Editor's Note: In our “3 Questions” column, we chat with a thought leader within a unique sector of fintech.
Name: Anders Jones
Title: Co-Founder and CEO
Company: Facet Wealth
Web Address: https://facetwealth.com/
We provide full financial planning, by a dedicated CFP Professional, at an affordable price charged as an annual subscription. We don’t charge clients based on assets but rather based on the types of services that we’re providing, as well as the complexity of someone’s financial life. Our average client has $350,000 in assets--so we can serve a market that traditional wealth advisors typically shun.
The industry has struggled for far too long to create true access to comprehensive and high quality financial advice. The cost structure is simply too high. We founded Facet to change that. Our mission is to make high quality financial advice more affordable and accessible to families that need, want and deserve it. The key to creating access lies in our technology. The platform and the technology that we are developing focuses on lowering the cost of service delivery and changing the way families interact with their financial life. It is our technology that allows us to create access to a personal relationship with one of our dedicated CFP(R) professionals, to develop a tailored and comprehensive financial life plan and to do so for an affordable, flat fee.
What are the biggest problems facing the fintech industry in the future?
Fintech is a buzzword that encapsulates a broad swath of technology companies doing a lot of different things--everything from tokenization to back office automation. In general, the challenge that I see in the industry right now is a huge number of companies attacking very specific niches with limited market size. This is a similar dynamic to the ad-tech industry in the early 2010s, and will lead to significant consolidation over the next few years. Few firms have had the courage to take on the large incumbents that own the end client relationship, which is where the most valuable firms will be created in future years.
How do you feel consumers (or if more relevant for your firm – businesses) are adapting to the facet of fintech that your company operates within?
Consumers are beginning to experience unprecedented transparency when it comes to retail financial services, in particular around pricing and conflicts of interest. As the opacity falls away from the market, I’d anticipate increased scrutiny of what one is paying for and what services one is receiving for those fees. That’s why we built Facet to have a completely transparent fee structure, with price tied to value received.
Anders Jones is CEO and co-founder of Facet Wealth, a next-generation financial services firm reinventing financial life management for the mass affluent. An entrepreneur and early-stage investor with experience in building companies to scale, Anders started Facet Wealth in 2016 to break down the cost barrier of full financial planning access, and to offer partner RIAs a responsible and profitable solution for accounts that do not meet their minimums. Prior to Facet, Anders was a founding partner at Argyle Ventures, investing in emerging advertising, fintech and healthcare IT startups. He earned his BA at Stanford and MBA at Wharton University of Pennsylvania.