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While serving as the CEO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Citi Wealth Management, Sallie Krawcheck realized a key truth about the investing industry: it's made by men, for men.
On average, women are paid less, don't invest to the same extent that men do, and live longer than men - all factors that affect their financial standing and aren't taken into account by the 86% of investment advisors who are men. Thanks to these differences, the "gender investment gap" can cost a woman more money over their lifetime than the gender pay gap.In addition to using an algorithm that takes into account gender differences in pay, career breaks, and lifespan, Ellevest uses the client's personal financial goals (e.g. buying a home or starting a business) to create customized investment portfolios.
Krawcheck, who serves as Ellevest's CEO, says, "We're not your dad's old investing firm - and we're not a tech-bro startup either. We're busy waging water to help you close your personal 'gender investing gap' and take control of your financial future."
The onboarding process asks you to share your basic information, financial goals and prioritization of those goals, timeline, and external financial account information.
Ellevest currently offers seven goal options, including Retirement, Emergencies, Build Wealth, Kids, and Home Down Payment. You can add more than one goal and rearrange the prioritization to your liking. Later on if you decide to fund your account but have limited cash to deposit, you can put certain goals "on hold" to make room for others.
After you enter all this information, Ellevest considers your current external account savings, inflation, taxes, salary growth projections, gender pay gap, and market performance, and puts together a free investment plan.
This plan recommends an investment portfolio for each of your goals, including breakdowns of asset allocation, and projections based on a 70% likelihood of reaching your goal.
Lastly, fund your account to officially get started with Ellevest. The service recommends that you set up the auto-deposit feature to coincide with each paycheck, so you can "pay yourself first."
There are three Ellevest services: Digital, Premium, and Private Wealth Management. All three include unlimited human concierge support.
Ellevest Digital: No minimum or maximum fund amount, with a 0.25% annual fee. It includes tax minimization methods, patent-pending risk management technology, and investments built with best-in-class research.
Ellevest Premium: $50,000 minimum and no maximum fund amount, with a 0.50% annual fee. In addition to the benefits of Digital, it includes one-on-one personalized guidance from certified financial planners and one-on-one executive coaching from the Ellevest Career Team.
Private Wealth Management: Clients with more than $1,000,000 in investable assets can take advantage of this service that provides them with a dedicated private wealth manager and investing options that focus on social impact and advancing women.Another feature that the company says it's excited about is its Impact Portfolio.
This option lets you invest up to half of your portfolio in companies that "power positive change by advancing women." These are companies that have strong women leadership, promote policies that advance women, meet higher standards for sustainability and ethical practices, and provide community services to people in need.
This portfolio is designed with the same qualities of Ellevest's core investment portfolios - risk minimization through diversification across asset classes, cost minimization through thoughtful fund selection, and tax minimization (you can learn more about its methodology here) - but with added investments focused on effecting positive change for women, letting you put your money toward the causes you believe in.
Ellevest is the robo-advisor that caters to all aspects of your life, notably including the ones that traditional investing services have long ignored. With its smart algorithm and team of experienced advisors, it's changing the conception of investing as a boys' club.
Get started with Ellevest here to receive $25 towards your first funded goal
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