Weathfront Review 2026: Our Editorial Team’s Honest Take
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Our Take
5.0
Reviewed in: Oct. 2025
Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025
NerdWallet's editorial team found Wealthfront to be one of the best overall robo-advisors, thanks to a competitive 0.25% management fee, flexible investment options, innovative portfolios and features and advanced tax-optimization services.
Fees
0.25%
management fee
Account minimum
$500
Fees
0.25%
management fee
Account minimum
$500
Promotion
Get a $50 customer bonus
when you fund your first taxable investment account
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Pros & Cons
Get $50 customer bonus when you fund your first taxable investment account (NerdWallet promotion).
Low ETF expense ratios.
Daily tax-loss harvesting.
DIY and automated investing options.
Low portfolio management fee.
$500 account minimum.
Compare to Other Advisors
0.25%
$500
Get a $50 customer bonus
0.25%
$50
Get a 1% Match
0.25%
$0
Get up to $1,500
NerdWallet doesn't invest its money with this provider, but they are our referral partner – so we get paid only if you click through and take a qualifying action (such as open an account with or provide your contact information to the provider). Most importantly, our reviews and ratings are objective and are never impacted by our partnerships. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
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Full Review
Why trust NerdWallet's reviews: Read our methodology
Over 60 investment account providers reviewed and rated by our expert Nerds.
More than 50 years of combined experience writing about finance and investing.
Hands-on testing of provider websites and investment platforms.
Dozens of objective ratings rubrics and strict guidelines to maintain editorial integrity.
How do we review robo-advisors?
All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team's comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent, balanced assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. Our highest priority is maintaining editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across 16 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating robo-advisors and our process, read our full methodology.
In our review of Wealthfront
- Where Wealthfront shines
- Where Wealthfront falls short
- What type of investor should choose Wealthfront?
- What the Nerds think 🤓
- Wealthfront at a glance
- How to sign up for a Wealthfront account
- How much does Wealthfront cost?
- Wealthfront's portfolio selection
- Other key Wealthfront features
- Good to know about Wealthfront
- Is Wealthfront safe?
- Is Wealthfront worth it?
Wealthfront helped pioneer the idea of automated investment management, and has leaned into that even as other robo-advisors have slowly added back human financial advisors. The company has built a lucrative platform for investors who have no interest in engaging with a person to manage their finances — they want to do it themselves with the help of computer algorithms to guide their decisions.
Where Wealthfront shines
Advanced tools and automated investment management that appeals to both new and experienced investors: a wide range of investment strategies, hands-off portfolios that automatically rebalance as needed and advanced tax optimization strategies to help reduce investment taxes owed. High-yield cash account that requires only a $1 minimum to get started and is covered by up to $8 million in FDIC insurance. Wealthfront also offer several fixed-income strategies, such as a bond account and an automated bond ladder.
Exchange-traded funds in up to 12 asset classes, plus other investment options like cryptocurrency trusts. The company also offers socially responsible funds and allows you to customize your portfolio.
Wealthfront stock investing account: It's rare for a robo-advisor to provide access to both managed portfolios and DIY investing; among the robo-advisors we review, Stash is the only other company that does this. But Stash charges a monthly fee, which makes Wealthfront stand out here — Wealthfront's stock investing account doesn't carry additional fees, and it doesn't charge a commission if you want to buy or sell investments.
Through that account, you can purchase and manage your own investments in individual stocks, ETFs and REITs. Stocks can be purchased individually (including as fractional shares) or through curated collections created by Wealthfront based on stock market sector, specific industries or other criteria.
Where Wealthfront falls short
$500 minimum deposit. Some other robos require more, but many others have very low or $0 minimums. The difference can be a big deal to first-time investors or investors who want to test out Wealthfront's offering with a small slice of their investable assets.
No human financial advisors are available, not even for an extra fee. Wealthfront is designed to cut out the humans, though there are experts in the background who are selecting the investment strategies and building portfolios.
Alternatives to consider:
For no minimum: SoFi Robo Investing, Betterment, Fidelity Go, Acorns, Stash
For access to human advisors: SoFi Robo Investing (requires SoFi Plus)
What type of investor should choose Wealthfront?
Hands-off investors.
Investors with taxable investment accounts, due to Wealthfront's advanced tax optimization strategies.
Investors who want to open a 529 college savings plan, as 529 account management is rare among robo-advisors.
Those who want a DIY portfolio and a managed portfolio within one brokerage.
What the Nerds think 🤓
Arielle O'Shea, investing editor"Wealthfront has come out at or near the top of NerdWallet's robo-advisor rankings every year we've done them, and it's easy to see why: As we've raised our expectations for these products, Wealthfront has consistently leveled up its offering with new features, a wider investment selection and additional financial services, including new options like a portfolio line of credit. Plans are even in the works to launch a mortgage lending service in select states.
"The company now appeals to different types of investors, including those who want a DIY stock investment account, those who want a fully managed portfolio, and those who want both. And you can invest in alternative assets like cryptocurrency through trusts. There's truly something for almost everyone."
Wealthfront at a glance
Reviewed: Oct. 2025.
Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025
Account minimum | $500 for automated investment accounts; $1 for cash accounts and the stock investing account. Other minimums may apply. |
Account management fee |
|
Investment expense ratios | ETF expense ratios average 0.08%. |
Account fees (annual, transfer, closing) | None. |
Portfolio mix | Automated investment portfolios:
S&P 500 Direct and Nasdaq-100 Direct portfolios:
Bonds:
Wealthfront stock investing account:
|
Socially responsible portfolio options | Automated investing clients can choose to invest in Wealthfront’s SRI portfolio or customize any other Wealthfront portfolio to include socially responsible options for no additional fee. |
Accounts supported |
Note: Investing in individual stocks is only available through individual taxable accounts. |
Tax strategy |
|
Human advisor option | None. |
Savings account/cash management account | The Wealthfront Cash Account is a high-yield cash management account. It offers a competitive yield through Wealthfront partner banks and is covered up to $8 million in FDIC insurance. |
Customer support options (rating includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Phone support Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific. All emails are responded to within one business day. |
How to sign up for a Wealthfront account
Opening an account with Wealthfront is straightforward — if you’ve ever set up a brokerage or bank account before, much of the experience will feel familiar.
You’ll begin by choosing the type of account you’d like to open. From there, you’ll answer a brief questionnaire that helps Wealthfront determine an appropriate investment portfolio for you. These questions focus on your financial goals, how long you plan to invest, and your comfort level with risk. After you finish, Wealthfront suggests a portfolio based on your responses.
You’ll have the opportunity to review the recommended portfolio, and you can either move forward with it or make adjustments to better match your investment preferences. Once your portfolio is set, you’ll choose how to fund the account — most investors do this by transferring money from a bank account or another brokerage. To get started, you’ll need to deposit at least the $500 account minimum.
New Wealthfront clients who transfer in assets may benefit from its tax-minimized brokerage account transfer service. The service incorporates existing investments into your Wealthfront portfolio when possible, and holds transferred securities that can’t be incorporated until capital gains become long-term. This can minimize the tax impact that might come from liquidating — or selling — investments and then transferring the resulting cash into your Wealthfront account.
How much does Wealthfront cost?
Wealthfront charges a 0.25% annual fee for portfolio management through its automated investment account. Its largest independent competitor, Betterment, also charges 0.25% for digital portfolio management, though certain balances may instead pay a flat fee. (For a full description of that company’s services and fees, read our Betterment review. We also have a quick-glance comparison of Wealthfront vs. Betterment.)
Beyond the advisory fee, investors also pay the expense ratios charged by the funds used in Wealthfront portfolios, which is standard among robo-advisors. Wealthfront says the ETFs used in its portfolios have an average expense ratio of 0.08%, which is quite reasonable.
Nerdy Tip
An expense ratio is an annual fee most mutual funds, index funds and ETFs charge as a percentage of your investment in the fund. Based on Wealthfront's average ETF expense ratio of 0.08%, you'll pay the funds about $8 per year for every $10,000 invested, plus Wealthfront's 0.25% management fee, which amounts to $25 per $10,000.
Wealthfront’s stock investing account does not charge trading commissions or management fees, so you can invest in stocks directly and manage your portfolio yourself with no fee. The company's direct portfolios, which allow you to invest directly in the individual stocks in the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq-100, charge lower management fees.
There are also no annual fees, inactivity fees, or charges for transfers, trades, account setup, or maintenance. Some competing robo-advisors do charge some of these additional fees, so it's worth reviewing any product's full fee schedule before you open an account.
Wealthfront's portfolio selection
Within the automated investing account, Wealthfront starts by assessing an investor’s risk tolerance through a simplified questionnaire, then builds portfolios using ETFs across as many as 12 asset classes. These include U.S. stocks, international stocks, emerging markets, dividend-focused equities, real estate, natural resources, emerging markets bonds, Treasury inflation-protected securities, and U.S. government, corporate, and municipal bonds. The company says most portfolios contain six to eight asset classes.
Investors can also choose from socially responsible ETFs, sector-focused ETFs such as technology and health care, and cryptocurrency-related options. Up to 10% of a portfolio may be allocated to Bitcoin or Ethereum through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) or the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE). Wealthfront also allows customization, enabling clients to add or remove ETFs or even build an entirely custom portfolio.
Wealthfront’s stock investing account is for DIY investors and offers access to more than 1,500 individual stocks, ETFs, and REITs (real estate investment trusts). The platform offers curated stock collections that might appeal to users who want to manage their own portfolio but would like a little assistance to get started — you can invest in an entire group or select individual holdings. The account requires at least three different stocks and must be linked to a Wealthfront Cash Account. You can invest in fractional shares instead of purchasing a full share.
Socially responsible portfolio options
Wealthfront offers a dedicated socially responsible portfolio, designed for investors who want to align where they invest with their personal values.
The portfolio excludes companies involved in civilian firearms, controversial weapons, tobacco, thermal coal, and oil sands. Investors can also customize standard portfolios to focus on causes they care about, such as renewable energy, gender diversity, minority empowerment or animal welfare.
Automated bond portfolio
Wealthfront’s automated bond portfolio combines Treasury and corporate bond ETFs and delivers a blended 30-day SEC yield of 4.24% after advisory fees (as of January 8, 2026). The allocation among ETFs is customized based on your state, income, filing status and estimated tax rates. The account also offers tax-loss harvesting and automatic dividend reinvestment to potentially improve after-tax returns.
In addition, Wealthfront offers an Automated Bond Ladder that invests in U.S. Treasurys and is intended to help protect against declining interest rates. (A bond ladder is a strategy that invests in a variety of bonds with different maturity dates, which gives you the option to reinvest as each bond matures, potentially at a higher interest rate. It avoids locking up all of your bond investment at one rate.) Investing in the ladder carries a 0.15% advisory fee.
Other key Wealthfront features
Accounts supported
Wealthfront supports individual and joint taxable accounts, traditional, Roth, rollover, and SEP IRAs, 529 college savings plans, and high-yield cash accounts. The availability of 529 plans is uncommon among robo-advisors and makes Wealthfront particularly appealing for college savers.
Tax strategy
Wealthfront offers daily tax-loss harvesting on all taxable accounts. This tax strategy can reduce capital gains taxes by selling losing investments, which realizes capital losses that can offset the capital gains from winning investments. It's utilized in taxable accounts; retirement and other tax-advantaged accounts aren't subject to capital gains taxes.
For investors who have taxable account balances of $100,000 or more, Wealthfront also offers stock level tax-loss harvesting, often called direct indexing, in its automated investing accounts. It's harder to harvest losses when you're investing through a fund like an ETF; you'll need to sell the entire ETF. Wealthfront instead replicates stock market indexes by buying the stocks held in them directly; then its software can look for individual tax-loss harvesting opportunities. That tax savings can be reinvested, which compounds the potential benefits of the service. Direct indexing is offered at no additional cost.
If you have an account balance lower than $100,000, there's another option for you: Wealthfront's S&P 500 & Nasdaq-100 direct portfolios.
The S&P 500 Direct Portfolio allows investors to directly own the individual stocks (or fractional shares of the individual stocks) that make up the S&P 500. This enables direct indexing on lower account balances — the minimum required is $5,000, and there is a 0.09% management fee. The Nasdaq-100 Direct Portfolio works similarly, purchasing the individual stocks of the Nasdaq-100 index. It carries an advisory fee of 0.12% and requires the same $5,000 minimum.
Automatic rebalancing
Most robo-advisors automatically rebalance your portfolio to maintain your recommended asset allocation, which can shift without rebalancing due to investment performance. Wealthfront uses threshold-based rebalancing, which means portfolios get rebalanced when an asset class has moved away from its target allocation. This means rebalancing happens as needed and not on a set time schedule such as quarterly.
Wealthfront's software considers opportunities to rebalance your portfolio when dividends are reinvested, you make a deposit, take a distribution from your account or market fluctuations make rebalancing necessary.
Cash management account
Wealthfront offers the Wealthfront Cash Account, which currently pays 3.25% interest, a rate that is competitive when compared against high-yield savings accounts. The account offers up to $8 million in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, coverage for individual accounts (up to $16 million for joint accounts) through agreements with partner banks — your deposits are swept into up to 32 different banks, which multiples the amount of FDIC coverage you receive. (FDIC coverage is granted per institution.) Like other savings accounts, money deposited in the Wealthfront Cash Account is not subject to investment risk, and Wealthfront's account doesn't carry any fees. (If you also have a Wealthfront automated investing account, the investment management fee doesn't apply to money in the cash account.)
Wealthfront Cash has many of the features you'd expect from a bank account, including a debit card, bill pay and direct deposit. Users who use direct deposit can get paid up to two days early, and transfers between a Wealthfront Cash Account and a Wealthfront investment account are quick and seamless.
One thing to keep in mind: The company does offer a joint cash account, but only the primary owner has access to certain features, including tax documents and creating, editing or deleting an automated savings plan.
Securities lending program
Last year, Wealthfront introduced securities lending for eligible investing accounts, allowing clients to earn passive income. Clients keep ownership of their shares and earn 50% of the net revenue from shares loaned, with interest payments deposited monthly.
Portfolio line of credit
Wealthfront offers a portfolio line of credit that allows customers with taxable investment account balances of at least $25,000 to borrow up to 30% of their portfolio. This would be an alternative to taking on credit card debt or a personal loan, as Wealthfront's interest rates are generally lower. (As always, it's worth shopping around to compare interest rates when you're borrowing.) Credit checks and paperwork aren't prerequisites to borrow money from your portfolio, and it takes one business day for funds to be transferred.
Financial planning tools
Wealthfront offers a travel-planning tool that can help you figure out how much time you can afford to take away from work to travel, giving you concrete information about how your finances might be impacted based on information you provide about how long you plan to be away and what costs might be covered at home. It also offers insights into how your other goals may be affected.
Other tools and financial guides available through Wealthfront can help plan for buying a house, retirement, college and general savings goals. You can link all your accounts, including those outside of Wealthfront, to get a full overview of your finances.
Good to know about Wealthfront
No human advisors
Product specialists at Wealthfront may have Series 7 and 66 licenses, and some may also hold other professional finance certifications. But they do not offer personalized investing advice, and there is no way to access a human financial advisor. Wealthfront's approach is built on digital-first advice and automation for people who don't want to work with a human.
Customer support options
Customer service phone support is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific Time.
Is Wealthfront safe?
All investing comes with the risk of loss, but Wealthfront's algorithms will invest your portfolio according to your own risk tolerance, goals and time horizon. The company is also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure compliance with securities regulations, and by FINRA, which regulates broker-dealers.
In addition, the company says it regularly evaluates security risks on the platform, including through third-party audits of its security policies and procedures.
Is an investment at Wealthfront FDIC insured?
Wealthfront's Cash Account operates through 32 partner banks, and offers up to $8 million in FDIC insurance (and twice that for joint accounts). This coverage applies only to the Cash Account.
Securities Investor Protection Corporation, or SIPC, insurance covers brokerage accounts. Brokerage accounts with Wealthfront receive up to $500,000 in SIPC insurance for cash and assets in the account. For Cash Accounts, SIPC insurance covers up to $250,000 while the funds are in transit to a partner bank. (Once deposited, the funds are then covered by FDIC insurance.)
These types of insurance don't apply to investment losses or investment price fluctuations.
Is Wealthfront worth it?
As we mentioned at the start of this review, Wealthfront gets high marks on nearly every category we consider when we evaluate robo-advisors. It frequently tops our list of the best robo-advisors overall, and in 2026, it won our editorial team's Best-of Award for the Best Robo-Advisor for Portfolio Options. It is one of the most well-rounded platforms in terms of its investment offerings, with something for nearly every type of investors. And it is one of the lowest-cost online advice solutions, with a management fee of just 0.25% on its automated investing accounts — less than you'd pay at many other robo-advisors, and significantly cheaper than a human financial advisor.
In short, only you can decide if Wealthfront's offerings are worth that fee. But in our evaluation, we determined the service is worth it for most investors. Wealthfront's features impressed us, especially at the low price point.