This Ellevest profile takes no commissions, runs no ads, and gives no advice. It draws only on public records, each linked so you can confirm it yourself.

---

The short answer: is Ellevest a fiduciary?

Yes. Ellevest is an SEC-registered investment adviser, which means it owes clients a fiduciary duty as a registered adviser. As a fee-only registered investment adviser, it owes you a duty to act in your interest for the whole advisory relationship, and it isn't a broker-dealer. Ellevest is an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #175476). According to its latest Form ADV (filed July 17, 2026), it reports $1.1 billion in regulatory assets under management across 471 clients (Item 5.F). Because it's fee-only, it's paid by clients and earns no commissions on products. Item 5.E of its Form ADV spells out the pay structure: a percentage of assets under management, fixed fees, and other. Everything that matters here is on the public record, and you can check it in a few minutes.

Its Form ADV doesn't report a broker-dealer registration or a related broker-dealer, so the adviser's fiduciary standard is the one that applies to its advice. Get started with Truthifi

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. (More on fiduciary duty)

Ellevest at a glance

✅ Checked against public filings as of October 5, 2026. Ellevest (SEC CRD #175476) is a fiduciary for the whole advisory relationship, on a fee-only basis, with $1.1 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	Ellevest	Source
SEC CRD	#175476	IAPD
Registration	Registered investment adviser (RIA), not a broker-dealer	IAPD
Registered since	September 28, 2015 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes, for the whole advisory relationship (fee-only RIA)	SEC adviser standard
Fee model	Fee-only	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management, fixed fees, and other	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$1.1 billion (Form ADV filed July 17, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	474 (all discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	19 (13 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Principally owned by Sylvia Shiu Han Kwan	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Form ADV answers No to firm-level disciplinary questions	IAPD
HQ	New York, NY	IAPD

---

Ellevest fees: what you'll pay

What you pay Ellevest comes down to how the firm is paid. The firm is fee-only: according to its Form ADV (Item 5.E), it is paid through a percentage of assets under management, fixed fees, and other, with no commissions. That structure avoids commission conflicts. Fee-only doesn't automatically mean low-cost. It simply means the advisory fee is the stated cost. The "other" box is the one to ask Ellevest about, since Item 5.E checks it without defining it. (How fee-only advisors charge)

Fee-only means the firm is paid only by its clients, never by commissions on the products it recommends.

Who owns Ellevest, and what conflicts does it disclose?

Ownership is a matter of public record, and Ellevest's is no exception. Ellevest is principally owned by Sylvia Shiu Han Kwan, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV. (Form ADV Schedule A)

Its Form ADV Part 2A describes the firm's conflicts of interest, including how it and its advisers are paid.

Ellevest SEC record: disclosures

To check Ellevest's regulatory record, start with the firm's own filings. On its Form ADV, Ellevest answers No to the firm-level disciplinary-history questions. That's something you can verify yourself in the public record. Individual advisers can have their own records, so look them up on IAPD and BrokerCheck too. Any Ellevest disclosures sit on the public record, not on anyone's characterization of them.

According to IAPD, Ellevest has been registered with the SEC since September 28, 2015, makes notice filings in 27 jurisdictions, and reports 19 employees, 13 of them in investment advisory roles. As for whether Ellevest is legit, registration is easy to confirm: it has a public CRD and public filings anyone can pull. Registration confirms it's a real, regulated adviser, not that it's the right fit for you.

Reading Ellevest reviews against the public record

Star ratings and client comments capture what working with a firm felt like. They usually don't show what the firm reports to regulators. Before you weigh Ellevest reviews, check three things this profile takes from the public record. First is its pay structure: client payments only, no commissions, which is what makes it fee-only. Second, who owns the firm and what conflicts it discloses. Third, whether its Form ADV reports any disciplinary history. Treat reviews as a supplement to the record, not a substitute for it.

Our take: read the fee schedule in Ellevest's Part 2A before you weigh any star rating. The Item 5.E checkboxes tell you how the firm is paid, not how much, and the amount is what a review can't show you. (Why "too much" may be the wrong question)

How to verify Ellevest yourself

Here's how to confirm all of it in three steps:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/175476.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match Ellevest (CRD #175476, legal name ELLEVEST, INC.) so you're reading the right firm.

To compare Ellevest with other firms checked the same way, browse the Truthifi /advisors hub.

What Ellevest does and who it serves

According to its Form ADV, Ellevest provides financial planning, portfolio management for individuals, small businesses and institutions, and educational seminars.

Its Form ADV (Item 5.D) breaks its clients down by type. Ellevest reports 471 total clients in its latest Form ADV. Three other types report fewer than 5 each, so the total is at least 474:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	100	$93.4 million
High-net-worth individuals	371	$1.01 billion
Pension and profit-sharing plans	Fewer than 5	$1.8 million
Charities	Fewer than 5	$22.2 million
Corporations or other businesses	Fewer than 5	$7 million

All 474 accounts are managed on a discretionary basis, meaning the firm can trade without seeking your approval first. Its main office is in New York, NY.

What the numbers suggest. High-net-worth individuals account for $1.01 billion of the $1.1 billion, roughly 92% of the firm's regulatory assets. Planning reaches further than portfolio management. Item 5.H of the latest filing (2026) reports financial planning for about 1,000 clients in its last fiscal year, roughly twice the 474 managed accounts. One plausible reading is that many planning clients don't have assets managed by Ellevest. The filing doesn't say, so ask the firm which group you'd fall into. (Robo vs. human advice)

It reports that it or a related person has custody of certain client assets, which brings extra safeguards such as surprise examinations. The specifics are in its Form ADV.

---

Great advice runs on the truth. Here's how to bring yours to the table.

Ellevest manages 474 accounts with discretion, but it can weigh only what it can see. A held-away 401(k), a spouse's accounts and fund costs that don't show on a statement stay outside its view unless you bring them in. This is where Truthifi comes in.

How Truthifi can help

Truthifi links your accounts read-only and shows what you own, how it's allocated, how it's performing and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account, by type, and your Truthifi Score. You can share the accounts you choose with your advisor at Ellevest.

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant with MCP sign-in support, such as Claude. Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership for people who only want to use their own assistant. To ask about your fees, you'll need one of the paid monitoring plans, Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+; the pricing page compares what each tier includes.

Ask AI about your Ellevest accounts

Once your accounts are connected read-only, you can ask in plain English:

• "What do I own across my Ellevest accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across these accounts?"

Try it with Truthifi: start for free at app.truthifi.com and run a Monitoring Checkup (limits apply).

No commissions, no ads, no advice: Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. At your bank and broker, Truthifi's access is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free. Link up to 10 connections, per Truthifi platform data. Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

---

FAQ

Is Ellevest a fiduciary? Yes. It's a registered investment adviser (CRD #175476), so it owes a fiduciary duty when it advises you. Its Form ADV doesn't report a broker-dealer registration or a related broker-dealer.

Is Ellevest fee-only? Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) doesn't report commissions as compensation. It's paid by clients through a percentage of assets under management, fixed fees, and other. The fee schedule is in its Form ADV Part 2A.

Who owns Ellevest? Ellevest is principally owned by Sylvia Shiu Han Kwan, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does Ellevest have complaints or disclosures? Its Form ADV answers No to the firm-level disciplinary-history questions. Individual advisers can have their own records on IAPD and BrokerCheck.

Is Ellevest legit? Ellevest is registered with the SEC (CRD #175476) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site, which confirms it is a real, regulated firm. Registration doesn't tell you whether it's the right fit or what you'll pay, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV.

Can AI help me check whether I'm getting good value? Yes. Start free (limits apply): Monitoring Checkup is free and lets you link up to 10 connections, per Truthifi platform data. You can also connect an AI assistant you already use (such as Claude). On Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ you can ask it, in plain English, about the fees on each of your accounts. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

---

About this profile

Truthifi built this profile from the firm's own SEC filings (Form ADV and, where filed, Form CRS). Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. The Truthifi advisor fact packs are an ongoing series checking U.S. investment advisers against their public filings, one firm at a time.

Read next from the Truthifi blog

• Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one
• What is a fiduciary?
• Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question
• How to ask AI about your real investment accounts
• Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?
• All advisor fact packs on Truthifi

---

A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, Ellevest's SEC filings, each linked inline so you can verify it yourself (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with Ellevest. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.

A clean Form ADV is a snapshot of what Ellevest reports today, not a promise about next year's filing. Rechecking CRD #175476 after each annual amendment turns a one-time vetting step into an ongoing habit. Get started with Truthifi · See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure