Wealthfront’s Chris Hutchins on checking accounts and self-driving money
- Wealthfront has emerged from an early robo-adviser to become a more formidable banking alternative.
- With new checking account features, the company embarks on its vision of automating money management.
As fintech matures, many of the early pioneers in the space are realizing how important it is to become a user’s primary account. Wealthfront, which began as a robo-adviser, looks a lot like a bank nowadays. The company recently rolled out new checking account features.
Chris Hutchins is the Head of Autonomous Financial Planning at Wealthfront. He joins us on the podcast to talk about his firm’s vision of Self-Driving Money and how the future of financial services will include more autonomous banking services.
Chris was previously the co-founder and CEO of Grove, which was acquired by Wealthfront and co-founder of Milk, which was acquired by Google.
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The following excerpts were edited for clarity.
The evolution of Wealthfront
We started as an investment company with the mission to democratize access to sophisticated investment products. We were one of the first robo-advisers on the market, setting a precedent. Now, almost every financial institution has a robo-adviser. Since then, we have spent a lot of time focused on other parts of the financial ecosystem.
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