Intuitive Investor | FAQs | Wells Fargo Advisors (2024)

Open an Intuitive Investor account in a few steps:

1. Answer a few easy questions about your investment goal, time frame, and risk tolerance.
2. View your recommended investment portfolio right away.
3. Choose your investment style (Globally Diversified or Sustainability Focused)
4. Choose from these brokerage account types: Individual, joint, trust, custodial (UGMA/UTMA), Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, or Inherited IRA (Roth or Traditional).
5. Sign your account documents, and then add at least $500 to your account.

Intuitive Investor accounts aren’t charged commission, transaction, or trading fees. Instead, you pay an annual advisory fee of 0.35% on the account balance, divided into a fee that is charged quarterly. Customers who link an Intuitive Investor account to a Wells Fargo Prime Checking, Premier Checking or Private Bank Interest Checking account receive a discounted advisory fee on the Intuitive Investor account of 0.30%.²

There are also management fees and other expenses associated with the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in your portfolio (as explained in each fund’s prospectus in the fees and expense section).

View the full Intuitive Investor account fee schedule (PDF).

And we take it from there. Our intelligent technology invests, monitors, and rebalances your portfolio — all while keeping you updated and informed along the way.

Intuitive Investor accounts offer low-cost, online investing with personalized service and professional advice. Based on your answers to our short questionnaire, we’ll recommend a well-balanced portfolio of cost-effective ETFs that can meet your personal investment objective, time horizon, and risk tolerance. Furthermore, you’ll get to choose between Globally Diversified and Sustainability Focused investment styles.

We’ll take it from there — monitoring your portfolio daily, rebalancing when the portfolio veers from its target asset allocation, and reinvesting any dividends to keep your money working for you. And when you have questions about your investments, our Financial Advisors are available by phone to help. For eligible accounts, you can choose to use our Tax Loss Harvesting (TLH) service (at no additional charge) that identifies potential investment changes in an effort to lower your tax bill (when applicable).¹

Your Intuitive Investor account’s Brokerage Cash Services feature enables you to conveniently transfer money and make deposits, which we then invest into your Intuitive Investor portfolio. For example, you can:

• Transfer money between your Wells Fargo accounts.
• Make teller deposits at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.*
• Deposit checks with your smartphone through Wells Fargo Mobile^®.
• Send and receive money with Zelle^® transfer service.
• Add cash directly through automated clearing house (ACH) or wire transactions.

Your Intuitive Investor account will display as “Intuitive Investor Cash” within Wells Fargo Transfer & Pay and Wells Fargo Mobile deposit.

*Teller deposits are processed through an associated limited-purpose Wells Fargo Bank account in your name, which is automatically opened upon establishment of your Intuitive Investor account (at no additional charge).

We offer Intuitive Investor portfolios for these brokerage account types:

• Individual account
• Joint account
• Trust account
• Custodial (UGMA/UTMA) account
• Traditional IRA
• Roth IRA
• SEP IRA
• Inherited Traditional IRA
• Inherited Roth IRA

Looking for a different account type? To explore other account options, call 1-866-224-5708, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

Your recommended portfolio will be comprised of 7 – 11 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), carefully selected to meet your recommended asset allocation and intended portfolio objective.

In addition to traditional low-cost ETFs that seek to track market-weighted indexes, we also offer ETFs that are designed to track the performance of alternatively weighted indexes, such as equally weighted, fundamentally weighted, and volatility-weighted indexes, in an effort to achieve higher returns and better long-term diversification. Our industry-leading team of research analysts and market strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute select, monitor, and make all necessary changes to the selection of ETFs offered through Intuitive Investor portfolios. You’ll be able to review the individual funds in your portfolio before opening an account, and download their prospectuses. And if you have questions, call a Financial Advisor at 1-855-360-4407 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time).

If we don’t support your existing account type, you may fund your Intuitive Investor account by transferring or wiring cash from any checking or savings account.

You can also call 1-855-283-5567 to discuss your funding options (Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:30 pm Eastern Time).

While we cannot transfer and hold the security in an Intuitive Investor account, you can choose to only transfer a portion of your taxable account to your new Intuitive Investor account. You may then transfer the remaining balance once you’ve determined the gain will be considered long-term. Consult your tax advisor with specific questions.¹

To initiate a partial-account transfer, call 1-855-283-5567, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

You have several choices for making your account-opening investment:

• Transfer or wire cash from any Wells Fargo or external checking or savings account.
• Transfer assets from an existing investment account (individual, joint, trust, custodial, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, Inherited Traditional IRA, Inherited Roth IRA).
• Combine funds from these different accounts to reach $500.

We’re ready to help you with this process. Call 1-855-283-5567, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

If you’re considering closing your account, you have 2 options:

1. Convert your Intuitive Investor portfolio into a self-directed WellsTrade brokerage account. Your account would no longer incur the Intuitive Investor account annual advisory fee, but it would be subject to the WellsTrade account brokerage fees. We do not charge a conversion fee.
2. Close the account completely and instruct Wells Fargo Advisors to either sell your holdings or transfer them into a different brokerage account. This option could incur a $95 fee for processing an outgoing account transfer.

To discuss account-closing options, call us at 1-855-360-4407, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time.

If your balance falls below $100, whether through market declines or withdrawals, we will suspend trading activity (except for client-requested withdrawals) until your balance is at least $100.

Ongoing, if your balance remains below $100 for 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter, we will remove your account’s advisory features and convert it into a WellsTrade® self-directed brokerage account (in accordance with your Intuitive Investor account terms). View a list of brokerage fees that apply to WellsTrade accounts.

We monitor your portfolio daily, rebalancing as often as needed to maintain your portfolio’s target asset allocation within prescribed thresholds.

All rebalancing activity is included in your annual advisory fee of 0.35%.² If your account balance drops below the minimum balance threshold or has another administrative issue not addressed within the required time frame, rebalancing will stop, and we will remove the advisory features of your Intuitive Investor account and convert it into a self-directed WellsTrade brokerage account (in accordance with the terms of your Intuitive Investor account). Learn how the minimum account balance affects rebalancing in your account.

Portfolio changes are to be expected as your financial situation and investment time frame change. To help ensure your investments continue meeting your needs, you can retake our investment questionnaire to get an updated recommendation whenever your situation changes. Note: If your account balance falls below $100, whether through market declines or withdrawals, you will not be able to retake the questionnaire until you increase your balance to at least $100.

Keep in mind that some portfolio changes will require rebalancing, which may result in tax consequences for taxable brokerage accounts.¹ Because Intuitive Investor portfolios are designed as long-term investments, frequent changes can negatively affect your portfolio’s performance. If you’d like to discuss your account, call our Financial Advisors at 1-855-360-4407, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time.

If you fund your Intuitive Investor account with an existing brokerage account, we’ll evaluate your current holdings (selling any that do not align with your Intuitive Investor account objective) as we invest your recommended portfolio.

For example, if you already hold a fund that matches a fund we may otherwise purchase within your portfolio, we will retain some or all of your existing shares of that fund to fulfill the relevant portion of your asset allocation. For more information about this process, call 1-855-283-5567, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

Globally Diversified* portfolios offer a blend of low-cost investment strategies that deliver recommended exposures to domestic and foreign markets. Global investing through diversification provides the opportunity to achieve long-term returns with less risk than investing in a single asset or market.

Sustainability Focused portfolios offer a blend of low-cost globally diversified* investment strategies with a focus on social responsibility. These portfolios have the same risk profiles as standard portfolios, meaning the percentages of equity vs income and cash are the same, but Sustainability Focused portfolios also integrate environmental, social and governance considerations into the investment process. Some ESG considerations are:

*Keep in mind that diversification cannot eliminate the risk of fluctuating prices and uncertain returns.

An investment’s social policy could cause it to forgo opportunities to gain exposure to certain industries, companies, sectors or regions of the economy which could cause it to underperform similar investments that do not operate under a social policy. Risks associated with investing in ESG-related strategies can also include a lack of consistency in approach and a lack of transparency in manager methodologies. A socially responsible investing style may shift in and out of favor. There are many factors to take into consideration when choosing an investment portfolio and ESG data is only one component to potentially consider.

Tax Loss Harvesting is offered within eligible Intuitive Investor accounts, at no additional charge. This optional service looks to strategically offset a portion of your realized capital gains by selling investments for a loss — potentially reducing your taxes. This process allows us to “harvest” the loss for you by selling a declining fund and then purchasing a replacement fund to keep your asset allocation on track. If you have no capital gains to offset, or if your losses outweigh your gains, you can also reduce your ordinary income (up to $3,000 per year) by claiming harvested losses on your tax return, potentially lowering your tax obligation.

If you turn on TLH, it will be applied to all of your eligible Intuitive Investor accounts. Wells Fargo Advisors cannot assume responsibility for any accounts that are not Intuitive Investor accounts — whether held elsewhere or within Wells Fargo Advisors.

While no one wants their investments to lose value, in a diversified portfolio some asset classes may increase in value while others fall. It is these offsetting gains and losses that balance your portfolio’s exposure to risk. By selectively selling funds that have declined, we attempt to offset any taxable gains with realized losses, all while maintaining your portfolio’s asset allocation and risk level.

The upside to TLH is that you can claim harvested losses on your tax return, either offsetting realized capital gains or lowering your ordinary income by up to $3,000 for the tax year. And while our TLH service seeks to optimize your tax efficiencies within your Intuitive Investor account(s), be sure to consult your tax advisor to understand how TLH could affect your broader tax picture.

The potential downside of TLH is that you’re effectively deferring your taxes into the future, so when you finally liquidate your portfolio, you may face a higher tax bill than a traditional buy-and-hold strategy if capital gains tax rates increase.