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UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

reuters.com

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Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#271

Post by TuringNYC »

rco8786 wrote: post #185
TuringNYC wrote: post #5

I'm honestly shocked at how primitive the big firms' offerings are. For example, JPMChase's bank account is smart enough to see a payroll deposit and give you a comment modal suggesting that you invest the money with JPM's investment platform (YouInvest/whatever) Log into the investment platform and you're back in 1993. They literally have no drip-investment style offering. They want to charge you 100bps to "manage"…

> how primitive the big firms' offerings are My take (as a previous employee at Betterment): Wealthfront/Betterment/et al came out to much fanfare and the promise of disrupting the traditional wealth management industry. At first, it seemed like they were right. AUM growth was looking like a hockey stick...this caused some panic at the big firms' who hurried to launch their own offerings (this is like 2015-ish) which…

Agree in general, and I think they were great M&A opportunities for the big firms. Think of Banking+Lending+Investments as a natural stack over much like Photo+Music+Games+News+CloudStorage are in the FAANG world. They keep the user sticky. Once you've got Photo+Music+Games+News+CloudStorage in the Apple ecosystem, or in the Google Ecosystem, for example, you're way less likely to leave.

Yet in banking, there arent great stacks where you can keep your relationship across the board. For JPMC, an acquisition of a Betterment or WealthFront (or others) would be a drop in the bucket.

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#272

Post by zie »

WaxProlix wrote: post #257
zie wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Edward Jones will do it for you for ~ 2%/yr, which is ridiculously high. * Any of the big banks or brokerages will do it for less than Edward Jones. * Almost any financial advisor will do it for about 1%/yr in fees(not ridiculously high, but not remotely cheap) or fee-based for a few hundred an hour with a 1st time setup of $4-10k, more than $10k is unreasonable. * The robo advisors(of which their are dozens with b…

There's Facet Wealth, who will take ~$200/month flat fee up until around 1M AUM (or with extra complexity) to do the same. You get good personal contact on a regular basis, but it feels bad to spend 2400/yr just for "yeah you're on the right track, this is it" every quarter once everything is in the appropriate vanguard target date funds and such.

It took me a while to find on their website, but: "Our prices range from $1,800 to $6,000, annually." So pretty good price-wise for a full-service AUM type service.

Thanks!

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#273

Post by devoutsalsa »

Bostonian wrote: post #264
maxclark wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started with and was a Wealthfront customer for many years. I'm appreciative and credit them with starting my education and understanding on investing. What caused me to leave? - They aren't global portfolio aware. Bonds belong in tax advantaged accounts, then taxable. If you've maxed out your 401k/IRAs in Bonds that $ as an absolute percentage should be accounted for in your taxable portfolio construction. - They…

"Bonds belong in tax advantaged accounts, then taxable." That's true when say taxable bonds are yielding 8% and municipal bonds 6%. But when taxable bonds are yielding 2% (about the current 10-year U.S. Treasury yield), the tax hit from owning them in a taxable account is small, and maybe the growth assets such as stocks belong in a Roth IRA.

The taxes are small, just like the returns. I can’t really see bonds as a an indiviy investment in an era of low interest rates. And they only go down in value if interest rates start going up.

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#274

Post by devoutsalsa »

cobertos wrote: post #269
subsubzero wrote: post #89

Back in 2015 I put some of my money into wealthfront, despite the market doing well at the time, my wealthfont fund which was heavily stock balanced did somewhat poorly. This was over a year's time so not short lived by any means. I pulled my money out and invested into stocks I chose and never looked back(typically get 10-15% returns a year). I would like to hear other people's perspectives about how their wealthfro…

I believe I've gotten lucky, but I moved all my money from Fidelity (making, 7% I think?, in a money market? I couldn't understand their UI so I don't recall) to Wealthfront. It currently shows and it's made 15% - 35% over 2 years.

So has everyone else. The market did well over the last couple years.

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#275

Post by endisneigh »

astrange wrote: post #243
endisneigh wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vanguard is not famous for actively managed funds.

Neither are robos. Rebalancing according to some rules isn't active management. Vanguard has more active management products, actually. Besides their Windsor fund, S&P 500 is an actively managed index.

Robos are actively managed, just not by human, and their fees reflect this. If they’re not actively managed then they make even less sense since they’re more expensive than indices that have better historical returns…

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#276

Post by dstroot »

borski wrote: post #188
onphonenow wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wined and dined people also often really don't want to deal with a website and they want someone to call who can "get things done" if needed. So for wealthfront and friends, let's say a family member is closing on a property purchase. You said you'd put in $500K. Closing comes and you try to wire the money over. But wait, it doesn't work. 1) First you have to sell investments 2) Trades have to SETTLE (T+2 or more…

This is honestly a huge deal - when I make an angel investment, I send a text and/or wire info via the Merrill Lynch app, and I know it will be taken care of (by the same people every time) same day or next day, depending on when I send it. That plus introductions and referrals to tax accountants, estate attorneys, etc., and access to investment vehicles I otherwise wouldn’t get (easily), definitely makes the 0.7% fe…

who do you use, if I may ask?

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#277

Post by abofh »

TuringNYC wrote: post #97
Spooky23 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can’t compete at scale for small potato clients. They want high net worth people to work with a guy. Ie the stereotypical dentist. Honestly it’s probably a good thing. Chase is pretty awful at basic retail banking. Really only makes sense if you live in Manhattan or something where there are like 3 mega banks in every corner.

I'm surprised to hear this take. I find Chase to be the best bank I've ever worked with -- personal accounts, business accounts, everything. Customer service is top notch. Website is great. I'd love to hear your choices for a top retail bank. Yes, i'm in the NY area, so true on branch location issue. But how often do you have to visit a branch if you have good systems? The branch is usually for when systems fail. Not…

Not op, but:

The money lives at interactive brokers, the cash flows through etrade, wells Fargo has never met a mortgage it didn't want a piece of, and chase rents me a safe deposit box.

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#279

Post by abofh »

Yhippa wrote: post #270
hedgehog wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a flex, I'm just saying that it's not super rare for people to get those returns. If you're really doing 45% that's above and beyond though and would be curious what your strategy is.

If you're getting 20% returns you've quit your day job and are doing this exclusively, right?

And has he got a coin to sell you!

He's either not really getting 20% or is cheating on his taxes.

Source: I have a personal relationship with my auditor, and I'm pretty sure he hates me because I don't willfully cheat on my taxes.

Re: UBS Acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B

#280

Post by simonebrunozzi »

sixminuteabs wrote: post #268
dartdartdart wrote: post #12

Anyone know of any other product offer that will take excess after direct deposit and invest it for you? I've called Fidelity and Betterment and both do not offer an automated way like wealthfront does. Really sad to see wealthfront being the only player in that space. Edit: by automated I mean something like "everything over $10k after bills, invest". It takes a couple of clicks per month manually, but it's been pre…

[Disclaimer] I'm the founder of farther finance ( https://www.farther.com ) - the first digital family office. We offer this to our clients at farther - set a minimum amount to keep in your bank account, everything over set minimum gets swept to your investment accounts and invested based on how you set them up and any relevant regulatory stuff (like max IRA contribution amounts) or goal amounts. Quick note - We focu…

Do you offer your services only in the US, or also elsewhere (Europe, Asia)?
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