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After Schwab and Betterment catch up to Wealthfront's AUM, the Palo Alto robo pioneer makes a stunning hire

Facebook's former design chief will use millennials as an acid test but she's designing for a broader market

Author Brooke Southall June 5, 2015 at 6:04 PM
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Kate Aronowitz: Millennials are the people who try things first. They have a higher bar for design but I don't think you choose one [demographic] or the other.

Bill Winterberg

Bill Winterberg

June 5, 2015 — 7:14 PM

Just delete the other comment:

CNBC is running Wealthfront ads. Can I get a woooooooo?

<a href="https://youtu.be/w6_q9ospP6A" rel="nofollow">Wealthfront ad: You Don’t Need That Guy: Blake</a>

Tracey Gordon

Tracey Gordon

June 5, 2015 — 7:44 PM

Now that we have dozens of new robo entrants, the battle for differentiation begins. It’s not so much about size, market share, or how many ads you run – it’s much more about the look, the feel. And the user experience. Silicon Valley shows the way. Design has a seat at the table. Thanks Steve Jobs.

judy

judy

June 5, 2015 — 8:11 PM

why is it surprising that a designer went to design school?!

brooke southall

brooke southall

June 5, 2015 — 9:33 PM

Ha.

Not surprising that a designer went to design school.

It was a novel experience to be writing about a design school grad as an advancer of the RIA business.

Brooke

BPM

BPM

June 5, 2015 — 10:05 PM

I get it – she’s good at design and can help differentiate Wealthfront from competitors.

Beyon that, this is a full story in what way again?

ken roe

ken roe

June 8, 2015 — 9:14 PM

I do not see the future of wealth mgmt this way.
Model-based Yes. Robo No.
kenny

Stephen Winks

Stephen Winks

June 8, 2015 — 11:46 PM

The key to doing more with less and simplifying the business and streamlining cost is expert, authenticated (to statute) prudent investment process. Arnowitz has the luxury to be open to a free market client solution in the client’s best interest, not a product distribution solution in a conflicted broker/dealer business model. The best interest of the client always prevails. She does not have any conflicts which is a massive advantage. So if she can execute (has the know how), nothing stands in her way in reordering the financial services business with an unprecedented level of investment and administrative counsel at a fraction of the cost of todays conflicted brokerage business model.

SCW
Stephen Winks

Elmer Rich

Elmer Rich

June 9, 2015 — 4:37 PM

The web has been surprisingly unproductive in our industry. My work is exclusively B2B and it hasn’t produced anything, let alone considering all the time an money spent. For example, are daily valuation tools for 401ks that much better today than in 2000? Not really.

The following article speaks to some of this an makes sense to me. “Why Has “Social” Failed In Fintech?” — http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/08/why-has-social-failed-in-fintech/

Hey, if ANY design can help – I am all for it. If it can be verified independently with data, of course. But there is this – “A recent analysis of Facebook Ads by Salesforce.com shows Finance ads to have one of the lowest click-through rates at 0.2 percent.” If there isn’t any traction in retail web tools, not much hope for B2B. Darnit

Mike Byrnes

Mike Byrnes

November 11, 2015 — 12:59 AM

I think it is funny that RIABiz has a “I’m not a robot” checkbox, limiting robo advisors from commenting on articles like these.

—Mike Byrnes, President of Byrnes Consulting, LLC, www.byrnesconsulting.com

Bill Winterberg

Bill Winterberg

March 18, 2017 — 7:10 PM
Sadly, your "moment in time" has come to an abrupt end. Aronowitz left Wealthfront in December 2016.
brooke southall

brooke southall

March 18, 2017 — 9:20 PM
Bill, Thanks for the update. There seems to be lots of soul-searching, vision tweaking and talent shuffling going on there. Brooke

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Mentioned in this article:

Wealthfront
Portfolio Management System
Top Executive: Andy Rachleff

AdvisorEngine
Financial Planning Software
Top Executive: Rich Cancro



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