Fruitful Review: Automated Investing With A Human Side

Fruitful is a financial advice and wealth management firm that’s leaning into the human side of financial advising. 

They're not the only ones. With Gen AI taking the world by storm, it’s interesting to see many financial firms leaning into the human side of finances. After all, personal finance should be just that — personal. 

With a flat monthly fee structure and no investment management fees, Fruitful eliminates the barriers that often prevent young people from getting quality financial advice. Here’s what you need to know. 

What Is Fruitful?

Fruitful is a fee-only financial advisory service that offers advice and investment support to its clients for a flat monthly fee. The company has several Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) who offer financial plans and regular financial advice to clients. Unlike many financial advisors, Fruitful focuses on advice and strategy. It helps clients organize their finances and take practical steps to improve their financial lives. The company will help you invest, if you need help, and it doesn’t charge any additional management fees for assets under management.

What Does It Offer?

In some ways, Fruitful is a typical financial planning firm. However, its flat monthly fee combined with its emphasis on advice rather than investments sets Fruitful apart.

Dedicated Fruitful Guide

Each client is paired with a Fruitful Guide who offers a financial blueprint, and helps with regular adjustments during periodic check-ins. Clients are eligible for unlimited check-ins with their Financial Guide. For example, you can work with your Guide to help you to decide whether to pay off your student loans or buy a new car. They can also help you as you plan for major life events like starting a new job, growing your family, or moving to care for family.

No Investment Minimums

You can start working with Fruitful as soon as you can afford to pay a flat monthly fee to work with one of their Fruitful Guides. Clients can start with no money invested, or you can have millions invested. The fee structure allows Fruitful to serve a broad range of clients, including those who haven’t started to invest yet.

No Management Fees

If you choose to work with Fruitful, your guide can help you with asset management, but you won’t pay any asset management fees. Your monthly fee includes the costs of asset management. This is a solid value for people with at least $250,000 in assets to be managed.

Flat Monthly Fee

Fruitful clients pay a flat fee each month for financial advice. There are no other fees.

Eligible For A High-Yield Savings Account

Fruitful clients can open an FDIC-insured savings account that currently yields 5.00% APY. This is an attractive interest rate that is likely promotional in nature. That said, it’s a great option to save more money for short or mid-term goals like house down payments, emergency funds, etc.

Are There Any Fees?

Fruitful offers a 30-Day free trial. After 30 Days, you start paying. Fees depend on whether your account is single or joint, and the frequency that you pay. Paying the annual fee is the best deal for all clients. Regardless of the plan you choose, you’ll get access to the same Fruitful services.

How Does Fruitful Compare?

We like that Fruitful doesn’t charge extra for investment management. But if that's all you need, a robo-advisor platform like Wealthfront is likely to be less expensive. A couple with $600,000 will only pay slightly less in fees to Fruitful than they will to Wealthfront. Those with less money, pay even less with Wealthfront. Just remember that Wealthfront doesn’t offer personalized financial advice.

Facet Wealth is a fee-only financial advisory firm that allows clients to pay a monthly fee for its services. Fruitful and Facet Wealth have very comparable models though Facet focuses a bit more on the technology part of the relationship. Facet Wealth is more expensive than Fruitful. Overall, if you don’t need specific financial advice from an expert at Facet Wealth, working with Fruitful would be cheaper.

How Do I Open A Fruitful Account?

Select the Get Started button on the Fruitful Website. You'll be asked to answer a few questions about your financial situation and select your Guide. Provide an email address and billing details. If you cancel within 30-days, you won’t have to pay. After that, you can schedule a call with your Guide to figure out your specific next steps.

Is It Safe And Secure?

Investment accounts managed by Fruitful are held with a custodial partner called Apex Clearing. Its deposit accounts are held at a partner bank called Emigrant Bank. By partnering with established financial organizations, Fruitful makes it easier for users to trust that their savings and investments will be held safely and securely. The funds inside the high-yield savings account are FDIC-protected up to $250,000. There has been one online report of a mishandled financial transfer when opening this account.

Overall, Fruitful uses best practices when it comes to safely and securely handling money. The company also appears to use a proprietary technology to help its clients organize their finances. From the legal documents, it appears that this is encrypted and follows bank security standards. This is a great step in the right direction for financial privacy and security. Many financial advisors do not practice safe information handling for their clients, so it's great to see an organization take this seriously. That said, even the most careful companies could lose data in a hack or breach.

How Do I Contact Fruitful?

To contact Fruitful, email support@Fruitful.com. The customer service team responds to email within 24 hours if you send the email between 8AM and 9PM Eastern Time. Fruitful also advertises that clients have phone or video support between 8AM to 6PM Eastern Time, and they can directly connect with their guids.

Is It Worth It?

Fee-based financial planning services like Fruitful offer pricing transparency, and help to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Fruitful is currently a low-price leader and all of its Financial Guides are CFP-certified. Between the free asset management and the low financial cost, Fruitful offers an excellent value for people who are seeking a relationship with a financial advisor.

That said, even the lowest-cost options are expensive. If your financial life is relatively straightforward or you have a very small portfolio, you may do better to avoid the fees and manage your investments and financial plan on your own.

Check out Fruitful here >>

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