No commissions, no ads, no advice. This Wealthfront profile draws only on public records, each linked so you can confirm it yourself.

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The short answer: is Wealthfront a fiduciary?

Yes. Wealthfront is a fiduciary when it acts as your investment adviser, though not every account tied to the firm is necessarily an advisory account. Publicly, it files with the SEC as Wealthfront Advisers (CRD #148456). As of its latest Form ADV (filed July 23, 2026), the firm reported $47.7 billion in regulatory assets under management (a firm-reported figure). Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists two ways it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, plus compensation it classifies only as "other." Every line here traces to a public filing you can pull yourself in a few minutes.

Its Form ADV also reports that a related person is a broker-dealer (Item 7.A), and brokerage accounts fall under Regulation Best Interest instead. Ask which capacity applies to each account you hold there. The firm must tell you.

What "fiduciary" means: according to the SEC's interpretation of the adviser standard (2019), an adviser owes clients a duty of care and a duty of loyalty, so it must place the client's interests ahead of its own. That duty attaches to the advisory relationship; an account at a related broker-dealer is held to Regulation Best Interest, a separate standard. (More on fiduciary duty)

Wealthfront at a glance

✅ Checked against public filings as of October 5, 2026. Wealthfront (SEC CRD #148456) acts as a fiduciary when serving as your adviser, charges on an advisory-fee basis, and reports $47.7 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	Wealthfront	Source
SEC CRD	#148456	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser, with a related person that is a broker-dealer (Form ADV Item 7.A)	IAPD
Registered since	November 21, 2008 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes, when acting as your adviser	SEC adviser standard
Fee model	Advisory fees (no commissions reported in Item 5.E)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	Percentage of assets under management; "other" also checked	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$47.7 billion (Form ADV filed July 23, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	687,493 (618,466 discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	432 (24 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Parent-owned	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Form ADV answers Yes to one or more disciplinary questions. Read them on IAPD	IAPD
HQ	Palo Alto, CA	IAPD

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Wealthfront fees: what you'll pay

Wealthfront's pay structure fits on one line of its filing, and that line rewards a close read. Wealthfront charges advisory fees: its Form ADV (Item 5.E) reports no commissions for its advisory services. The same filing discloses that the firm or a related company also engages in broker-dealer, insurance or other sales activity, work that can be paid by commissions. It helps to know how each piece of the relationship compensates the firm. Item 5.E pairs the asset-based fee with a second box marked "other," and Form ADV Part 2A is where the firm explains what that covers.

Clients pay advisory fees to the adviser directly. Commissions earned through a related broker-dealer or insurance business come from a separate source of pay. For how asset-based pricing compares with flat or hourly fees, see Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one, and for why the fee rate alone can mislead, Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question. For the costs that don't show up as an advisory fee, see hidden investment fees.

Who owns Wealthfront, and what conflicts does it disclose?

Who stands behind Wealthfront is documented in its SEC filings, not left to guesswork. Wealthfront is owned by Wealthfront Corporation, 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.

Wealthfront SEC record: disclosures

To check Wealthfront's regulatory record, start with the firm's own filings. Wealthfront's Form ADV answers Yes to one or more disciplinary-history questions. Such a disclosure can involve a regulatory, civil or criminal matter tied to the firm or a related person. Each item is listed on IAPD with its context. Whatever Wealthfront disclosures exist live on the public record, so you can read them firsthand rather than through a secondhand summary.

On the record, the firm has been registered with the SEC since November 21, 2008, makes notice filings in 53 jurisdictions, and reports 432 employees, 24 of them in investment advisory roles (IAPD). If you're asking "is Wealthfront legit?", start with registration: a public CRD and filings anyone can pull. That's what establishes it as a genuine, regulated adviser. Whether Wealthfront is the right fit for you is a separate question.

Reading Wealthfront reviews against the public record

What a firm was like to work with is what star ratings and client comments capture. They usually don't show what the firm reports to regulators. Before you weigh Wealthfront reviews, check three things against the public record. First, how the firm is paid: it reports advisory fees with no commissions, yet maintains a broker-dealer or insurance connection. Second, who owns the firm and what conflicts it discloses. Third, whether its Form ADV reports any disciplinary history. Reviews and the record answer different questions, so they work best read together.

How to verify Wealthfront yourself

Run these three checks on the SEC's free IAPD site:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/148456.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match Wealthfront (CRD #148456, legal name WEALTHFRONT ADVISERS LLC) so you're reading the right firm.

Comparing Wealthfront with another firm? The same record is summarized for other advisers on the Truthifi /advisors hub.

What Wealthfront does and who it serves

On its Form ADV, Wealthfront reports providing portfolio management for individuals, small businesses and institutions.

Its Form ADV (Item 5.D) breaks its clients down by type, 518,639 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	505,816	$30.25 billion
High-net-worth individuals	12,784	$17.19 billion
Charities	21	$201.3 million
Corporations or other businesses	18	$91.3 million

It reports 687,493 client accounts held by those 518,639 clients, about 1.3 accounts per client. Of those accounts, 618,466 are discretionary (the firm can trade without seeking your approval first) and 69,027 non-discretionary (Item 5.F). Its main office is in Palo Alto, CA.

It reports it does not itself take custody of client assets, though a related person does (Form ADV Item 9.B).

What the numbers say about how Wealthfront works

Two ratios stand out in the Form ADV (2026) figures above, taken from the SEC's IAPD filing; the arithmetic is ours. First, 24 of 432 employees, about 5.6%, work in advisory roles: roughly one advisory staffer for every 28,600 accounts. One plausible reading is that software handles much of the day-to-day portfolio work, which would be consistent with about 90% of accounts being discretionary, though the filing doesn't say so directly.

Second, high-net-worth clients are about 2.5% of the client count but hold about 36% of the assets. Form ADV lists them separately from other individuals, so each average comes from its own row: $17.19 billion across 12,784 high-net-worth clients is roughly $1.3 million each, while $30.25 billion across 505,816 other individuals is about $60,000 each. The firm serves both, but the dollars lean further toward wealthier clients than the headcount suggests. On our reading, Wealthfront looks geared to the mass-market investor who wants software-driven management at an asset-based fee. The staff-to-account ratio suggests it may be a weaker fit for someone who expects regular one-on-one time with a human adviser.

If you want to talk decisions through with a named person, it's worth asking Wealthfront in writing what human access your account includes before you move money. The staffing ratio suggests that access may be limited. For the trade-offs, see Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?

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Vetting the firm is quick. Seeing your whole financial picture is the part that pays off.

Confirming Wealthfront is registered takes a few minutes. Seeing how a Wealthfront portfolio fits with the rest of your money takes more. Wealthfront's statements cover the accounts it manages, while a workplace 401(k), an old IRA or a brokerage account elsewhere sits outside that view. This is where Truthifi comes in. Get started with Truthifi

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 Wealthfront. See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant that supports MCP sign-in, such as Claude. Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership for people who only want to use their own assistant. If fees are the reason you're connecting, choose Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+, the plans that let your assistant answer fee questions. See how to ask AI about your real investment accounts.

Ask AI about your Wealthfront accounts

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

• "What do I own across my Wealthfront accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees on each of these accounts, in dollars?"

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. Its access to your bank and brokerage accounts is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free. Link up to 10 connections (per Truthifi platform data on plan limits). Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

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FAQ

Is Wealthfront a fiduciary? Yes, when acting as your adviser. Its Form ADV reports a related person that is a broker-dealer, and brokerage accounts fall under Regulation Best Interest instead. Ask which capacity covers each of your accounts.

Is Wealthfront fee-only? Not necessarily. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) reports no commissions for advisory services, but the filing also reports broker-dealer, insurance or other sales activity by the firm or a related company, which can be paid differently. Ask how everyone you deal with is paid. The details are in its Form ADV Part 2A.

Who owns Wealthfront? Wealthfront is owned by Wealthfront Corporation, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does Wealthfront have complaints or disclosures? Yes. Its Form ADV answers Yes to one or more disciplinary-history questions. Read each item on IAPD, in context. A disclosure is not by itself proof of current wrongdoing.

Is Wealthfront legit? Wealthfront is registered with the SEC (CRD #148456) 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. 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.

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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

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

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A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, Wealthfront's SEC filings, each linked inline so you can verify it yourself (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026; page updated October 6, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with Wealthfront. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.

One question no filing answers: whether the fee you pay Wealthfront buys anything your other accounts don't already give you. That answer sits in your own statements, read side by side, not in Form ADV.