Wealthfront: The Antidote To The Wealth Management Zombies

On Jan. 16, in the new Pandodaily, Sarah Lacy wrote about the culture clash between Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Like Zombies single-mindedly trolling an apocalyptic wasteland for brains, the wealth managers are coming. They’re staggering all over Silicon Valley with dollar signs in their sunken, dead eyes, muttering, “New millionaires.” …

But there’s another way to combat the zombies: Manage your new riches on Wealthfront instead. Last December, the site launched a new Online Investment Advisor aimed at precisely this audience.

I’ve long been bullish on Wealthfront, because I like the company’s long-term focus and its emphasis on killing middlemen who extract ridiculous and hard-to-understand fees. Sooner or later the Internet has to disrupt the finance world, beyond just facilitating stock trades. It’s one of the last industries to fall.


Searching For Financial Advice Online

On Jan. 4, Wealthfront was featured in a story on The Wall Street Journal’s Total Return Blog. The story by Ruthie Ackerman quoted Wealthfront’s CEO, Andy Rachleff.

Andrew Rachleff, co-founder of Wealthfront, believes online financial platforms could reshape the advisory industry the way travel sites like Expedia and Orbitz transformed the travel industry when they eliminated the need to use travel agents. Clients are able to get a tailored portfolio through software that is “accessible and simple enough for the consumer to use directly, eliminating the need for a human being,” Rachleff says.

“When you get rid of the human being, you get rid of much of the cost without getting rid of any of the rigor,” he says.


Engineer Your Portfolio With ETFs

Our slideshare, Engineer Your Portfolio With ETFs, has more than 4,300 views. We hope that watching it helps you put your own portfolio together, enables you to ask an investment advisor better questions, and sheds light on what we do here at Wealthfront. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.

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