ClimateSmart: Individuals.
What you pay and what you get.
If you're an individual, couple, family, or trust looking
for help investing in our ClimateSmart portfolios,
this is what you can expect to pay and what
you can expect from us.
What you'll pay:
These annual fees are deducted monthly from the available cash balance in your account(s)
Our base fee enables us to provide everyone the same, human-centric service, with no minimums.
The more you grow your assets under management with us, the lower your fees will be.
What you'll get:
Fees are deducted monthly from excess cash in your account(s)
Email us or book a call. We're real humans, who really care, who always strive to explain things without jargon.
In addition to Core ClimateSmart we offer Climate Only (just climate stocks/bonds) and Yield (a savings account alternative).
From the stock market to climate news, we keep you up to date in our highly complimented monthly newsletter.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much do investment programs like this usually cost?
They generally charge somewhere between 0.25% - 0.50% of AUM plus fund fees. Some also charge monthly fees from $1 - $9 per month.
Our goal is to charge enough that we can offer our individual investor program available with no minimums while still providing client service and support we feel proud of.
Are there any minimums?
Nope! We've structured our fees so that anybody can start working with us, no matter how much you start with.
Who is Altruist?
Altruist is the brokerage and custodial platform we use to host and manage accounts for our individual investors.
They are the 3rd largest custodian in the country. We find their user interface to be elegantly simple and overall they have been strong partners for us since we began with them in 2020.
What would the annual fees be on an account with $10,000 in it?
The first $5,000 would have our base fee of 1.00% applied, so that would be $50.
Anything above that would be charged 0.25%. So for the next, $5,000 the fee would be $12.50.
In total, the fees would be $62.50 on $10,000 or 0.625%.
We structure our fees this way so we can offer our individual investor service to anybody, without minimums, and you have an incentive to save more over time.
What would the annual fees be on an account with $100,000 in it?
The first $5,000 would have our base fee of 1.00% applied, so that would be $50.
Anything above that would be charged 0.25%. So for the next, $95,000 the fee would be $237.50.
In total, the fees would be $287.50 on $100,000 or 0.2875%.
We structure our fees this way so we can offer our individual investor service to anybody, without minimums, and you have an incentive to save more over time.
What about fund fees?
There's two fees one typically pays for a managed investment portfolio like this, the management fee (which we outlined above) and the underlying fund fees.
The fund fees are the fees the fund managers charge. Unlike management fees, you won't see them withdrawn directly from your account value, but instead they are the difference between the fund price and the underlying value of the assets in the fund.
Our average fund fees are neither the lowest, nor the highest you'll find. Most portfolios come in around 0.40%. You can see each fund in the ClimateSmart portfolio breakdown.
While you can definitely find cheaper funds out there, none exist that follow our theses or investment criteria. This is why we've both had to launch our own funds and use other, more expensive ones.
What this means is that if low fund fees are your #1 priority, then a more traditional passive index-based portfolio might be a better fit for you.
But if you agree that our core beliefs could lead to long term outperformance of such indices, then the higher fund fees of ClimateSmart could make sense for you.
Our difference
01.
We're clear eyed.
We think financial security and climate health are directly linked.
02.
We're independent.
We're not owned by a big bank or Wall Street firm.
03.
We're real people.
You'll feel it the moment you meet us.