M1 Advisor bets AI can serve purchasers wealth managers flip away

Personal finance app M1 is betting that an AI monetary advisor can serve the households conventional wealth managers flip away. 

The Chicago-based investing platform launched M1 Advisor on Oct. 6, 2026, providing fiduciary recommendation by its SEC-registered affiliate, M1 Advisory Services LLC, with no account minimal and no advisory price by Dec. 31, 2027. Clients should maintain an M1 brokerage account and decide in by a separate advisory settlement to affix the robo-RIA. M1 expenses a seperate $3 month-to-month platform price, which is waived for purchasers who maintain $10,000 or extra with M1 for not less than in the future in a 30-day billing cycle.

“Because M1 Advisor is constructed into M1, it really works from the stay accounts—the precise positions, price foundation and money—and when a shopper decides to behave, they will do it in the identical place,” mentioned M1’s founder and CEO Brian Barnes. “That’s what lets it reply a query like “which shares ought to I promote to cowl this tax invoice?” with the true tax price of every alternative, and then let the shopper carry it out. That integration is how we convey the companies of a conventional wealth management agency — investing, retirement accounts, borrowing, money and recommendation.” 

M1 experiences greater than 300,000 purchasers and greater than $14 billion in belongings platform-wide as of September 2026, based on an organization reality sheet. Its advisory arm is much smaller, as M1 Advisory Services reported $1.48 billion in non-discretionary regulatory belongings throughout 11,400 accounts in a Form ADV filed Oct. 1. 

“Minimums exist as a result of human time is dear. A wealth supervisor can’t profitably serve a household with $100,000, so the business attracts a line, typically at $1 million or extra. AI lowers the fee to the purpose that the road now not must exist,” mentioned Barnes. 

M1 joins a rising subject of RIA startups that use AI as a substitute of human advisors, together with Y Combinator backed Astor and San Francisco-based Era. Other venture-backed RIAs like Range have detailed plans to replace their human advisors with AI. 

Who M1’s AI advisor is constructed for 

“In apply, we’re constructing for people who find themselves doing effectively and need to do higher – typically of their 30s and 40s, incomes earnings, with actual financial savings however under the place a non-public wealth supervisor would take them on,” Barnes mentioned. “M1 Advisor is supposed to be our purchasers’ main supply of monetary recommendation. We don’t count on most of them to additionally work with a human advisor.” 

M1 Advisory’s Form ADV lists 14 staff. None of them carry out capital allocation advisory capabilities. The submitting experiences $1.48 billion in non-discretionary regulatory belongings throughout 11,400 accounts, and the agency registers underneath the SEC’s web adviser exemption. 

The agency’s Form ADV Part 2A brochure, dated Sept. 30, 2026, says no personnel generate or modify client-specific recommendation. It additionally says people don’t evaluate particular person accounts on a client-by-client foundation. M1 Advisor can not place trades or transfer cash, so purchasers act on its suggestions themselves. The brochure names Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon amongst its AI suppliers. 

“Around the fashions, we’ve constructed the development projects that lets us stand behind what M1 Advisor says: our personal capital allocation information base, the shopper’s precise account information, compliance guidelines on what it will possibly advocate, and testing earlier than launch and monitoring after. We’re the fiduciary, whichever mannequin is beneath,” Barnes mentioned. 

When the AI recommendation is improper 

A regulatory disclosure from M1 warns that AI programs might produce plausible-sounding however incorrect data. It tells purchasers to independently confirm particular info which are materials to an capital allocation determination. Mainstream AI fashions did not accurately reply monetary questions in 57% of cases, according to new research from advisor fintech Saturn.

“M1 Advisor is held to the identical fiduciary commonplace as any SEC-registered adviser, and purchasers have the identical treatments. Our shopper settlement doesn’t ask purchasers to surrender our fiduciary responsibility, their rights underneath the securities legal guidelines, or our legal responsibility for gross negligence or materials breach. If we fail our responsibility to a shopper, they’ve a treatment and we’re accountable for it,” Barnes mentioned. “‘The recommendation was improper as a result of we failed you’ is on us. ‘The capital allocation went down’ is investing.” 

Clients can hyperlink outdoors accounts through Plaid so M1 Advisor sees their full image. However, the brochure says its securities suggestions apply solely to accounts on the M1 platform. It additionally says M1 Advisor shouldn’t be an ERISA fiduciary and that its rollover data is academic solely. 

“We completely check earlier than adjustments attain purchasers. A brand new [AI] mannequin or model goes by analysis at each launch, which scores solutions for accuracy, suitability and compliance, and we maintain monitoring as soon as it is stay,” mentioned Barnes. “The fashions themselves are enhancing shortly, and each shopper advantages as they do. M1 Advisor will maintain getting smarter, sooner and extra succesful over time.”

Clients should use affiliated broker-dealer M1 Finance LLC, which earns fee for order move, securities lending income and money sweep income. Some swept money goes to affiliated B2 Bank. M1 Finance paid $850,000 in March 2024 after Finra found violations tied to its influencer program, as InvestmentNews reported on the time. 

M1’s price waiver runs by Dec. 31, 2027. M1’s brochure submitting abstract refers to an annual advisory price of as much as 0.20%, however M1 says that language got here from an early beta draft and now not applies to the stay product. 

“We additionally haven’t settled on pricing. We’re centered on delivering worth first. If we cost sooner or later, it will likely be totally justified by the advantages M1 Advisor brings to folks’s funds,” Barnes mentioned. 

Barnes based M1 in Chicago in 2015. The firm had raised greater than $300 million in enterprise funding by July 2021, when a $150 million Series E led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 valued it at $1.45 billion. That spherical adopted a $75 million Series D led by Coatue in March 2021.