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Ellevest
Ellevest was launched in 2014 by former Citigroup CFO and Bank of America Global Wealth head Sallie Krawcheck.
Ellevest
Ellevest was launched in 2014 by former Citigroup CFO and Bank of America Global Wealth head Sallie Krawcheck. The firm entered a retail wealth market where roughly one in three US financial advisors were women, designing its advice engine to account for gender-specific variables — career breaks, earlier earnings peaks, and longer retirements — that conventional models ignore. The firm is SEC-registered and identifies as a fee-only RIA with a fiduciary obligation to its clients. The platform delivers two service tiers: Personal Wealth Management ($500,000 minimum) and Private Wealth Management ($1 million minimum). Both combine portfolio management with financial planning at no additional charge. Portfolios span stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and alternatives, with Private Wealth clients gaining access to curated impact private funds. Ellevest's investment philosophy centers on diversification, cost and tax minimization, and goal-driven asset allocation, explicitly rejecting stock selection or market-timing. The firm charges AUM-based fees ranging from 1.25% on $500,000 accounts down to 0.35% on accounts over $100 million, alongside a flat $3,600 financial-planning-only option. The firm has selected impact private investments across its private-funds lineup to generate positive social, economic, or environmental outcomes, integrating donor-advised funds into its taxable account management. The firm's website states it surpassed $1 billion in client assets, earning designation as one of the fastest-growing fee-only RIAs in the country. Custodial support has historically involved Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions. April 2025: Ellevest exited the automated-investing business, transferring qualifying digital accounts to Betterment, a move that concentrates the firm's resources on its full-service wealth management and high-net-worth private-wealth tiers. Ellevest's real structural difference lies in its goal-based planning engine, which reweights standard financial-planning assumptions — replacing generic male mortality tables and linear earnings curves with longevity-aware, pay-gap-adjusted projections built around each client's own stated objectives. That design choice converts a marketing thesis into an actuarial one: by treating women's financial lives as the baseline scenario rather than a variant, the firm's allocation recommendations produce a meaningfully different core model, unavailable at traditional wirehouses that run a single optimization for all clients.
General information
Firm type
RIA
Year founded
2014
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Sallie Krawcheck
Co-Founder & CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Ellevest?
Sallie Krawcheck serves as CEO and co-founder, setting the firm's strategic direction. Ellevest states that its team of women investment professionals manages portfolio construction and financial planning. The firm does not publicly name a separate CIO, reflecting a leadership structure where Krawcheck maintains direct visibility into investment philosophy and product design.
How does Ellevest source private investment opportunities?
Ellevest curates a lineup of impact private funds for its Private Wealth clients, selecting managers across stocks, bonds, and alternatives that align with client values without sacrificing returns. The firm emphasizes positive social, economic, or environmental impact in fund selection. Specific fund names and sourcing channels are not publicly disclosed, though the selection process is integrated into the firm's in-house investment team.
Is Ellevest structured as a single family office or does it operate more like a wealth management firm?
Ellevest operates as a fee-only SEC-registered RIA, not a family office. It serves retail and high-net-worth clients across two service levels with a fiduciary standard. There is no family capital base behind the firm; it is a venture-backed, women-founded financial services company built to serve external clients.
Does Ellevest participate in fund commitments or only direct mandates?
Ellevest constructs client portfolios using a mix of individual securities, ETFs, mutual funds, and impact private funds. The private-funds component is offered exclusively to Private Wealth clients and is structured as curated fund selection rather than co-investment or direct deal participation. Fund commitments sit alongside stocks and bonds within a total-portfolio framework.
What investment stages or minimums does Ellevest target?
Ellevest segments clients by asset level. Personal Wealth Management requires a $500,000 minimum, and Private Wealth Management requires $1 million. The platform does not target institutional limited partners or pension funds. The April 2025 exit from automated investing removed its lowest-account-size tier entirely.
Which sectors does Ellevest explicitly avoid?
Ellevest does not publish a formal exclusion list, but its marketing emphasizes impact-aligned private funds and values-based investing. The firm's investment philosophy explicitly rejects stock-picking and market-timing, meaning it does not run concentrated single-stock mandates or tactical-trading strategies. Fossil-fuel-specific exclusions are not stated on the website.
How is Ellevest related to Betterment and Goldman Sachs?
As of April 2025, Ellevest transferred its digital-investing accounts to Betterment under a formal agreement, with Betterment acquiring the qualifying accounts. Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions has served as custodian for Ellevest accounts, and clients who opted out of the Betterment transfer were directed to Goldman Sachs for continued custody. Ellevest retains no ownership link with either firm.
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