Ellevest is a financial investment service designed specifically for the needs of women, women entrepreneurs, and women investors.
What is Ellevest?
Ellevest is a robo-advisor built for women. Robo-advisors are platforms that automate the task of investment. They will build up a portfolio based on preferences set by the client to reduce the amount of knowledge a client must have about investing and the amount of work they must do to put their money to work for them.
Is Ellevest Right for You?
Ellevest is heavily focused on the needs of women. However, the site allows men to join and considers the different earnings and longevity data for men when making decisions. Still, it serves a female-focused role that no other investment management service does. This makes it ideal for women, whose investment needs will vary distinctly from the average man’s.
Investing with Ellevest
Like all robo-advisors, Ellevest automates away a lot of what makes investing difficult. It will automatically pick a portfolio for you based on the preferences that you select. Let’s now take a more in-depth look at how investing with Ellevest works.
- Goal Setting: Building your investment portfolio starts with telling Ellevest what your goals are. It will use your goal to customize your portfolio. Members who choose the highest plan can set multiple goals.
- Automated Investing Accounts: Once your goal is set, Ellevest’s robo-advisor goes to work building your investment portfolio for you automatically. It will choose from a selection of stock ETFs and bond ETFs to build your portfolio.
- Retirement Accounts: Managing an IRA is a feature available to subscribers of certain plans. This works similar to the automated investing accounts but allows you to choose from various IRAs.
- Commissions & Fees: Ellevest has one of the most straightforward pricing structures of any investment management service. They charge a low flat rate each month and take no additional commissions or fees.
Ellevest Banking Services
Beyond their services as an investment platform, Ellevest has also built out a variety of banking services. Each member of Ellevest is set up with two FDIC-insured banking accounts, Spend and Save. The Banking products and services are provided by Coastal Community Bank (“Coastal”), Member FDIC that is the partner bank of Ellevest.
- Ellevest Spend Account: This account is similar to a checking account, except it comes with a debit card instead of a check. You can activate a feature where each transaction spent from the account is rounded up, and the spare change is sent to the savings account.
- Ellevest Save Account: The Ellevest savings account functions like the savings account at your bank. The ability to round up money from your Spend account helps grow your savings with no effort on your part.
- Ellevest Debit Card: When you put money into a banking account, you need a way to get it back out again. The Ellevest debit card allows you to spend money from your Spend account the same way you would from your regular checking account.
Additional Features and Services
Ellevest wants to be a one-stop-shop for all the financial needs a woman may have. Because of that, they offer several features and services that go beyond their core functionality.
- Financial Coaching: You can access one-to-one financial coaching sessions that members and non-members alike can purchase. However, members get a significant discount on the total price. There are sessions on budgeting, career advice, resume help, and more.
- Educational Resources: Ellevest has an online magazine that features articles and educational resources on many financial topics applicable to women.
- Desktop and Mobile App: Today’s woman is on the go. It isn’t always easy to find time to sit down in front of a computer and manage your finances. The Ellevest app for iOS and Android makes it easy to manage your investments from anywhere your phone can go.
Plans and Pricing
To be as accessible as possible, Ellevest keeps fees very reasonable. You’ll pay a simple monthly fee for the services you want to use. There are three tiers for the Ellevest membership fees to choose from, so you can match your plan with your need for the services offered.
- Ellevest Essential: Ellevest’s most affordable package costs only $1 a month. This base package includes the investing platform, the banking accounts, and 20% off the financial coaching sessions.
- Ellevest Plus: For $5 a month, you can upgrade to Ellevest Plus. With this plan, you have the additional feature of retirement planning. Your discount on coaching increases to 30% as well.
- Ellevest Executive: The full-featured plan from Ellevest comes in at $9 a month. This one allows you to set multiple goals to track for your investments and gives you 50% off coaching sessions.
How to Get Started with Ellevest
Getting started with Ellevest is simple. Once you’ve created an account from their signup page, you can transfer money to be invested from your bank and configure your goals. Then, the robo-advisor will begin to build your portfolio. When you create your account, you’ll also have the banking accounts created for you automatically.
