After Schwab and Betterment catch up to Wealthfront's AUM, the Palo Alto robo pioneer makes a stunning hire
Facebook's former design chief will use millennials as an acid test but she's designing for a broader market
Related Moves
UBS bets its 'wealth' future on ex-Schwabbie Naureen Hassan, a corporate digital A-lister, who analysts give a fighting chance to transcend PaineWebber's ossified culture
Still a $2-billion cash-flow cow, the Swiss bank's 6,000-broker, US-based wirehouse is milking aging broker relationships with aging investors but needs a new kind of human presence, empathy, mindset and smarts to draw in Gen Z.
July 16, 2022 at 1:35 AM
Wealthfront cedes to four years of investors clamoring for crypto by taking on expensive third-party vendor that Betterment rules out
The Redwood City, Calif., robo-advisor turned a hard 'no' into a soft 'yes' by dealing with Grayscale and its 200 basis-point-plus fees, which its robo rival in NYC -- also without a crypto path -- finds ludicrous.
August 14, 2021 at 2:20 AM
Wealthfront's unlikely tapping of Sheila Bair and Tom Curry signals likely push to gain a bank charter, analysts say
The Redwood City robo-advisor's addition of two renowned former chief banking regulators brings legitimacy and guidance that could lead to a margin-fattening bank charter and help solve the robo-advisor's problem of high client acquisition costs.
December 31, 2020 at 4:37 AM
Oisín's Bits: Wealthfront drops old mission statement, declares war on institutions and emphasizes banking future • Seeking Utah charter, Edward Jones may become largest bank in US by branch count • After Advent chief leaves, Black Diamond head steps up
Andy Rachleff cans the old 'democratizing' mission statement at his robo; The 14,200 one-man Ed Jones branches may become branch banks; Steve Leivent consolidates power at SS&C.
July 3, 2020 at 1:12 AM
Wealthfront
Portfolio Management System
Top Executive: Andy Rachleff
AdvisorEngine
Financial Planning Software
Top Executive: Rich Cancro
Bill Winterberg
Just delete the other comment:
CNBC is running Wealthfront ads. Can I get a woooooooo?
<a href="https://youtu.be/w6_q9ospP6A" rel="nofollow">Wealthfront ad: You Don’t Need That Guy: Blake</a>
Tracey Gordon
Now that we have dozens of new robo entrants, the battle for differentiation begins. It’s not so much about size, market share, or how many ads you run – it’s much more about the look, the feel. And the user experience. Silicon Valley shows the way. Design has a seat at the table. Thanks Steve Jobs.
judy
why is it surprising that a designer went to design school?!
brooke southall
Ha.
Not surprising that a designer went to design school.
It was a novel experience to be writing about a design school grad as an advancer of the RIA business.
Brooke
BPM
I get it – she’s good at design and can help differentiate Wealthfront from competitors.
Beyon that, this is a full story in what way again?
ken roe
I do not see the future of wealth mgmt this way.
Model-based Yes. Robo No.
kenny
Stephen Winks
The key to doing more with less and simplifying the business and streamlining cost is expert, authenticated (to statute) prudent investment process. Arnowitz has the luxury to be open to a free market client solution in the client’s best interest, not a product distribution solution in a conflicted broker/dealer business model. The best interest of the client always prevails. She does not have any conflicts which is a massive advantage. So if she can execute (has the know how), nothing stands in her way in reordering the financial services business with an unprecedented level of investment and administrative counsel at a fraction of the cost of todays conflicted brokerage business model.
SCW
Stephen Winks
Elmer Rich
The web has been surprisingly unproductive in our industry. My work is exclusively B2B and it hasn’t produced anything, let alone considering all the time an money spent. For example, are daily valuation tools for 401ks that much better today than in 2000? Not really.
The following article speaks to some of this an makes sense to me. “Why Has “Social” Failed In Fintech?” — http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/08/why-has-social-failed-in-fintech/
Hey, if ANY design can help – I am all for it. If it can be verified independently with data, of course. But there is this – “A recent analysis of Facebook Ads by Salesforce.com shows Finance ads to have one of the lowest click-through rates at 0.2 percent.” If there isn’t any traction in retail web tools, not much hope for B2B. Darnit
Mike Byrnes
I think it is funny that RIABiz has a “I’m not a robot” checkbox, limiting robo advisors from commenting on articles like these.
—Mike Byrnes, President of Byrnes Consulting, LLC, www.byrnesconsulting.com
Bill Winterberg
