altruist.comReviews of altruist.com

It's horrifically bad. No after hours trading. No pre-market trading. No margin until recently and they're even just rolling that out via beta. No advisor mobile app. Poor quality customer service. I called today and the guy had to move into a quiet conference room because his co-workers were cracking jokes like it was a comedy club and it was so loud I couldn't even hear him. I tried to move money from a cash account to an individual account with the same owner. They froze the transfer for manual review. Claiming it was a security thing. Explain to me how transferring money from an internal savings account to the internal trading account with no external transfers with the same owner on all the accounts creates a security risk. I talked to three or four different people trying to fix it and they didn't fix it. We missed out on a lucrative trade as a result. And it makes me look incompetent to my clients when my custodian can't even process an internal transfer. I have no idea why Vanguard bought them as it's absolutely horrific. I've only been a client for two months and I'm already looking to jump ship as aggressively as I can. I regret bringing my book over here.

I’m in the process of launching a new RIA and preparing my ADV. Over the past two years, I engaged with Altruist and initially received excellent guidance and support. While the onboarding process took longer than expected, I appreciated their responsiveness and innovation. Recently, I reconnected with Altruist to move forward. Unfortunately, my interaction with a business development officer was disappointing. The conversation felt rushed and dismissive, which was surprising given our prior engagement. As someone who works in sales, I understand the need to qualify leads—but there’s a way to do that respectfully. That experience prompted me to reevaluate my custodian options. In doing so, I came across Axos Advisor Services, whose team provided thoughtful, responsive service that aligned with my holistic wealth management model. It reminded me of the level of support I had once received from Altruist. It’s ironic that after two years of planning, a single interaction led me to change course. But perhaps that moment reflects broader challenges—Altruist’s rapid growth may be straining its service infrastructure, as others have noted. In the end, it worked out. I found a custodian better suited to my firm’s needs. I share this not out of frustration, but to help other advisors make informed decisions as they build their practices.