Facet Wealth adds Grove’s financial planning business

Harbor East-based Facet Wealth is taking on the financial planning business of San Francisco-based Grove, which has the Baltimore company poised to bring on new clients, as well as advice-giving financial planners.

The agreement comes at the same time as a separate deal struck between Grove and another company: Grove’s team is joining robo adviser Wealthfront as a means to “shift our focus to building technology and automation on a large and growing platform,” Grove wrote in a note to clients.

As a result of that deal, Grove is no longer offering financial planning services, and Facet is assuming that business. Both Grove and Facet offer services that mix human advisors and technology to offer advice.

Client-wise, this means about 500 households who are clients of Grove will now be offered financial planning services from Facet Weath, per the companies.

“As of August 23rd, Grove itself will no longer offer financial planning services or investment advisory services to clients,” Grove wrote. “To facilitate the transition to Facet, Grove has entered a strategic agreement with them to offer financial planning to those of our clients who are interested in continuing to receive fiduciary, flat-fee financial advice.”

Additionally, a “substantial” number of Grove financial planning advisors are joining Facet Wealth, the companies said.

Facet Wealth offers financial planning through both human advisors who are certified financial professionals and technology that helps both the planners and clients. The company aims to serve the “mass-affluent,” or people with less than $1 million to invest.

CEO Anders Jones has said that these clients may struggle to get the attention from a traditional financial planning firm with wealthier clients, but still want financial planning advice from a human. Facet looks to bring on those clients from other firms; This is an example of that playing out.

“We started Facet because we saw a vast amount of American households struggling to access financial planning. Grove’s clients can expect transparent, affordable service tailored to their unique financial life needs,” Jones said in a statement this week. “We know what kind of possibilities we can create for these households with the right people and the right tools.”

Ranked #1 on Technical.ly’s RealLIST of 2019, Facet Wealth has continued to grow its team this year. With the founders moving here from Silicon Valley to start the company — and now partnering with a company from Northern California — they’ve also shown an interest in extending Baltimore’s tech presence beyond the city’s borders.

One example came as recently as Thursday, when Jones talked about the decision to relocate and the city’s startup community in an article published by Inc. that discusses Baltimore’s “low cost, solid talent and entrepreneurs who will go to the mat for each other.”

'#Entrepreneurs are starting to move to #Baltimore — I couldn't say that was a thing five years ago.' @Inc and @EmilyCanal with a great look at why Charm City is becoming a 'haven for founders.' https://t.co/y6jAT1pgPx @andersjones @HungryHarvest #startup pic.twitter.com/F73j6MKMKJ

— JHTV (@JHTechVentures) August 23, 2019