Signaling investors' thirst for high yields on cash, Wealthfront told CNBC that it attracted $1 billion from customers interested in the company's FDIC-insured cash account. The feature was formally announced in February. Although it has yet to be linked to investment accounts offered by the firm, the cash account's relatively high interest rate has brought Wealthfront, and the banks it uses behind the scenes, a bundle of assets.
Telegraphing a continued move into a space traditionally occupied by banking, Wealthfront said it planned to launch direct deposit support and a debit card by the end of the year. The firm also said it would eventually offer customers transfers between Wealthfront investing and cash accounts and auto bill pay, but the firm didn't indicate when exactly that would happen, and a spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.
The automated investing platform said two months ago that internal transfers would be functioning in the "near future" for customers.
Wealthfront's investment advisory fee of 25 basis points doesn't apply to cash account balances, but it receives a variable fee, from each participating bank, of up to 2% (on an annualized basis) of the average aggregate daily deposits.
