Through this acquisition, UBS will accelerate its growth ambitions in the U.S., broaden the firm’s reach among affluent investors and expand its distribution and capabilities.
With over $27 billion in assets under management and more than 470,000 clients in the US, Wealthfront’s award-winning, state-of-the-art platform helps clients easily manage their wealth by providing access to financial planning capabilities, banking services and investment management solutions.
Following the transaction, Wealthfront and its clients will benefit from access to UBS’s leading wealth management capabilities, including the UBS Chief Investment Office’s best-in-class thought leadership, an unrivaled global footprint, and deep products and services shelf.
Wealthfront’s primary focus is on millennial and Gen Z investors, a client segment with significant domestic growth potential. With more than 130 million investors in the US alone, millennials and the Gen Z population together comprise a high growth segment that will own an increasing share of the world’s wealth.
As UBS looks to establish and grow relationships with additional affluent clients, Wealthfront’s capabilities will become the foundation of its new digital offering which will also include access to remote human advice.
In addition, Wealthfront will expand UBS’s existing offering through the firm’s Wealth Advice Center, which focuses on serving core affluent clients, and its Workplace Wealth Solutions business, which works with employees of corporate clients on equity plan participation, financial education and retirement programs.
Wealthfront’s existing clients will see no immediate change to their experience and can look forward to benefiting from UBS’s breadth of products, services, and intellectual capital.
Clients will continue to have access to automated investing and personalized financial planning, which provides the ability to link and view outside accounts to better tailor services to each individual client.
In addition to investing services, clients will also continue to have access to Wealthfront’s banking services, including securities backed loans, instant transfers to investment accounts, direct deposit, bill pay, and transfer services.
Wealthfront will become a wholly owned subsidiary of UBS and will operate as a business within UBS Global Wealth Management Americas. The transaction is currently expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals. ■