(Bloomberg) -- Women’s careers are different from men’s, and their retirement planning should be, too, is Sallie Krawcheck's pitch.
Now Krawcheck, who made her name at Citigroup and Bank of America as one of the top women on Wall Street, has closed a hefty new round of funding for her startup robo-adviser, Ellevest.
Founded just over a year ago, Ellevest is an online investing platform that offers exchange-traded funds to help women save for retirement. That doesn’t mean the fund’s ETFs are somehow better suited to women, but that Ellevest tailors their portfolios to women’s needs.
For example, it uses salary curves geared to women, who usually see their highest pay at an earlier age than men and take more career breaks, which slow wage growth.
With longer life spans, women have different risk profiles, too. Ellevest factors all this in so the portfolios it generates better estimate lifetime salaries and how much money its clients will need in retirement.
To help them reach their goals, the firm aims for 90 percent of annual income in savings before retirement, rather than the more typical 50 to 70 percent.
“Forecasting those things out is really important for retirement,” Krawcheck said in an interview.
The new, $34 million round of funding was led by Rethink Impact and included Salesforce Ventures and CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund. Venus Williams and Mohamed A. El-Erian have also backed the startup. El-Erian, chief economic adviser of Pimco parent Allianz, is a Bloomberg View columnist.
Krawcheck, chief executive officer and co-founder of Ellevest, was the chief financial officer and head of global wealth management at Citigroup before heading up wealth management for Bank of America.
Even with her high-powered resume, it isn’t clear how scalable a digital money manager for women is.
Other female-focused robo-advisers have struggled, some unsuccessfully. SheCapital was around for only about a year—though Ellevest itself may have played a part in its demise, having launched at around the same time.
Krawcheck said she is confident she can keep up the pace but acknowleged that raising the money wasn’t easy.
She said she could add more features consumers are asking for, like credit cards and lending, or partner with companies to give advice or create portfolios for their female employees.
Ellevest charges higher fees than some of the other robos, at 0.5 percent of invested assets, which can help it become profitable with less money under management—but can also deter price-conscious customers who look to ETFs for low-cost investing.
Ellevest has grown to just over $50 million in assets under management since launching in November.
For now, the new capital will go toward adding planners to the platform, something Krawcheck says clients have been asking for.
Adding people to the digital mix has been a trend this year among robo-advisers. Betterment LLC. and Charles Schwab both launched hybrid versions in recent months, pairing the technology behind the robo-platform with living, breathing beings.
Krawcheck said Ellevest will keep working with the client “to create exactly what she's looking for.”
Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.