WiseBanyan
Is This Your Business?5.0
5.0
Author: Kaitlyn Short
LAST UPDATED: June 27th, 2019
WiseBanyan was founded in the fall of 2013 by Herbert Moore and Vick Zhou who started the company after seeing incentives between financial advisors and clients were often improperly aligned. They both have first-hand experience with this issue from working in asset management and investment banking. They later were colleagues at a quantitative asset management firm. Due to these improperly aligned accounts, which usually resulted in high fees, unnecessary tax consequences, and unreasonable account minimums they decided to build a company that was not incentivized to earn money at their clients' expense.
Top Ranked Companies
The Good
- No fees or minimum deposits to start
- SIPC insured and more
- Rollover your accounts
- WiseHarvesting
No Fees Or Minimum Deposits To Start
With WiseBanyan, there are no management fees, no trading fees, no rebalancing fees, no dividend reinvestment fees and no minimum deposit to start. The only requirements are that you are at least 18 years old, you must have a permanent U.S. address, a U.S. social security number and a bank account from a U.S. bank. You will also be asked to supply some additional personal information such as your net worth, income and investing experience. However, you won't be subjected to a credit check, just supporting documents as proof of identity. Then all that's left is to fill out their risk questionnaire, but it's very short. This will help them assign you a risk score so they can determine the proper portfolio asset allocation for you.SIPC Insured And More
With WiseBanyan, your investments are protected. They are a securities investor protection corporation (SIPC) to protect you from losses that are the result of financial failure on the part of the brokerage company. Held in a brokerage account in your name with a broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).Rollover Your Accounts
With WiseBanyan, you can easily rollover your existing accounts and have them managed for free. Their client specialists will help you transfer your outside brokerage, retirement and/or trust accounts in just minutes. You can also use WiseBanyan to rollover your old 401(k) and 403(b) accounts. This will keep you from having to pay the fees that most traditionally managed accounts of this kind charge, but it will also keep you from having to spend your valuable time managing them as well.WiseHarvesting
A new feature that WiseBanyan has created is their WiseHarvesting service. It is a tax-loss harvesting tool that captures small losses and applies them to your taxable income. This helps reduce your tax liability at the end of the year.Milestones
WiseBanyan has created a new feature called Milestones, which are goals that you set. This helps their automated system know how to invest your money in order to help meet your investment goals.The Bad
- Website is not very intuitive
- Aggressive profile creation
- Lack of user control
Website Is Not Very Intuitive
The WiseBanyan website is not very intuitive. This means that it can be tough to navigate because it is not like the traditional websites that most people are used to. For example, there is no main top navigation bar. You can find all the dedicated pages in the footer, but that is assuming their customers will bother looking there and assuming they will take the time to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page before clicking off their site and be on their way to one of their competitors. However, if their customers do actually make their way to the footer and click on the various pages, they might still be a little frustrated as the pages really don't give much detail.Aggressive Profile Creation
Recently, WiseBanyan did away with their login-waitlisting, which is a plus and definitely helps speed up the profile creation process. For the passive customer the profile creation might feel a bit too aggressive. WiseBanyan requests your personal information before you even have access to browse the stock-market and research ticker symbols. I suppose this makes sense as it is an auto-investor type system and the investment algorithms makes decisions contingent on the information that you provide. For someone who wants to have a bit more control on their investments, WiseBanyan and other auto-advisor type systems may not be for you.Lack of User Control
So this is true for all auto-advisor companies, not just WiseBanyan. Nut if you like to have control of where your money goes and when to buy and sell than this type of service is not just for you.The Bottom Line
Was this content helpful?
Yes
No
Filter by:
Sort by:
Palmer Lee Pace MO
Received $15 dollars free by Going through the http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/ to register!
I used auto pay and also manual deposit. Very smooth!
I then sold everything after just a couple of weeks (with a nice profit)
Received my money within 4 days - no sales pitch to stay - nothing to aggravate me.
Reinvested a couple of days later. Very smooth.
Called customer service once just to see how I was treated. Excellent?
I rate this a 10 for sure
8 years ago
Daniel Ovid, NY
I have made only good experiences with WiseBanyan myself. Very good customer service which understands your needs and concerns. It is also an easy tool which makes it clear even for the unexperienced investor. I like also the background information they give you for each stock/bond. 5 Stars from me!
6 years ago
Toby May Shinnston, WV
Dependable, consistent and appears to be able to positively react to fluctuations and unexpected events.
8 years ago
jamesfandl Northampton, PA
looks awesome !
8 years ago
