“About 70 percent of Americans do not have a financial advisor,” according to the Northwestern Mutual 2022 Planning & Progress Survey. Attractive, smaller accounts are overlooked, and inexperienced investors and others whose families did not discuss managing and investing money around the dinner table often do not have the needed knowledge to “do it yourself” to build their financial futures. WealthMore, a fintech startup set to launch in May 2024, projects that serving those with starting investments as low as $5,000 will change the industry norm.
WealthMore’s chief executive officer and founder, Mical Jeanlys-White, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive with 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, has made it her company’s mission to make expert investing and financial planning affordable for everyone, especially overlooked groups—smaller investors, first-generation wealth builders, women, and recent graduates.
“Those with access to a wealth advisor grow two times more wealth. Yet, little has been done in more than 100 years to have wealth management serve more people. It’s long helped the already rich get richer and offered failed DIY solutions to the rest of us,” says Mical Jeanlys-White.
First-time investors are a large strategic opportunity. McKinsey & Co. “estimates that from 2022 to 2030, financial-services providers who offer more accessible and better products can win $225 billion in cumulative spending from Black consumers alone. For the Latino community, the opportunity is $77 billion. And by 2030, American women are expected to control much of the $30 trillion in financial assets that Baby Boomers will possess.”
“There’s a unique opportunity to offer wealth advice to communities that have been particularly left out or are new to wealth-building. We don’t decide who deserves advice based on their net worth. We want everyone to have the opportunity to have meaningful, personalized financial advice,” said Tanya Frias, head of wealth and certified financial planner professionals at WealthMore.
WealthMore estimates that the opportunity — the total addressable market — is about $13 billion. And, “doing good is also good business,” Jeanlys-White stresses.
In 2022, the U.S. AUM market was $54 trillion.
Robo-advisors, which entered the scene in 2010, accounted for less than 2 percent of the market. Self-directed accounts were for 38 percent, and the traditional advisor model was 60 percent. Up to now, fintechs have generally focused on technology alone, and even large banks and RIAs (registered investment advisors) have shifted towards robo-advisors and DIY strategies with generic content and no real financial planning for the typical investor.
WealthMore breaks the mold by providing personalized investment advice and access to human (not AI) advisors for people with assets starting at $5,000. Its advisors are all certified financial planner professionals (CFPs or equivalent) and act as fiduciaries. The company’s income is derived only through its fees, which begin at $25 a month for access to an advisor team via text and email and rise to one percent with higher AUMs, topping off at $1,500 for a 1:1 relationship with a financial planner with quarterly check-ins.
The timing couldn’t be better. The market downturn, inflation and crypto failures made lower AUM investors aware of the need for expert advice and the lack of access. Often inexperienced investors often turn to social media and get unreliable and unregulated advice.
WealthMore’s diverse team comes from modest beginnings. They are first or second generation wealth builders drawn to the industry to help individuals like themselves gain a better understanding of their finances to pursue the American dream. Their expertises includes college and retirement planning, government and military retirement plans, estate taxes, commercial real estate, eldercare, debt financing for affordable housing to help the 99 percent of investors on his or her financial journey.
WealthMore also provides communities led by its wealth advisors — #homeownership, #womenwhowealth, #firstgenwealth, and others — for advice and to heighten the motivation and accountability of working towards their financial goals. Traditionally, one wealth advisor serves 100-120 clients. WealthMore estimates serving more people via the use of predictive technology and community forums.
WealthMore promises to turn a traditionally transaction-oriented, lonesome experience and make it a personal, human process. “The future of wealth management is wealth builders getting expert advice on demand that’s specific to their money and goals and succeeding individually and as a community,” says Jeanlys-White. “We’ve reimagined the experience to reflect the needs of the modern investor and in doing so created a big tent experience.”