Axos Review 2023

Who is Axos?

Axos originated as a company known as BofI Holding, Inc., which was founded by Jerry Englert and Gary Evans Lewis with $14 million of startup capital. BofI was incorporated in Delaware in 1999 and began operations as the Bank of Internet on July 4, 2000 to provide a savings account, checking accounts, and other banking features.

It was one of the first online banks to operate primarily through the internet. The start date of July 4 was purposely chosen because it showed that the bank would be open on a day that other banks were closed due to Independence Day.

On October 1, 2018, BofI Holding re-branded as Axos Financial, and switched its stock exchange from NASDAQ to the NYSE.

Axos Financial (Investing) Investment Options:

Buy-and-hold investment strategy

Axos’s buy-and-hold investment strategy is a passive management tactic. They are not regularly buying and selling the ETFs in your account. Instead, they encourage their clients to hold their ETF investments in their account to attempt to capture the possible long term increase in value and minimize short-term capital gains taxes.

When Axos does sell the assets, clients will most likely be paying the lower long term capital gains tax on assets that they’ve held for more than a year.

Self-Directed Trading

The investor can make the no-commission trades they want with Axos’s easy-to-use platform. They will receive access to a wide range of stocks, ETFs, and options as well as market data.

• No-commission trading.
• Access to real-time research and market data.
• Wide range of stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options.

Managed Portfolios

If the client wants to start investing, but doesn’t know where to begin, this could be a good option for them. A study by the FINRA Investor Foundation found that only 32% of Americans are investing money outside of their retirement accounts. And more than two in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement. Axos Invest Managed Portfolios was designed with a simple, user-friendly and automated investment platform. Investing is all about planning ahead and creating a better future. 

It’s about saving for a wedding, buying a car, moving into a new home, having a baby or sending a kid to college, while having enough money for retirement. Axos Invest asks you a few questions to learn about your investing and financial goals. 

The customer tells Axos Bank how much they want to contribute and how often, and then Axos Bank goes to work constructing an investment profile. Log into your Managed Portfolios account to see your milestones progress or to adjust your risk tolerance, personal info or timeline.

The client sets their risk profile and identifies their goals while Axos’ robo-advisor tracks the markets and makes trades on their behalf.

• Personalized, automated investment portfolios
• Ideal for a hands-off investor
• Low management fees
• Easy account set up in less than 10 minutes
• Industry recognized performance

Axos Fees and Features

Is There An Account Minimum?

The account minimum for Axos Invest Managed Portfolios is $500.

How Are Clients Charged?

The 0.24% annual advisory fee is calculated monthly based on the account’s invested asset balance on the last day of the month and will automatically be deducted from the account.

Advisory Business Description of the Advisory Firm

Axos Invest has been providing Investment advisory services to clients since 2009, under the name WiseBanyan, Inc. In February 2019, Axos Financial, Inc. acquired ownership of WiseBanyan, Inc., and renamed the Firm in July 2019.

Axos Invest is a corporation organized in the state of Delaware, registered with the SEC as an investment adviser wholly owned by Axos Securities, LLC, which also serves as the Firm’s parent company. Axos Securities, LLC is ultimately owned by Axos Financial, Inc.

Axos Financial, Inc., the parent company, is a publicly-traded company (NYSE: AX). The terms “Client,” “Clients,” “you,” and “your” are used throughout this document to refer to person(s) who contract with us for the services described within this Disclosure Brochure.

“Axos Invest,” “our,” “we,” and “us” refer to Axos Invest, Inc.

Types of Advisory Services

Axos Invest provides automated advisory services via its website and mobile applications. Clients will complete an online questionnaire via the Firm’s website or mobile application.

The questionnaire allows the Firm’s automated advisory service to obtain information directly from the Client, such as their current financial situation, investment profile, investment goals, and investment objective.

The advisory service will generate a recommendation featuring a portfolio allocation, designed to assist a Client in meeting the Client’s individual investment goal based upon this information from the client.

The Client may choose the recommendation from the advisory software or create a different investment allocation. In either circumstance, upon account opening, the Firm will use its automated advisory service to manage the selected portfolio allocation and monitor the account to help achieve the client’s specific investment goal.

Axos Invest recommended portfolios are comprised of a mix of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) across various asset classes and may include other securities. Axos Invest specializes in automated investment advisory services and recommends investment strategies tailored for Clients’ financial objectives and time horizons.

Clients utilizing the Firm’s automated investment advisory service should understand that investment portfolios are allocated to a limited number of ETFs. Axos Invest recommends portfolios comprised of ETFs in several asset classes in our base portfolios.

These asset classes include, but are not limited to:

• US Equities
• International Developed Equities
• International Emerging Equities
• US Treasuries
• US Inflation Protected Treasuries
• US Investment Grade Corporate Bonds
• Short Term Corporate Bonds
• Real Estate Trusts
• Short Term High Yield Corporate Bonds
• US Short Term Treasuries

After initial account opening, Clients may update their portfolio allocation at any time. Periodically, the Firm’s automated advisory service rebalances each Client’s portfolio to realign the portfolio to the desired weighting across investments.

Clients who wish to use the automated service for their investment must deposit a minimum of five hundred dollars ($500). In addition to the asset classes listed above, Clients can access additional asset classes through ETFs or equities.

The functionality of Axos Invest’s portfolios provides access to additional account types, tax-loss harvesting services, and increased Client-directed customization levels.

Portfolio features include:

Tax Loss Harvesting.

Tax Loss Harvesting is a technique designed to help lower a Client’s taxes while maintaining their portfolio’s expected risk and return profile.

It harvests previously unrecognized investment losses to offset taxes due on your other gains and income by selling a security at a loss to accelerate the realization of capital loss and investing the proceeds in a security with closely correlated risk and return characteristics.

The realized loss can be applied to lower your tax liability, and the tax savings can be reinvested to grow the value of your portfolio.

Selective Trading

Selective Trading gives a Client the ability to restrict certain ETFs from their Axos Invest Managed Portfolio account(s) to reduce the likelihood of creating wash sales, which can erase the losses a Client has harvested through our Tax Lot Harvesting services.

Portfolio Plus

If selected by the Client, this feature allows a Client to create custom portfolios from preselected ETFs and then use those portfolios for milestones and goals on the Axos Invest platform.

Fast Money

Includes the ability to transfer money more quickly from a Client’s checking account to a brokerage account and the ability to schedule recurring deposits for specific days.

Clients may opt in to these services and may also terminate their use.

Client Tailored Services and Client Imposed Restrictions

As described above, the Firm’s advisory services are tailored for each Client based on the Client’s interaction with the Axos Invest website and mobile applications. The Firm provides recommendations based on the Client’s stated financial situation and investment objectives.

Clients can impose restrictions on certain ETFs for their portfolios through the Selective Trading Feature. The Firm requires Clients to electronically sign an advisory agreement to receive investment advisory services (the “Advisory Agreement”).

Clients receive the Firm’s Form ADV, including the Brochure, Brochure Supplements, Client Relationship Summary (“Form CRS”), and privacy policy through the website, mobile application, and other electronic communication.

Wrap Fee Program

The Firm does not participate in wrap fee programs.

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