Arta Finance Review: Digital Family Office

Arta Finance is a fintech company that has created a digital family office for high net worth investors. This includes both traditional family office services (like financial planning and accounting) to access to portfolio management, alternative investments, and more.

Unless you’re a very wealthy person, you probably can’t afford an office full of professionals who optimize every dollar for you.

But you may be able to get similar results by using a tech-first solution like Arta Finance. Here’s what you need to know about it.

Arta Finance is a fintech that has built products that simplify or automate many tasks that wealthy families tend to outsource to professionals. The result is that many investments and services that were reserved only for the wealthy are now accessible to the general public, or at least people who don’t have generational wealth.

Arta Finance still only accepts accredited investors as clients. 

Arta Finance sets up a family office by connecting you with financial professionals who can share insight into various aspects of your finances. The result is that you get better services from all of the financial professionals in your life.

Arta Finance offers a full suite of financial products including cash management, access to alternative investments, advice, trading and hedging strategies, and more.

Family Office Services

One of it’s main offerings is it’s base service – the digital family office. They will use AI are your financial personal assistance, they will connect you with tax and financial planning assistance, and they can offer you various alternative investments that may fit your needs (see below).

Harvest Treasuries AMP

Instead of keeping your cash in a standard savings account earning next to nothing, the cash you keep at Arta Finance is invested in US treasuries. Currently, that means earning 5.24% on your cash. This investment has no minimum holding period, so you can get your cash at any time. It’s a savvy way to boost the return on your emergency fund without taking on much risk. 

Managed Portfolios

Arta Finance has managed portfolio options that include everything from basic portfolios to portfolios with complex hedging strategies. Arta Finance’s offerings are similar to the offerings from Titan, a Robo-advisor that focuses on complex risk management strategies. These strategies may be effective, and wealthy people may use these strategies. However, there is no reason to believe that these strategies are going to outperform a well-diversified portfolio in the long run.

Structured Offerings

Structured offerings are “market-linked” investments that offer different risk and return profiles compared to investing directly in the market. The structured products at Arta Finance have a huge range of optionality, but most have some level of “loss prevention” method baked into the investment.

Most young investors won’t benefit from Arta Finance’s structured offerings. However, those who are closer to retirement may want to use some of the principal protection options Arta Finance offers. 

Access to Alternative Investments

Arta offers clients access to proprietary private investments including private equity and private credit offerings. Because Arta is backed by several major venture capital firms, it has a steady pipeline of qualified opportunities and enticing alternative investments. However, private equity is always a risky investment and investors should carefully review the terms and conditions before buying into any offer.

Whole Life Insurance

One of the more controversial Arta Finance offerings is whole life insurance. Wealthy people often use whole life insurance policies to ensure that estate taxes can easily be paid after their death. But the reality is that whole life is a bad product for most people, who are better off with term life insurance, which is much more affordable. 

It feels like Arta Finance has confused correlation (rich people use whole life insurance) with causation (rich people don’t become rich by buying whole life insurance). 

For accredited investors, AUM fees range between 0.20% and 0.50%, depending on the portfolio you choose. However, Arta is currently waiving the AUM on its Harvest Funds AMP and Principal Protected Growth Investments for a limited time. 

Beyond the AUM fee, Arta does not charge any trading commissions, custody fees, or wire transfer fees. Alternative investment pricing starts at 0.50%, and interest is charged on Arta Finance’s line of credit product, depending on the amount you borrow. 

Qualified Investors and Purchasers (even higher net-worth individuals) have the option of paying an AUM fee, paying a percentage of the investment’s performance, e.g., 5% or 10% of gains, or a combination of the two (AUM + Performance) 

Arta Finance does an excellent job of blending technology with human advice to give clients a full-service financial experience at a low cost. The trouble with Arta Finance is that it doubles down on some of the wrong things. 

Whole life insurance products, fancy trading algorithms, alternative investments, and structured products aren’t going to make the average person rich. Most people are going to have to save and invest throughout their lifetime to build wealth. For many, using a low-cost robo-Advisor such as Wealthfront or Betterment may be better than using a platform that has more complex tools.

From a cost perspective, Arta Finance’s fees are similar to the fees charged by other robo-advisors. The company is advertising a lot of low introductory fees right now, so you may want to keep an eye out for fees that could increase over time.

To open an Arta Finance account, you need to provide your email address, phone number, name, address, and investor status. Arta Finance needs to ensure you’re an accredited investor to accept you as a client. Arta Finance uses multi-factor authentication to ensure that its investor information is kept safe and secure.

Within 12 months of opening an investment account, you must have at least $100,000 invested with Arta Finance or your investment account will be closed.

One of the best parts of Arta Finance is its security. The company uses a passwordless verification system with multiple factors of authentication. This methodology dramatically reduces the likelihood that your financial or personal information could be compromised. The assets that Arta invests for its clients are primarily stored at BNY Mellon and other stable banks.

Overall, the Arta Finance investment platform is secure from a theft or identity theft perspective. However, that does not mean that Arta Finance’s investment products are risk-free. Quite the contrary. Many of Arta Finance’s investment options have major risks including downside risks that are not immediately obvious unless you take the time to understand the fine print. 

Arta Finance is headquartered in Mountain View, California, but it has locations in both California and Singapore. To contact Arta Finance, call 650-318-3898 or contact the company by using its Contact Page. 

Arta Finance seems like a solid product for mass affluent people (Net Worth of $3-$7 million) nearing retirement. People in this demographic have significant wealth, and standard portfolios designed for growth or wealth preservation may not be ideal for them. The option to keep cash in high-yielding treasuries is also valuable.

However, most people don’t need the investment products that Arta Finance offers. The investment products are cool and inexpensive, but they are more complicated than most people need. For most people, a simpler approach to finance is better.

Check out Arta Finance here >>