Financial Technology Update: Mint.com is shutting down, what now?

The popular Intuit personal finance app, Mint.com, will permanently close as of March 23, 2024. For those unfamiliar, Mint.com is a free site used by more than 25 million people to aggregate their financial accounts, create and track budgets, monitor their net worth and much more! If you currently have an account, you have or will be notified that you will need to transfer your data to Credit Karma to continue to use any of the historical information, but there are a few major differences that you should be aware of before doing so.

The most important of those differences is that Credit Karma will not allow users to create customized monthly budget categories and tie specific transactions to those categories. Instead, it will create a budget based on your spending and allocate it to their 24 predetermined categories. We have found through personal experience and those of our clients that the customized budgeting features of Mint are by far the most popular options of the application, and their loss is a major detractor for making the switch. Credit Karma will also use your data to start making recommendations for new credit cards, savings accounts, or other financial services that they can sell you via ads based on your spending habits, which some may find invasive and distracting. Credit Karma will still allow you to link your accounts, view your current and average spending (in the predefined categories only), and track net worth. If customized budgets and data privacy are not a priority for you, there can be some value to switching your accounts to the new platform. If you decide to switch, you can download the last 3 years of data from Mint and upload it to Credit Karma to get started.

As an alternative, the client portal within our financial planning software, eMoney, provides a very similar and robust experience to that of Mint, and allows that information to be integrated into your financial plan at no additional charge to WGCA clients. As with Mint, you can create specific budgeting and savings categories and allocate individual and recurring transactions accordingly. This data connection will also allow your Advisor to update your accounts automatically, which saves time as our team prepares for review meetings and answers interim questions. Note that signing up for the budgeting portion of the app is completely voluntary, and the user will have complete control of what, if any, information will be shared with your Advisor. The eMoney client portal will also allow you to securely upload, store, and share important documents via the Vault feature, which has no storage limit. Clients are also able to run their own reports through the platform. Below, we have provided a link to a video that provides a brief introduction to the program:

https://wolfgroupcapital.com/what-we-do/financial-planning

Please feel free to use the link below to schedule time with a WGCA advisor who can provide a demo and onboard you onto the software in as few as 15 minutes.

https://calendly.com/andrewgary/emoney-client-portal-onboarding

Sincerely,

Andrew Gary, CFP®

Financial Advisor

About Wolf Group Capital Advisors

At Wolf Group Capital Advisors, a comprehensive wealth management firm and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, nothing is more important than the fiduciary responsibility we have in managing your wealth. Taking the utmost care, we focus on providing advice tailored to your specific circumstances. With more than two decades advising U.S. expatriates and non-US citizens employed by international organizations, we are qualified in investment strategies addressing global issues. Empathy and curiosity—combined with our experience in life planning and investment management—enable you to explore a wider set of possibilities that can lead to a fulfilling life you’ve worked hard to attain.

Disclosure:

The information presented is not an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. The information contained in this presentation has been compiled from third-party sources and is believed to be reliable; however, its accuracy is not guaranteed and should not be relied upon in any way whatsoever. This presentation may not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and does not give investment recommendations. Any opinion included in this report constitutes our judgment as of the date of this report and is subject to change without notice.