Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Overview
There are many financial management options available to would-be investors, including full-fledged robo-advisors, micro-investing apps and a myriad of financial tools all promising to help you grow your wealth. The list of robo-advisors on the market keeps growing, so how do you decide if Wealthfront or Acorns is best for you?
In this comparison, we’ll look at one of the largest stand-alone robos and a micro-investing app for the everyman (or woman). You’ll learn:
- Which robo-advisor is best for investors with children?
- Which robo-advisor is good for a beginner?
- How do I make investing a habit?
[toc]
*Disclosure: Please note that this article may contain affiliate links which means that – at zero cost to you – I might earn a commission if you sign up or buy through the affiliate link.
What is Wealthfront?
If you’ve heard of robo-advisors before, you’ve likely heard of Wealthfront. This robo is one of the largest independent digital investment robo-advisors on the market. Clients can invest in many account types including IRAs, 529 College Savings accounts, and trusts.
Wealthfront is a unique automated, digital robo-advisor. Wealthfront allows users to add exchange traded and cryptocurrency funds. Users can add ETFs or create stand alone ETF portfolios of their choosing. Wealthfront clients can add funds like country, investment style, sector, tech and robotics funds and many more. The company offers other financial services such as portfolio reviews, loans and a high-yield checking account. Through these additional products, Wealthfront covers a wide range of financial needs.
Sign up now and get Free Cash Bonus
If you’re looking for a high yield cash account, check out Wealthfront’s rates:
Investors seeking cash-flow can invest in Wealthfront’s Higher Yield Bond Portfolios, with robust returns. Wealthfront’s bond portfolios are ideal for intermediate term goals or on going cash flow.
What is Acorns?
Acorns is a micro-investing app that helps you save money by rounding up everyday purchases and investing the spare change. For example, your $1.75 coffee will be rounded up to $2.00 even, and $0.25 will be invested. This investment method enables even the most cash-strapped investor to get started building wealth quickly and easily.
Designed to be inclusive and accessible to all Acorns also offer “found money” partners so that clients can earn extra investment money just by shopping at places like Walmart. Acorns added a bitcoin ETF to their investments lineup, for those interested in cryptocurrency.
Realistically, Acorns users will benefit if they set up an auto-invest feature to add additional money to their account, thereby speeding up their investing and wealth building.
Top Features
Wealthfront Top Features:
- Top-notch Wealthfront investment portfolios for all types of investors
- Hundreds of additional ETFs to customize your portfolio – including cryptocurrency funds
- Daily tax-loss harvesting – more frequent than other robo-advisors
- High-yield checking account for investors seeking liquidity
- Loans options
- Digital financial planner – Path
- Higher yield bond portfolios
Acorns Top Features:
- Micro-investing, which means investors can buy fractional shares in large companies
- “Found Money” option when making purchases at common businesses, such as Walmart and Lyft
- Round-Ups which make investing easy and automatic
Sign up with Acorns, and get a $20 bonus!
Who Benefits?
Both Wealthfront and Acorns are beneficial for individuals who want to keep their investments and savings or checking accounts under the same roof. The Wealthfront checking/savings account (through partner banks) comes in the form of a high-yield cash account, with up to $2 million FDIC insurance, through partner banks, for individual accounts ($4 million for joint accounts). Acorns clients with Acorns Spend have access to a checking account and debit card.
If you’re interested in picking your own ETFs, customizing an existing investment portfolio or creating your own, then Wealthfront is for you.
If you lack the $500 minimum investment amount then choose Acorns.
Investors with children will also like both robo-advisors. Wealthfront offers a 529 College account, while Acorns’ Family plan allows parents to set up investment accounts for their children.
Wealthfront
Wealthfront is best for clients who prefer comprehensive all-digital investment advice. Wealthfront compares its comprehensive Path Financial Planning with the services of human financial planners. It is the most comprehensive investment planning questionnaire we’ve seen.
Intermediate and advanced investors will lean towards Wealthfront. With the opportunity for investment customization, borrowing, a high yield cash account and single stock investing, Wealthfront is more comprehensive than Acorns.
Clients who like the idea of tax-loss harvesting will appreciate Wealthfront. This robo offers daily tax-loss harvesting, which the company explains can save clients more money on capital gains taxes than less frequent methods.
Sign up for Wealthfront now and get free cash promo:
Acorns
Acorns is one of the best robo-advisors for new investors because it’s designed to be simple and not overwhelming. The premise behind Acorns is that anyone should be able to invest, no matter how much money they earn or how much know-how they have.
Acorns round up is ideal if you have trouble saving money. The Round-Up feature makes saving money effortless: you don’t even need to think about it! If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can also add modifiers to your Round-Ups. That said, you’ll need to invest more than a dollar or two a week to fund retirement or other major financial goals.
For example, if you spend $5.75, regular Round-Ups will make your purchase $6.00 even and move $0.25 to your investments. Select up to 10 times modifier, to add even more money to your investment account.
Fees and Minimums
Minimums Winner: Acorns wins.
Fees Winner: Smaller accounts at Wealthfront incur lower fees, but once your account surpasses $24,000, the $5.00 per month family plan at Acorns is cheaper. Although, With this link, Wealthfront users get a free cash promo.
Sign up with Acorns, and get a $20 bonus!
Wealthfront Fees and Minimums
Despite the fact that Wealthfront is certainly one of the most affordable robo-advisors on the market with its $500 minimum initial investment, there are robos around with lower (or no!) minimums. While $500 is low in comparison to other robos, like Personal Capital’s $100,000 minimum investment, it might be a big hurdle for the newest investors who might be living paycheck to paycheck.
Still, Wealthfront is reasonable on the fee front. Clients will pay a flat 0.25% AUM for their Wealthfront portfolios. This is fairly standard among robos in Wealthfront’s category.
Wealthfront Cash is fee-free, which means that there’s no management fee for any money held in your cash account.
Acorns Fees and Minimums
Acorns does not have a minimum balance requirement, though Round-Ups will only be invested once they reach $5.
Acorns fee structure for accounts valued up to $1 mil is as follows:
Acorns Personal: $3 per month
- Individual brokerage or IRA account
- Debit card with 55,000+ fee-free ATMs
- Fee-free checking account
- Round ups transferred into investment account
- Shop with partner brands for added investment deposits
Acorns Family: $5 per month
- Acorns Family includes the benefits of Acorns Personal
- Custodial accounts for children
Sign up with Acorns, and get a $20 bonus!
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Robo Investing Deep Dive
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Human Financial Planners
Winner: Neither. Although Wealthfront’s Path Digital Financial Planner is a close second to a human financial planner and claims to answer up to 10,000 finance, money, and investing questions.
Neither Wealthfront nor Acorns offers human financial planners. Although, Wealthfront’s Product Specialists are all licensed financial professionals.
Clients who are looking for human advice might seek out a robo-advisor like Betterment, SigFig, or SoFi which offers financial advisor access.
SoFi Invest also offers fee-free investment management, live financial advisors, and no minimums.
Those with larger portfolios may also prefer a robo-advisor like Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, which comes with a hefty $25,000 initial investment but offers live Financial Advisory support and low subscription pricing.
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Tax-Loss Harvesting
Winner: Wealthfront
Only Wealthfront offers tax-loss harvesting. Wealthfront’s daily tax-loss harvesting process is much more frequent than other robos currently on the market. Tax loss harvesting is only useful in taxable brokerage accounts, as your money grows tax-free while in a retirement account.
Tax-loss harvesting can save you from hefty capital gains taxes. The process behind tax-loss harvesting is simple: the robo-advisor sells off some investments at a loss so as to offset your net gains. When done correctly, this results in a lower tax bill for investors who have had rapid growth.
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Investments
Winner: Wealthfront wins this one due to its greater variety of ETFs and bitcoin and ethereum funds.
Wealthfront Investments
The following asset classes are included in the basic robo-advisor fund.
- US Total Stock Market
- Foreign Stock – Developed Market
- Foreign Stock – Emerging Market
- Dividend Appreciation Stock
- US Treasury Inflation Protected Bond (TIPs)
- US Government Bond
- Municipal Bond
- US Corporate Bond
- Foreign-Emerging Market Bond
- Real Estate
- Natural Resources (Energy)
Wealthfront also offers hundreds of additional ETFs from many sectors and investing styles. Greyscale cryptocurrency funds are also available.
Acorns Investments
Diversified ETFs from these asset classes:
- Large Stocks
- Small-Cap ETFs
- Corporate Bonds
- Government Bonds
- Emerging Markets ETF
- Real Estate
- Bitcoin ETF
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Rebalancing
Winner: It’s a tie.
Whenever your portfolio allocations get out of synch with your preferred percentages of stock vs bond funds, it’s time to rebalance. For example, you might prefer to keep a portfolio made up of 75% stocks and 25% bonds. If your allocations get off track and your percentages switch to 80% stocks and 20% bonds, a good robo-advisor will reduce those over-weighted asset classes and bulk up the underweighted funds to bring you back into your ideal allocation.
The rebalancing process can reduce investment volatility and keep your asset mix in line with your risk comfort level.
Acorns and Wealthfront clients can both expect that their portfolios will be regularly rebalanced. Wealthfront rebalances periodically in addition to their tax-loss harvesting procedures. Acorns tends to review portfolios quarterly, rebalancing portfolios when allocations are at least 5% off target.
Sign up with Acorns, and get a $20 bonus!
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Customer Support
Winner: It’s a tie.
Acorns and Wealthfront have live customer support during normal business hours. Wealthfront does claim a 24-hour turnaround time on electronic questions. The FAQ help center is comprehensive.
Acorns clients can ask questions via email or phone from 6:00 AM through 5:00 PM PST on weekdays.
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Cash Management
Winner: Wealthfront wins this one due to interest rates and FDIC insurance, through partner banks.
Wealthfront has a more traditionally appealing cash account. Their checking account offers higher interest rates than brick and mortar banks. As interest rates rise, expect the Cash account return to increase as well. The Wealthfront app enables mobile check deposits and access to 19,000+ fee-free ATMs.
Wealthfront’s FDIC insurance, through partner banks, of up to $2 million for individual accounts and $4 million for joint accounts, should cover most investors.
Wealthfront doesn’t charge any fees or require any minimums for the cash account.
Wealthfront is also a good option for your savings/checking account needs because there are no fees and they insure your cash for up to $2 million, for individual accounts (and $5 million for joint accounts) by using multiple partner banks to maximize FDIC coverage.
While Acorns doesn’t have all of the same bells and whistles as Wealthfront, their checking account is still appealing for other reasons. Acorns customers also have access to digital banking, FDIC insurance up to $250,000, and a debit card with thousands of fee-free ATMs available nationwide.
Another benefit Acorns Spend clients have are bonus investments of up to 30% when they make purchases through their Spend account.
Sign up with Acorns, and get a $20 bonus!
FAQ
Which robo-advisor is best for parents?
However, Acorns also has a family plan which allows parents to create investment accounts for their children. Though Acorns’ Round-Ups may be under $1 per purchase, these contributions can add up over time.
Is Acorns worth it?
They also come with very low fees, ranging from $3 to a maximum of $5 per month – probably much, much less than many of us spend on coffee each week!
If you want to build up a larger investment account, it’s a good idea to supplement round ups with additional cash transfers into your investment account.
How safe is Wealthfront?
Of course, there is always the risk that you can lose money when you invest; when stocks lose value, your portfolio value will drop as well.
What is better than Acorns?
Stash is also a good Acorns alternative.
Does Acorns offer tax loss harvesting?
Is Wealthfront worth the fee?
Wealthfront vs. Acorns – Which is Best? The Takeaway
If you’re a new investor looking for an easy way to make investing automatic, Acorns might be the best bet. By rounding up your purchases to the nearest dollar – or more, if you use Round-Up multipliers – you’re able to make investing a daily habit.
As far as fees go, it’s hard to beat Acorns. But, for smaller account holders, you’ll pay a larger percent of your total account value than you will, when your wealth increases.
In aggregate we believe that Wealthfront is the victor when we consider tax-loss harvesting and investment categories. They offer bond, country-specific, industry-specific, investment style and cryptocurrency funds. If you’re seeking real estate, commodities, small cap, value, natural resources, high technology, blockchain and over one hundred ETFs. The high yield cash is also a sound option for your emergency and shorter term cash needs.
It’s also important to realize that with micro investing, it takes a long time for your money to grow for retirement. For long term investing, it’s best to invest as much as you can, early.
Wealthfront also offers many different account types, which may better meet the needs of individual investors. All investment accounts are charged a 0.25% account management fee, which is reasonable among robo-advisors in this category.
Both Wealthfront and Acorns do have one downside: neither offers access to human financial planners. If this a dealbreaker, a robo-advisor like SoFi Invest might be a better fit.
For larger, more sophisticated investors, we like Wealthfront. The robo-advisor offers various investment strategies and low-cost single stock investing for larger accounts. The Wealthfront Borrow is also good for investors seeking to invest on margin.
Sign up for Wealthfront now and get a free cash bonus:
Read the Wealthfront Review.
Read the Acorns Review.
More Comparison Articles
- SoFi Invest vs. Wealthfront
- Betterment vs. Wealthfront vs. M1 Finance
- Stash vs. Robinhood vs. Acorns
- Wealthfront vs Schwab
- Betterment vs Acorns
- Acorns vs Qapital – Round up, Savings And Investing Apps
Disclosure: Please note that this article may contain affiliate links which means that – at zero cost to you – I might earn a commission if you sign up or buy through the affiliate link. That said, I never recommend anything I don’t believe is valuable
Wealthfront Disclosures:
Robo-Advisor Pros receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Advisers LLC (“Wealthfront Advisers”) for each new client that applies for a Wealthfront Automated Investing Account through our links. This creates an incentive that results in a material conflict of interest. Robo-Advisor Pros is not a Wealthfront Advisers client, and this is a paid endorsement. More information is available via our links to Wealthfront Advisers.
Cash Account is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“Wealthfront Brokerage”), a member of FINRA / SIPC. Neither Wealthfront Brokerage nor any of its affiliates are a bank, and Cash Account is not a checking or savings account. Wealthfront conveys funds to institutions accepting and maintaining deposits. Investment management and advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC (“Wealthfront Advisers”), an SEC registered investment adviser, and financial planning tools are provided by Wealthfront Software LLC (“Wealthfront”).
Wealthfront partnered with Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, to bring you checking features.
Checking features for the Cash Account are subject to identity verification by Green Dot Bank. Debit Card is optional and must be requested. Wealthfront Cash Account Visa® Debit Card is issued by Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association. Green Dot Bank operates under the following registered trade names: GO2bank, GoBank and Bonneville Bank. All of these registered trade names are used by, and refer to, a single FDIC-insured bank, Green Dot Bank. Deposits under any of these trade names are deposits with Green Dot Bank and are aggregated for deposit insurance coverage. Wealthfront products and services are not provided by Green Dot Bank. Green Dot is a registered trademark of Green Dot Corporation. ©2022 Green Dot Corporation. All rights reserved.
Other fees apply to the checking features. Fee-free ATM access applies to in-network ATMs only. For out-of-network ATMs and bank tellers a $2.50 fee will apply, plus any additional fee that the owner or bank may charge. Please see the Deposit Account Agreement for details.
Other eligibility requirements for mobile check deposit and to send a check may apply.
The cash balance in the Cash Account is swept to one or more banks (the “program banks”) where it earns a variable rate of interest and is eligible for FDIC insurance. FDIC insurance is not provided until the funds arrive at the program banks. FDIC insurance coverage is limited to $250,000 per qualified customer account per banking institution. Wealthfront uses more than one program bank to ensure FDIC coverage of up to $2 million for your cash deposits. For more information on FDIC insurance coverage, please visit www.FDIC.gov. Customers are responsible for monitoring their total assets at each of the program banks to determine the extent of available FDIC insurance coverage in accordance with FDIC rules. The deposits at program banks are not covered by SIPC.
The Annual Percentage Yield (APY) for the Cash Account may change at any time, before or after the Cash Account is opened. The APY for the Wealthfront Cash Account represents the weighted average of the APY on the aggregate deposit balances of all clients at the program banks. Deposit balances are not allocated equally among the participating program banks.
