to its great features at solid pricing.

Betterment is the other major robo-advisor, and their fees are very comparable. However, Betterment does have more "add-on" services like access to paid human financial planning.

See how Wealthfront fully compares and why we list it as a top robo-advisor here. Or check out this quick comparison below:

How Do I Open An Account?

You can visit the Wealthfront website to get started with opening an investment account. You'll have to complete a short questionnaire which Wealthfront will use to decide which type of portfolio will be best for your financial goals and risk tolerance.

Once Wealthfront's automated algorithm have built your portfolios, you'll have the opportunity to edit some of the asset weightings if you'd like. Otherwise, you can move on to the final step of linking to your bank (or Wealthfront Cash account if you have one) and funding your account.

Generally, it will take 1-2 business days for ACH deposits to arrive and be invested. However, if you fund your investment account with a transfer from a Wealthfront Cash Account, the money could be invested within minutes (if the transfer is submitted between 10 AM and within an hour of market closing).

Is It Safe And Secure?

Yes, Wealthfront investment accounts are insured by the SIPC (up to $500,000) and its Cash accounts are protected by FDIC insurance (up to $250,000) through its partner banks. As far as data security goes, Wealthfront website is encrypted with HTTPS and it says that it submits to third-party security audits on an annual basis.

Contact

When Wealthfront first launched, it proudly proclaimed that its algorithms were so well-crafted that clients would have no need to for human financial advice. And it has held stubbornly to that stance even while many of its competitors have added premium tiers that include unlimited CFP access.

You also won't find a customer service phone number, email address, or even a live chat function on Wealthfront's Contact page. However, you can find both by digging through its IRA Client Agreement. That document states that customers can reach Wealthfront's support team at 844-995-8437 or [email protected].

Why Should You Trust Us?

I've been writing about investing and have reviewed brokerage firms since 2009. When Wealthfront launched in 2011, we were among the first platforms to cover the "new" space of robo-advisors. And since then, we've reviewed most robo-advisor platforms in the United States.

Since then, I've regularly updated and tested the new features that Wealthfront has launched. Wealthfront is also consistently voted on by our readers each year in our survey of the best robo-advisors.

Finally, our compliance team regularly checks and updates the rates in this review as needed.

Is It Worth It?

I’m quick to recommend Wealthfront to novice and long-term investors who are comfortable outsourcing their investing to an algorithm. The only automated investing platform that is less expensive is M1 Finance, but it doesn’t have the robust investing theory that Wealthfront does.

Wealthfront's biggest advantage is its ability to perform systematic tax-loss harvesting, which is a major benefit for anyone with taxable accounts. In my opinion, the biggest drawbacks to Wealthfront are an overemphasis on conservative asset classes and the lack of access to human advisors.

The asset allocation suggested for me was very conservative, despite my long investment horizon to retirement. And while you probably wouldn't expect human advice from an automated investing platform, other robo-advisors, like Betterment, are beginning to add advisors as an additional service.

Overall, Wealthfront is an excellent option and remains one of my top recommendations for automated investing platforms.

Get started with Wealthfront>>

Common Questions

Let's answer a few of the most common questions we see online about Wealthfront:

Can you buy individual stocks on Wealthfront?

Yes, you can. In 2023, Wealthfront expanded into stock investing. In fact, their Stock Investing Account supports fractional shares, zero commissions, and has a low $1 account minimum.

Is Wealthfront good for beginners?

Yes, Wealthfront could be a great choice for new investors who want help with building and managing their portfolios but don't want to hire a dedicated financial advisor.

Does Wealthfront offer Solo 401(k)s?

No, Wealthfront doesn't currently support individual 401(k) accounts. However, it offers SEP IRAs for self-employed investors, in addition to Traditional and Roth IRAs for W-2 employees.

Does Wealthfront have hidden costs?

While Wealthfront certainly doesn't hide these costs, some investors may not realize that the ETFs used in its portfolios each have their own expense ratios. According to Wealthfront, the "weighted average cost of the ETFs we use in a taxable portfolio is 0.03% to 0.07%, depending on your level of risk." These fees are minimal, but you should factor them in before you invest.

Disclosure

The College Investor receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Advisers LLC (“Wealthfront Advisers”) for each new client that applies for a Wealthfront Automated Investing Account through our links. This may create an incentive that results in a material conflict of interest. The College Investor is not a Wealthfront Advisers client. More information is available via our links to Wealthfront Advisers.

* Annual percentage yield (APY) is as of 1/30/2026.