Altruist
Unicorn exit Β· $1.9BAcquiredCulver City, US Β· Founded 2018 Β· 305 employees on LinkedIn Β· 18 known investors
Find your way into Altruist
39 people in our graph share verified history with the Altruist team β schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Altruist is an AI-forward custodian and wealth platform for independent registered investment advisors, handling workflows from client onboarding to reporting on a single system. Founded in 2018, it operates as a broker-dealer with self-clearing capabilities and offers tools including AI-powered tax planning to help advisors run their firms.
Also known as Altruist Corp Β· Altruist Financial LLC Β· Altruist LLC
Founders & leadership
Altruist was founded in 2018 by Jason Wenk.
Investors Β· 18
Also in the syndicate Β· 4
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$152M disclosed across 1 of 5 rounds Β· 2023β2025
- $152MSeries FApr 2025 Β· 3 sources
GIC (lead), Baillie Gifford, Carson Family Office, Geodesic Capital, ICONIQ Growth, Salesforce Ventures
Source β - Undisclosed amountSeries DApr 2023
Adams Street (lead), Insight Partners (lead)
Source β
Source: company announcements and press reports β follow each round's link for the claim.
Valuation Β· disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed β follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Altruist operates a vertically integrated custody and wealth management platform aimed at independent registered investment advisors (RIAs). The platform brings account opening, digital ACAT transfers, commission-free fractional trading of stocks and ETFs with smart order routing, automated portfolio management (rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, fixed-income trading), performance reporting, fee billing, a co-branded client portal and a high-yield cash offering onto a single system. Custody is provided through a self-clearing, fully digital platform, and a Model Marketplace offers more than 500 investment models integrated with Altruist's rebalancer as an alternative to turnkey asset management programs.
The company is regulated by the SEC, FINRA, the OCC and 53 states and territories, and delivers products through its broker-dealer, Altruist Financial LLC, and its registered investment adviser, Altruist LLC. It is a SIPC member and carries an excess policy through Lloyd's of London; cash accounts carry FDIC insurance of up to $3 million for individual, trust and business accounts and up to $6 million for joint accounts through partner banks. Altruist also publishes an asset protection guarantee covering losses from unauthorized activity where basic security measures are maintained.
A more recent focus is Hazel, Altruist's AI platform for wealth professionals, launched in September 2025, which combines real-time custodial data with a firm's CRM, email and meeting notes to answer questions, prepare for meetings and draft client plans. Hazel later added an industry-first custodial integration and AI-powered tax planning. Other product lines include TaxIQ tax management tools, direct indexing models, a digital fixed-income trading center, more than 25 third-party integrations, and Altruist One, a restructured custodian pricing model.
Founding story
Altruist was founded in 2018 by advisor and entrepreneur Jason Wenk. Wenk studied computer science and began his career at Morgan Stanley before launching his own independent advisory firm in 2004, which grew to several billion dollars in client assets. Frustrated by paper-heavy workflows, slow funding, NIGOs, manual processes, decades-old systems and custodian fees that made it hard to lower client prices, he assembled a small team of engineers and former advisors in 2018 in a modest Culver City office to build a single platform covering onboarding through reporting.
Business model
Altruist earns revenue from financial advisors who use its software, from assets invested through its broker-dealer Altruist Financial LLC, and from assets using services made available by its registered investment adviser Altruist LLC. Additional monetized products include the Model Marketplace, high-yield cash and the Altruist One pricing model; performance reporting, fee billing and the client portal were bundled at no additional cost for brokerage accounts custodying with Altruist following the 2023 elimination of PAS fees.
Platform and custodial economics: advisor software fees, revenue tied to assets custodied through the broker-dealer and advisory assets served by Altruist LLC, plus product-level revenue such as the Model Marketplace and cash management. Reported revenue grew 550% in 2023 and at triple-digit rates in 2024.
Traction
The company reported serving more than 4,700 advisors and over 3,150 RIA firms (roughly 10% market share by firm count) around its April 2025 round, and later states that 6,000+ independent advisors run their firms on Altruist. Assets under management tripled in each of two consecutive years through 2024, revenue rose 550% in 2023 and at triple-digit rates in 2024, and average practice size on the platform grew 43% year over year. Enterprise wins include Civic Financial (exclusive custodian) and Holistic Planning, a $1.25 billion Texas advisory firm.
Latest developments
On August 26, 2026 Altruist published "Vanguard to Acquire Altruist, Expanding the Reach and Impact of Financial Advice" alongside a letter from founder and CEO Jason Wenk. Earlier in 2026 the company added AI-powered tax planning within Hazel (February 2026), and announced custodial mandates from Civic Financial as exclusive custodian (July 2026) and Holistic Planning as preferred custodial partner (June 2026), the latter including work on an agentic operating system for financial advisors. The company also states that its AI-powered tax planning tool shifted an estimated $20 billion in market value in a single day in 2026.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Altruist positions itself as a challenger to incumbent RIA custodians. The 2025 T3/Inside Information Software Survey put its custody market share at 6.25%, doubling year over year but still fourth behind Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing, with All-Star recognition in five software categories and an 8.36 user satisfaction score in portfolio management. The company cites the T3/Inside Information Software 2026 Survey as ranking it the highest-rated custodian, and reports 112% year-over-year growth in the number of RIAs served.
A single, self-clearing platform that consolidates custody, trading, portfolio management, billing and reporting rather than requiring separate reporting or TAMP vendors; commission-free fractional trading; bundled reporting, billing and client portal; Model Marketplace strategies priced below the estimated average TAMP; and Hazel, described as the first AI platform for wealth managers to unify real-time data from a major custodian with CRM, email and meeting notes. Geodesic Capital cited labor cost reductions of 40-60% for RIAs using the unified platform.
Technology
A fully digital, self-clearing custodial platform with instant account creation across 30+ account types, paperless ACAT transfers, an automated rebalancer, tax-aware trading and tax-loss harvesting (TaxIQ), direct indexing models, a digital fixed-income trading center, FIX-based trading integrations with third-party platforms such as Orion and Advyzon, and 25+ integrations spanning CRM and financial planning. Hazel is the company's AI layer, unifying real-time custodial data with CRM, email and meeting notes, and includes AI-powered tax planning.
Go-to-market
Direct sales and self-serve onboarding to RIA firms, supported by content marketing (advisor guides, case studies, webinars, playbooks), in-person events such as Build to Grow NYC, third-party software integrations that place Altruist inside existing advisor tech stacks, advisor testimonial and referral programs, and enterprise custodial partnerships in which firms name Altruist their exclusive or preferred custodian.
Independent registered investment advisors in the United States, ranging from newly launched breakaway firms to larger established RIAs and enterprise advisory firms; end clients of those advisors use Altruist's client portal and mobile app.
Geography
Headquartered in Culver City in the Los Angeles area, California, serving advisors across the United States, with regulatory registration in 53 states and territories. Investors include Singapore's GIC. Company events include Build to Grow NYC.
History
After launching in 2018, Altruist became a broker-dealer and developed self-clearing capabilities, growing from a handful of employees to hundreds as thousands of advisors moved assets onto the platform. It eliminated PAS fees for brokerage accounts in September 2023, launched TaxIQ tax management tools and its Model Marketplace in 2024, and added a fixed-income trading center, high-yield cash and direct indexing. In May 2024 it raised $169 million led by Iconiq Growth at a valuation above $1.5 billion, and in April 2025 it closed a $152 million Series F led by GIC at roughly $1.9 billion, bringing total capital raised to more than $600 million from investors including Insight Partners, ICONIQ, GIC, Venrock, Vanguard and Salesforce Ventures. In June 2025 it acquired AI productivity platform Thyme, introduced the Altruist One pricing model in July 2025, and launched the Hazel AI platform in September 2025, adding a custodial data integration in November 2025 and AI-powered tax planning in February 2026. In August 2026 Altruist announced that Vanguard would acquire the company.
Risks & controversies
Altruist remains a distant fourth in custody market share behind Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing. Its own site notes that Model Marketplace cost comparisons against TAMPs may not fully account for differences in features or services, and that advisor testimonials come from clients who received compensation or other benefits through Altruist programs, creating conflicts of interest. Coverage of the pending Vanguard transaction notes that Vanguard settled a lawsuit related to its earlier RIA-industry acquisition, Just Invest, weeks before the Altruist deal.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Founder mafia
4 people who came through Altruist went on to found or lead other companies.
Timeline Β· 18
launches, deals, and filingsAltruist announced that Vanguard would acquire the company, published alongside a letter from founder and CEO Jason Wenk.
Texas-based $1.25 billion advisory firm selected Altruist to support growth and to develop an agentic operating system for financial advisors.
Hazel became the first AI platform for wealth managers to unify real-time data from a major custodian with CRM, emails and meeting notes.
Altruist acquired Thyme, an AI-powered productivity platform for financial advisors.
Series F round led by Singapore's GIC with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Iconiq Growth, Geodesic Capital, Baillie Gifford and Carson Family Office; brings total raised since inception to more than $600 million.
$152M source β
Recent executive hires included former Coinbase and Uber executive Sumanth Sukumar as CTO and former Intuit executive Rich Rao as chief business officer.
Altruist earned All-Star recognition in five software categories, including custody and portfolio management.
Altruist introduced TaxIQ, a suite of tax management solutions including automated tax-loss harvesting and tax-aware rebalancing.
Round led by Iconiq Growth with Granite Capital Management, Adams Street Partners and Sound Ventures, following 550% revenue growth in 2023.
$169M source β
Advisors custodying with Altruist received PAS, reporting, fee billing and the client portal at no additional cost.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
Are Altruist's tech and low fees enough to tame the giants? | Financial Planningfinancial-planning.com Β· Aug 2026βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Altruistaltruist.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Altruist do?
- Altruist is a self-clearing custodian and wealth platform for independent RIAs, combining custody, trading, billing and reporting.
- Who founded Altruist?
- Altruist was founded by Jason Wenk in 2018.
- Who are Altruist's investors?
- Altruist's investors include Declaration Partners, ICONIQ, Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Venrock, GIC, Collective Liquidity, Craft Ventures and 6 more.
- How much funding has Altruist raised?
- Altruist has disclosed $152M raised across 1 of its 5 known rounds.
- Where is Altruist headquartered?
- Altruist is headquartered in Culver City, US.