Social Finance is scaling up its wealth management business, the latest step in the company’s plans to offer a broader array of financial products to its young and affluent client base.
SoFi Wealth was launched last year and has mainly been used by individuals who already have a student loan, a personal loan or a mortgage from the San Francisco-based company.
Now the company hopes to use the wealth management service to build new customer relationships. SoFi is seeking to enroll young adults, particularly those in their 30s, who earn good salaries.
“They want to be all things financial services to the future 1%,” said Brendan Ross, the CEO of Direct Lending Investments, a firm that purchase online loans.
As part of the ramp-up, SoFi has launched mobile apps for the wealth management product. The firm is also adding workers at call centers it operates in California and Utah.
SoFi is trying to appeal to investors who want more customer service than robo-advisers provide. The service is free for SoFi borrowers, while other customers can invest up to $10,000 without fees, but pay 0.25% per year after that. Investors can choose from a range of exchange-traded funds.
The privately held firm, which launched in 2011 with a focus on refinancing student loans, is planning to start offering credit cards and deposit products later this year.
“Fundamentally we’ve been a transaction-oriented business,” John Gardner, general manager of SoFi Wealth, said in an interview. “We have this ambition to provide a much more robust suite of products for our customers.”
In a separate development, a SoFi spokeswoman said Monday that Chief Financial Officer Nino Fanlo is leaving the company at the end of the month to become finance chief at Human Longevity, a biotech firm in San Diego.
Steven Freiburg, a former CEO of E-Trade Financial and a SoFi board member, will serve as interim CFO.
