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If you want to grow your wealth with automated investing, Wealthfront and M1 Finance are two low-cost, hands-off options that suit different styles of investors. Both offer automated and self-directed investing, but they take different approaches.
Wealthfront started as a robo-advisor for investors who prefer a fully managed experience. After a short questionnaire, it builds a diversified portfolio tailored to your timeline, risk tolerance, and goals. Wealthfront handles rebalancing, dividend reinvestment, and tax-loss harvesting to help optimize returns. It also offers individual stocks, ETFs, and themed portfolios.
M1 Finance provides access to thousands of ETFs and stocks plus screeners to help you build your ideal portfolio. Its expert model portfolios cover retirement, stock and bond mixes, income, global exposure, socially responsible options, and both aggressive and conservative strategies. You can create your own portfolio or choose a model, and M1 will rebalance to your chosen asset allocation when requested. Investing is commission-free with a $10,000 balance or loan; otherwise there’s a $3 monthly fee.
Choose Wealthfront if you want a fully managed, tax-efficient portfolio with minimal effort. Choose M1 Finance if you want more control to build or pick model portfolios while still using automated rebalancing. Both platforms offer cash management and socially responsible investing options.
Both companies take security seriously. Wealthfront uses bank-level protections and partners with banks to provide FDIC coverage for cash deposits; investment accounts are protected by SIPC against brokerage failure. M1 is a registered broker-dealer with the SEC, uses FDIC-covered partner banks for cash deposits, and provides SIPC protection for investment assets. In all cases, market risk and price volatility remain.
