Hi all,
A while back I signed up for Ellevest as a beta user after I heard about it on a podcast. I ended up investing with Betterment instead because of the higher fees associated with Ellevest. I felt they were essentially charging a "pink tax" and taking advantage of women and the "gender investing gap". Anyway... Sallie Krawcheck (or more likely her assistant on behalf of Sallie) e-mailed me asking for feedback and why I haven't invested. They have been offering to send their Beta users who have invested bouquets of roses as a thanks. Any ideas on how I can make this response a good one? Have any of you looked into Ellevest?
How much does Ellevest charge?
We charge an annual fee of 0.50% of your account’s average daily balance. (For example, an account with an average daily balance of $50,000 during the year would be charged $50,000 x 0.0050 = $250.) We have no minimum account balance.
Are there any other costs associated with my Ellevest account?
The total cost of your Ellevest account has three components: the Ellevest fee of 0.5% of your account balances, a fee that our custodian FOLIOfn charges -- and then passes along to fund its government sanctioned regulator, FINRA -- when you sell securities, and the underlying management fees associated with the ETFs in your account. The FINRA fee, which will appear as a Self Regulated Organization (aka SRO) fee on your bill, is $0.0000184 for each dollar of sale proceeds, which would be $0.17 on a $10,000 sale. The ETF management fees vary from 0.08% to 0.21% of of your account balance, depending upon the specific portfolio we recommend for you. (In contrast, average mutual funds charge fees of 1.00% or more on account balances.) Because the prices of the ETFs already include these fees, there is not a separate charge for these costs. All other trading, custody, and administrative costs associated with your Ellevest account are included in the 0.5% Ellevest fee.