Robo-advisor WealthNavi has reached JPY 1.3trn in AUM

Norbert Gehrke
Tokyo FinTech
Published in
3 min readJul 24, 2024

WealthNavi, the provider of “WealthNavi,” the top Japanese robo-advisor in terms of assets under management and number of users, has reached 1.3 trillion yen in assets under management (AUM) as of early July 2024, nearly eight years after the official release in July 2016.

“WealthNavi” automates all the wealth management processes to realize long-term investment with a globally diversified portfolio, using a financial algorithm based on modern portfolio theory. Its functionality, transparency, and simple fees are highly evaluated, and the number of working family customers is increasing. WealthNavi is also acquiring new customers through their alliance partners with strong customer bases.

WealthNavi characterized as a “technology-driven financial institution” with engineers and designers accounting for about half of the employees, and strives to create services that are easy for anyone to use while fulfilling WealthNavi’s fiduciary duties.

Main features of the “WealthNavi” robo-advisor

Automates long-term and diversified wealth management

High-net-worth individuals and institutional investors around the world have been practicing “long-term, dollar-cost averaging and globally diversified” investment. “WealthNavi” automates the entire investment process by utilizing cutting-edge technology. “WealthNavi” allows customers to make long-term and diversified investments in 12,000 securities in about 50 countries through selected ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) based on the modern portfolio theory. All processes of wealth management, from asset allocation, trading of securities, automated deposits to rebalancing, are executed automatically. The wealth management algorithm is published in a white paper and is available to anyone on the website of “WealthNavi.”

“WealthNavi” for busy working families

WealthNavi serves working families, and “WealthNavi” users are mainly in their 20s to 50s. With a risk tolerance assessment served through answering five questions from a PC or smartphone, “WealthNavi” recommends an optimal wealth management plan for each customer and enables customers to check their assets at any time. Even busy working families can easily manage their assets for their comfortable retirement in their spare time.

Supports comfortable wealth management with various functions

A variety of functions such as a “Robo-NISA” that leverages the NISA’s tax exemption benefits while enabling the wealth management of long-term investment with a globally diversified portfolio, a “Life planning tool” that supports the achievement of asset management goals, “Fractional ETF trading” that realizes an optimal portfolio even with a small amount of investment, and “AI wealth management advice” make it possible for customers to manage their assets comfortably. WealthNavi has obtained patents for “Automated deposits with rebalancing” and “Automatic tax optimization (DeTAX) function” for their core technologies.

Lower fee for New NISA accounts

The fee is 1% (1.1% including consumption tax) of the assets under management. If a user makes investments only through automated deposits in the NISA accounts, the weighted average annual management fee is between 0.63–0.67% (0.693–0.737% including tax) depending on the risk tolerance level.

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Tokyo FinTech
Tokyo FinTech

Published in Tokyo FinTech

一般社団法人 (General Incorporated Association) Tokyo FinTech is registered as a non-profit organization in Japan, promoting the domestic ecosystem through innovation

Norbert Gehrke
Norbert Gehrke

Written by Norbert Gehrke

Passionate about strategy & innovation across Asia. At home in Japan. Connector of people & ideas.