Intuitive Investor® Account FAQs

In short, Intuitive Investor accounts offer low-cost, online investing with personalized service and professional advice. Based on your answers to our short questionnaire, we’ll recommend a well-balanced portfolio of cost-effective funds that can meet your personal investment objective, time horizon, and risk tolerance.

We’ll take it from there — monitoring your portfolio daily, rebalancing when the portfolio veers from its target asset allocation, and reinvesting any dividends to keep your money working for you. And when you have questions about your investments, our Financial Advisors are available by phone to help. For taxable accounts, you can choose to use our Tax Loss Harvesting (TLH) service (at no additional charge) that identifies potential investment changes in an effort to lower your tax bill (when applicable).¹

Intuitive Investor accounts aren’t charged commission, transaction, or trading fees. Instead, you pay an annual advisory fee of 0.50% on the account balance, divided into a fee that is charged quarterly. Customers who link an Intuitive Investor account to a Wells Fargo Bank Portfolio by Wells Fargo® program² receive a 20% discount on the Intuitive Investor account advisory fee.³

There are also management fees and other expenses associated with the funds in your portfolio (as explained in each fund’s prospectus in the fees and expense section).

View the full Intuitive Investor account fee schedule (PDF).

Open an Intuitive Investor account in a few easy steps:

1. Answer 8 easy questions about your investment goal, time frame, and risk tolerance.
2. View your recommended investment portfolio right away.
3. Open an account online (choose a standard brokerage account (individual or joint), Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, or SEP IRA).
4. Sign your account documents, and then add at least $10,000 to your account.

And we take it from there. Our intelligent technology invests, monitors, and rebalances your portfolio — all while keeping you updated and informed along the way.

Yes, we offer Intuitive Investor accounts for Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs. And when you open an Intuitive Investor IRA, you have the option to roll over assets from another IRA, or to roll over a plan held with a former employer (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), 457(b)).

Yes, we offer joint accounts for our taxable standard brokerage accounts.

Your Intuitive Investor account’s Brokerage Cash Services feature enables you to conveniently transfer money and make deposits, which we then invest into your Intuitive Investor portfolio. For example, you can:

• Transfer money between your Wells Fargo accounts.
• Make teller deposits at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.*
• Deposit checks with your smartphone through Wells Fargo Mobile^® deposit.
• Send and receive money with Zelle® transfer service.
• Add cash directly through automated clearing house (ACH) transactions.

Your Intuitive Investor account will display as “Intuitive Investor Cash” within Wells Fargo Transfer & Pay and Wells Fargo Mobile deposit.

*Teller deposits are processed through an associated limited-purpose Wells Fargo Bank account in your name, which is automatically opened upon establishment of your Intuitive Investor account (at no additional charge).

Your recommended portfolio will be comprised of 8 – 14 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), carefully selected to meet your recommended asset allocation and intended portfolio objective.

In addition to traditional low-cost ETFs that seek to track market-weighted indexes, we also offer ETFs that are designed to track the performance of alternatively weighted indexes, such as equally weighted, fundamentally weighted, and volatility-weighted indexes, in an effort to achieve higher returns and better long-term diversification. Our industry-leading team of research analysts and market strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute select, monitor, and make all necessary changes to the selection of ETFs offered through Intuitive Investor portfolios. You’ll be able to review the individual funds in your portfolio before opening an account, and download their prospectuses. And if you have questions, call a Financial Advisor at 1-855-360-4407 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time).

Yes. After completing the short questionnaire, you can view an online breakdown of asset classes and individual funds that are in your recommended portfolio (including ticker symbols and allocation percentages). If you have specific questions about the individual funds in your recommended portfolio, call a Financial Advisor at 1-855-360-4407 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time).

Opening an Intuitive Investor account requires an initial investment of $10,000, funded within 90 days. While you may begin the account set-up process with less, your cash will remain uninvested until your balance reaches $10,000.

After your account has been fully funded and traded, if your balance falls below $7,500, whether through market declines or withdrawals, Wells Fargo Advisors will suspend trading activity (except for client requested withdrawals) until your balance is at least $7,500. In addition, if your balance remains below $7,500 for 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter, we will remove your account’s advisory features and convert it into a WellsTrade® self-directed brokerage account (in accordance with the terms of your Intuitive Investor account).
View a list of brokerage fees that apply to WellsTrade accounts.

Because the IRS limits how much cash you can contribute to your IRAs each year, these are your options for meeting the $10,000 Intuitive Investor account minimum.

Roth and Traditional IRAs:

1. If you have an existing IRA with assets of at least $10,000, you may transfer it after opening an Intuitive Investor IRA. Note: If the value of your existing IRA is less than $10,000, you may be able to reach the $10,000 minimum by transferring your existing IRA and then making a cash contribution (while staying within the IRS annual cash contribution limit).
2. If you combine your current tax year and previous tax year contributions (between January 1 and April 15 of the current tax year) to meet the account minimum, you can fund your Intuitive Investor IRA online, entirely with cash. Be sure to designate the appropriate tax year when transferring your cash. If you need help, call us at 1-855-283-5567

SEP IRA:

1. If you’re eligible to contribute at least $10,000 to a SEP IRA for this tax year (or can reach $10,000 by combining contributions from the current and previous tax years), you can fund your Intuitive Investor SEP IRA online, entirely with cash. If you need help, call us at 1-855-283-5567.
2. If you have an existing SEP IRA with assets of at least $10,000, you may transfer it after opening an Intuitive Investor SEP IRA.

If you have questions about your Intuitive Investor IRA funding options, please call 1-855-283-5567 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time).

After signing on to your Intuitive Investor account, select Request a Withdrawal from the “I would like to” dropdown menu. From there, you tell us how much you’d like to withdraw and, if necessary, we’ll sell shares to meet your requested withdrawal amount (while maintaining your portfolio’s target asset allocation). The process generally takes 5 business days (including settlement time). We’ll email you when the cash is available, and you can then withdraw the funds by signing on to your account, selecting Transfer & Pay, and then choosing Transfer Money. Remember to withdraw your requested cash within 30 days or it may be reinvested into your portfolio. Note: Selling securities to meet a requested cash withdrawal amount could have tax implications.¹

IRA withdrawals require you to file an IRA Distribution Request (PDF) that we can keep on file for future IRA withdrawals. Once your funds are available for withdrawal, we’ll send an email asking you to call us at 1-855-283-5565 to provide distribution instructions. We’re available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once we receive your instructions and the completed form, we’ll distribute your funds within 1 business day.

If at any point you’d like to close your account, call us at 1-855-283-5565, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To select a portfolio for your investment needs, we’ll guide you through a short set of questions designed to help us understand your investing goal, measure your comfort with risk, and determine your investment time frame. Using your responses, we’ll suggest a portfolio that we believe matches your investment objective, risk tolerance, and time horizon.

If you’re considering closing your account, you have 2 options:

1. Convert your Intuitive Investor portfolio into a self-directed WellsTrade brokerage account. Your account would no longer incur the Intuitive Investor account annual advisory fee, but it would be subject to the WellsTrade account brokerage fees. And we do not charge a conversion fee.
2. Close the account completely and instruct Wells Fargo Advisors to either sell your holdings or transfer them into a different brokerage account. This option could incur a $95 fee for processing an outgoing account transfer.

To discuss account-closing options, call us at 1-855-283-5565, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Call us at 1-855-283-5565, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you’re not satisfied with your Intuitive Investor account, you can activate the satisfaction guarantee within 90 days of your portfolio being invested. We’ll refund all advisory fees paid during this period, and we’ll also waive any outgoing account transfer and IRA termination fees. Please note that this guarantee does not protect you against market losses. Call 1-855-283-5567 for more information.

Intuitive Investor accounts aren’t charged commission, transaction, or trading fees. Instead, you pay an annual advisory fee of 0.50% on the account balance, divided into a fee that is charged quarterly based on the account balance. Customers who link an Intuitive Investor account to a Wells Fargo Bank Portfolio by Wells Fargo program² receive a 20% discount on the Intuitive Investor account advisory fee.³

There are also management fees and expenses associated with the funds in your portfolio (as explained in each fund’s prospectus in the fees and expense section). View the full Intuitive Investor account fee schedule (PDF).

We also offer a Tax Loss Harvesting (TLH) service for taxable Intuitive Investor accounts at no additional charge. This service looks to strategically offset a portion of your realized capital gains by selling investments for a loss — potentially reducing your tax liability.¹

Through Wells Fargo Transfer & Pay, you can access any checking or savings account to make a one-time transfer or set up recurring automatic transfers. Your eligible Wells Fargo accounts will automatically appear in the dropdown menus, and you can also add non-Wells Fargo checking or savings accounts.

WithWells Fargo Mobile deposit, you can add funds to your account using your mobile device, and you can make deposits at any Wells Fargo branch. We will then invest that money into your Intuitive Investor portfolio.

You can also transfer an existing brokerage account or brokerage IRA into your Intuitive Investor account through an online digital account transfer. To initiate an online transfer, sign on at wellsfargo.com, choose Customer Service, and then Forms. Locate the Client Account Transfer form and select Submit Online to request an online transfer. If you’d rather mail or fax the form to us, select Form #593314 to download it. If you need help initiating a transfer, call us at 1-800-872-3377 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Wells Fargo Advisors holds the funds in your Intuitive Investor brokerage account, serves as the broker-dealer for all trades, processes any dividends and interest, and produces all 1099s and tax documents.

We do not offer WellsTrade account conversions. Instead, you can use cash or investments from an existing WellsTrade account to fund your Intuitive Investor account.

We do not currently offer Intuitive Investor portfolios for these account types, but we are working to offer them in the future. To explore other options for these types of accounts, call us at 1-866-224-5708, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday, 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Our portfolios are comprised of ETFs. In addition to traditional low-cost ETFs that seek to track market-weighted indexes, we also offer ETFs that are designed to track the performance of alternatively weighted indexes, such as equally weighted, fundamentally weighted, and volatility-weighted indexes, in an effort to achieve higher returns and better long-term diversification. Since each portfolio’s primary goals are diversification and improvement of portfolio risk/return potential at the lowest cost, the ETFs in Intuitive Investor portfolios typically have overall expense ratios of around 0.15% of assets, annually. These ETFs are selected and monitored by our industry-leading team of research analysts and market strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Depending on your investment objective, the mix of ETFs used is broadly diversified among the three primary asset groups: (1) equities — including large-, mid-, and small-cap U.S.-based stocks and international (non-U.S.) developed and emerging market equities, (2) fixed income — U.S. government/agency bonds, investment grade bonds, and high yield bonds, as well as international (non-U.S.) developed and emerging market bonds, and (3) real assets — real estate in the form of real estate investment trusts (REITs). Your portfolio will also include a small cash allocation in the form of a Cash Sweep Program, to provide portfolio diversification and liquidity.

We monitor your portfolio daily, rebalancing as often as needed to maintain your portfolio’s target asset allocation within prescribed thresholds.

All rebalancing activity is included in your annual advisory fee of 0.50%.³ But if your account balance drops below the minimum balance threshold or has another administrative issue, rebalancing will stop, and we will remove the advisory features of your Intuitive Investor account and convert it into a self-directed WellsTrade brokerage account (in accordance with the terms of your Intuitive Investor account). Learn more about how the minimum account balance affects the advisory features of your account.

If you fund your Intuitive Investor account with an existing brokerage account, we’ll evaluate your current holdings (selling any that do not align with your Intuitive Investor account objective) as we invest your recommended portfolio.

For example, if you already hold a fund that matches a fund we may otherwise purchase within your portfolio, we will retain some or all of your existing shares of that fund to fulfill the relevant portion of your asset allocation. For more information about this process, call us at 1-855-283-5566, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

The Intuitive Investor portfolios are designed to seek the highest possible returns in relation to the portfolio’s risk level, and strive to meet that goal by efficiently diversifying across many asset classes. Properly diversified portfolios are built to help withstand market fluctuations by including various types of investments with varying degrees of risk. But keep in mind that diversification cannot eliminate the risk of fluctuating prices and uncertain returns.

The team of research analysts and market strategists at Wells Fargo Investment Institute work together to design the Intuitive Investor portfolios. They consider historical risk, return, and correlation information to combine asset classes in proportions that target the highest return potential at different levels of risk. Based on these prescribed allocations, the research and strategy teams seek cost-effective funds to best fulfill the asset allocation targets and intended portfolio objectives.

Your questionnaire answers provide insight into your investment objective, time horizon, and risk tolerance, all of which factor into the portfolio we recommend for you. For example, even if you indicate a willingness to take on a lot of risk, your stated investment objective or time frame may cause us to recommend a portfolio with a lower level of risk as we evaluate your responses holistically.

Portfolio changes are to be expected as your financial situation and investment time frame change. To help ensure your investments continue meeting your needs, you can retake our investment questionnaire to get an updated recommendation whenever your situation changes. Note: If your account balance falls below $7,500, whether through market declines or withdrawals, you will not be able to retake the questionnaire until you increase your balance to at least $7,500.

Keep in mind that some portfolio changes will require rebalancing, which may result in tax consequences for taxable brokerage accounts.¹ Because Intuitive Investor portfolios are designed as long-term investments, frequent changes can negatively affect your portfolio’s performance. If you’d like to discuss your account, call our Financial Advisors at 1-855-360-4407, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time.

Any dividends or other distributions from the funds in your account will accumulate as part of your portfolio’s cash allocation until we purchase additional shares for you.

Since we last rebalanced your portfolio, your current holdings may have shifted slightly away from your target asset allocation. We monitor your account daily, allowing allocations within your portfolio to drift within pre-determined, risk-based ranges to help limit the potential for ineffective or unnecessary trading. Also, any ETFs in your portfolio cannot be purchased in partial shares, so the share price of individual ETFs will affect how closely your portfolio can be allocated to the target percentages.

Online security is a top priority for Wells Fargo. Because threats are ever-changing, Wells Fargo is proactively advancing our security to help protect your financial information with evolving technology and committed support. Find our procedures for identifying you online, protecting your data, and protecting against unauthorized transactions at our Fraud Information Center. These security procedures, designed to minimize fraudulent transactions, are backed by Wells Fargo’s Online Security Guarantee.

Only you can add or withdraw funds from your account, or request Wells Fargo Advisors to do so on your behalf. The one exception is the annual advisory fee of 0.50%, which is divided into a quarterly amount and subtracted from the cash portion of your account.³

Protecting our clients’ privacy is a top priority for Wells Fargo. View details about our privacy policies.

Call us at 1-855-283-5565, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You have several choices for making your account-opening investment:

• Transfer or wire cash from any Wells Fargo or external checking or savings account.
• Transfer assets from an existing investment account (brokerage, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA).
• Combine funds from these different accounts to reach $10,000.

We’re ready to help you with this process. Call us at 1-855-283-5567, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time.)

By opening a tax-equivalent account type, you can avoid potential penalties and maintain any tax advantages.

Yes. Complete the online account-opening process using only one of your investment accounts. Then, to add funds from your other internal or external brokerage accounts, call us at 1-855-283-5566, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Yes, you may directly roll over a 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), or other plan held with a former employer to fund your Intuitive Investor IRA.

If we don’t support your existing account type, you may fund your Intuitive Investor account by transferring or wiring cash from any checking or savings account.

You can also call us at 1-855-283-5566 to discuss your funding options (Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time).

When transferring a taxable brokerage or investment account, any holdings that do not match the funds used in our portfolios will be liquidated and reinvested according to your recommended allocation. Liquidating your assets could trigger short- and long-term gains or losses that could affect your taxes. Consult your tax advisor with specific questions.¹

While we cannot transfer and hold the security in an Intuitive Investor account, you can choose to only transfer a portion of your taxable account to your new Intuitive Investor account. You may then transfer the remaining balance once you’ve determined the gain will be considered long-term. Consult your tax advisor with specific questions.¹

To initiate a partial-account transfer, call us at 1-855-283-5566, Monday – Friday, 8:30 am – 9:30 pm, or Saturday 10:30 am – 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

TLH is offered within taxable Intuitive Investor accounts, at no additional charge. This optional service looks to strategically offset a portion of your realized capital gains by selling investments for a loss — potentially reducing your taxes. This process allows us to “harvest” the loss for you by selling a declining fund and then purchasing a replacement fund to keep your asset allocation on track. If you have no capital gains to offset, or if your losses outweigh your gains, you can also reduce your ordinary income (up to $3,000 per year) by claiming harvested losses on your tax return, potentially lowering your tax obligation.

If you turn on TLH, it will be applied to all of your taxable Intuitive Investor accounts. Wells Fargo Advisors cannot assume responsibility for any accounts that are not Intuitive Investor accounts — whether held elsewhere or within Wells Fargo Advisors.

While no one wants their investments to lose value, in a diversified portfolio some asset classes may increase in value while others fall. It is these offsetting gains and losses that balance your portfolio’s exposure to risk. By selectively selling funds that have declined, we attempt to offset any taxable gains with realized losses, all while maintaining your portfolio’s asset allocation and risk level.

We offer our TLH service to Intuitive Investor account customers, at no additional charge.

After signing on to your Intuitive Investor account, you can learn more about TLH and access TLH services by selecting Manage Settings from the “I would like to” dropdown menu. Once you confirm your selection, we’ll start looking for TLH opportunities or stop harvesting losses in all of your taxable Intuitive Investor accounts right away.

To prohibit people from taking advantage of selling investments for a loss, the IRS prohibits wash sales. A wash sale occurs when an investor sells a security at a loss, but also purchases another substantially similar security either shortly before or after. In the event of a wash sale, the losses are disallowed and the cost basis of the repurchased investment increases by the amount of the disallowed loss.

Wash sale rules apply across accounts and households. For example, a family cannot avoid the wash sale rule by selling an investment in one spouse’s account and buying it back immediately in the other spouse’s account.

Suppose you own 100 shares of ABC Company stock in a taxable account purchased a year ago at $50 each ($5,000 cost basis). If the stock’s price falls to $45, your market value is now $4,500. By selling your 100 shares of ABC Company stock today at $45 (for $4,500), you would realize a $500 loss. If you didn’t repurchase the stock within a month, you could claim the $500 loss against your capital gains. Repurchasing the ABC Company stock within 30 days, however, would trigger the wash sale rule and require your cost basis to be adjusted by the size of the loss to negate any tax benefit ($4,500 + $500 = $5,000).

No. Wash sale rules apply to the investor (across multiple accounts, including tax-advantaged retirement accounts like IRAs) and the household.

We look for opportunities to harvest losses every day the markets are open, as defined by our TLH methodology. To minimize excessive trading and churn, we only sell when the loss is at least 1% and over $500.

If we sell one of your investments for a loss, we replace it with a different investment that seeks to maintain your recommended asset allocation.

Yes. Large investors have long taken advantage of TLH as part of a sound wealth management strategy. Historically, these investors hired advisors to follow all the rules to avoid wash sales and harvest losses manually, which was an intensive, costly process. Through the power of technology, we’ve automated the trading process to avoid wash sales within your Intuitive Investor account(s) and harvest losses more economically, offering the advantages of TLH to Intuitive Investor account holders at no additional charge.

The upside to TLH is that you can claim harvested losses on your tax return, either offsetting realized capital gains or lowering your ordinary income by up to $3,000 for the tax year. And while our TLH service seeks to optimize your tax efficiencies within your Intuitive Investor account(s), be sure to consult your tax advisor to understand how TLH could affect your broader tax picture.

The potential downside of TLH is that you’re effectively deferring your taxes into the future, so when you finally liquidate your portfolio, you may face a higher tax bill than a traditional buy-and-hold strategy if capital gains tax rates increase.

Intuitive Investor accounts aren’t charged commission, transaction, or trading fees, and all TLH trading activity is included in the 0.50% Intuitive Investor account advisory fee.³