Question 1

No fees? Does the Brokerage Account really cost nothing?

Accepted Answer

It’s true. The Brokerage Account has zero commission fees which means you don’t have to pay for the stocks you want to buy or sell. Note that most ETFs carry an expense ratio, so you may face certain fees to own certain securities you decide to buy.

Question 2

If it’s free, how does Wealthfront make money?

Accepted Answer

The money we make on your Brokerage Account comes from the small net interest margin we earn on the money in your Cash Account which, through our program banks, happens to get you one of the highest interest rates in the industry at 3.55% APY. We also make a small net interest margin if you choose to borrow using our Portfolio Line of Credit, which has one of the lowest interest rates in the industry at just 4.96% APR. And finally, we share half of all the net revenue with you that we earn from lending out your shares if you opt into our securities lending program. Rates are as of 10/01/2026 and subject to change.

Question 3

Will my dividends reinvest automatically?

Accepted Answer

Up to you! You can choose to automatically reinvest your dividends as they pay out or you can choose to sweep them back into your Cash Account, where you can earn interest as soon as your dividends settle.

Question 4

Will I earn interest on my cash that I haven’t invested?

Accepted Answer

Yep! A Cash Account is required to open a Brokerage Account, so any uninvested cash automatically earns a base APY of 3.55%—9x more than the average savings account. New clients get a 0.65% APY boost for 3 months on up to $150,000, bringing the rate to 4.20% APY. You can qualify for up to 4.45% APY with an ongoing 0.25% APY increase when you fund and maintain any investing account (including the Brokerage Account) and make a monthly direct deposit of $1,000 into your Cash Account or recurring deposits of $2,500 per month into any account.

Question 5

Do I need a subscription to earn interest?

Accepted Answer

No subscription required—your uninvested cash automatically earns interest in your Cash Account at the highest possible rate. Some platforms require a paid subscription to unlock higher rates, while others require you to manually move idle cash into a separate money market fund to earn a higher yield. At Wealthfront, your cash earns an industry-leading APY automatically until you’re ready to invest—no extra steps are required.

Question 6

Can I buy fractional shares with the Brokerage Account?

Accepted Answer

Yep. All of the stocks on our app are available as fractional shares and you can start investing with as little as $1. That means, you can buy a portion of some of the more expensive stocks, like Microsoft and Nvidia, that can generally cost several hundred dollars for a single share.

Question 7

So, how is this account different from The Wealthfront Portfolio?

Accepted Answer

The Wealthfront Portfolio is a globally diversified portfolio of low cost index ETFs that we build and manage for you. The Brokerage Account is an account where you pick the ETFs and individual stocks you want to invest in. The Wealthfront Portfolio is personalized to your risk tolerance, and it handles everything from portfolio rebalancing to intelligent dividend reinvesting. But most importantly, it comes with Tax-Loss Harvesting. By our estimate, automated Tax-Loss Harvesting has generated an average annual tax benefit of 1.17%⁴ of our clients’ portfolio value since launch (as of December, 2025).

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