The tax-aware automation layer for self-directed investors who want direct indexing on their existing brokerage — without paying a permanent percentage of their wealth.
No broker connection required to start. No card. No mandatory onboarding fee.
Most direct-indexing services charge an AUM fee — usually 25 to 40 basis points on your entire portfolio, every year, for the rest of your life. That's a tax on success: as your account grows, your fee grows with it, whether the service does more work or not. We're software. Pay a flat monthly subscription, keep every basis point of growth.
| Account size | Wealthfront PassivePlus (0.25% AUM) | Schwab Personalized Indexing (0.40%) | HarvestEngine Guided ($49/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | $250 / yr | $400 / yr | $588 / yr |
| $250,000 | $625 / yr | $1,000 / yr | $588 / yr |
| $500,000 | $1,250 / yr | $2,000 / yr | $588 / yr |
| $1,000,000 | $2,500 / yr | $4,000 / yr | $588 / yr |
| $3,000,000 | $7,500 / yr | $11,500 / yr | $588 / yr |
Annual price ($490 + Stripe fees) compared to AUM annualized. Guided tier; Autopilot is $99/mo, Alpha is $199/mo. Crossover happens at $235K vs Wealthfront, $147K vs Schwab. Above those points, you keep the difference.
OAuth into E*TRADE (Schwab, Fidelity, IBKR coming). We never see your password. Your money stays at your broker — we just read positions and propose trades.
S&P 500 / Russell 1000 / Nasdaq 100 / Dow / Aristocrats. We design a 60–80 stock portfolio that tracks it, customized to exclude what you don't want (employer stock, sectors you avoid, etc.).
Every day we scan for tax-loss-harvest opportunities. You see proposed sells + replacement buys with their tax math. You approve, we execute via your broker. Wash-sale aware. CPA-ready exports.
Tiers are organized by trust and complexity, not account size. Start free with paper trading. Upgrade to Guided when you're ready to put real money behind it.
Try the engine on a paper portfolio. No broker connection, no money at risk.
The core live tier. Direct-indexing TLH on your existing brokerage. You approve trades.
Rule-bound auto-execution. The system runs your policy; you set the rails.
Sharper tools for the complexity-heavy edges. Margin overlay, concentrated stock, RSU planning.
No. We're software. You connect your own brokerage account, you set the rules (which index, which exclusions, autonomy level), and you approve every meaningful action. We never take custody of your money or make discretionary trades on your behalf. The assistant explains, simulates, and executes user-approved rules — it doesn't tell you what to buy.
Tax-loss harvesting realizes losses that offset capital gains and up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year. By holding 60–80 individual stocks instead of one ETF, we have many more opportunities to harvest losses on individual names while staying close to the index's overall return. For a $250K taxable portfolio, captured tax savings typically run several thousand dollars per year, depending on your tax bracket and how much volatility your holdings see.
E*TRADE today. Charles Schwab is in active development. Fidelity (read-only) and Interactive Brokers will follow. Multi-broker support is day-one architecture, not a v2 plan.
They charge a percentage of your portfolio every year. We charge a flat monthly subscription. They take custody of your money (you move it to them). We sit on top of the broker you already use. They have a registered investment advisor relationship with you (legally meaningful, comes with documentation overhead). We're software you license. Different shape, different cost curve.
Cancel any time from your account page. Your portfolio, positions, lots, and tax history all live at your brokerage — they're yours. We don't hold your money or your data hostage. Revoke our broker connection from your broker's website and we no longer have any access.
Yes — that's what the free Paper tier is for. We design you a paper portfolio against your chosen index, simulate tax-loss harvesting against historical price data, and show you the tax-savings math you'd have captured. When (and if) you're convinced, you upgrade to Guided and connect your brokerage. No card needed for Paper.
Tokens are encrypted at rest with envelope encryption — a Google Cloud KMS master key wraps each user's tokens, with your user ID bound as additional authenticated data. A database leak alone yields nothing decryptable. Sign-in supports SSO (Google / Microsoft / Apple), passwordless email, and SMS-MFA on top.
HarvestEngine is the work of one founder, in private preview. We're optimizing for a tight ICP (self-directed investors with $100K–$5M taxable) and growing slowly to keep the product sharp. Reach out at hello@harvestengine.ai if you want a deeper conversation.
Pick an index, watch the engine harvest a year of losses against historical prices, see the tax math. Then decide whether to wire it to a real account.
Try free paper