Former Intuit and PayPal CEO Bill Harris launched his latest company, Personal Finance, last September. Today, he is launching the Personal Capital iPad app. In the video above, he gives a demo of the app.
Personal Capital is like Mint for your finances. It shows you a picture of all your financial accounts, from banks to brokerages, and helps you get a handle on your total financial portfolio. It takes all of your financial details and boils them up into simple charts displaying your asset allocation across all your accounts. The iPad app is filled with interactive charts that you can swipe and drill down into. It even includes ways to visualize how much your stock options are worth.
“It is more and more clear that most American households financially are out of control,” says Harris. Simply seeing where all your money is across various accounts is the first step to gaining back control. Customers get the data analytics for free, but Harris is betting that a significant portion of them will opt into letting Personal Capital manage some of their money. The company is a registered investment adviser and employs financial advisers who are available by phone or Web. Now, with the iPad app, you can even do Facetime sessions with your adviser.
Since launch, a total of 10,000 people have linked their accounts to Personal Capital, which is now tracking more than $2 billion worth of assets. A small portion of those people have signed up for the paid investment advisory service. Harris is going after affluent Americans who have assets to invest but are below the threshold of most financial advisers or who simply want better data and a digital dashboard for their finances.