Direct indexing platforms compared: fees, minimums and the best direct indexing providers.
Every platform an individual can actually open, with the published minimum and annual fee next to it, checked against each provider's own pages in August 2026. Then a tool for modeling the basket yourself before you hand it to anyone.
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In short
Four direct indexing platforms are open to an individual investor without going through a financial advisor: Wealthfront, Fidelity, Frec and Schwab. The cheapest entry point is Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct at a 0.09% annual fee with a $5,000 minimum, matched on minimum but not on price by Fidelity Managed FidFolios at 0.40%. Frec Classic sits at 0.09% to 0.35% from $20,000 and offers the widest index choice, though its 0.09% headline covers only the S&P 500 strategy and 14 of its 25 strategies cost 0.15% or more, which we lay out strategy by strategy on the Frec direct indexing breakdown. Schwab Personalized Indexing starts at $100,000 and charges 0.40%, and its six strategies notably do not include the S&P 500 at all, a detail we go through on the Schwab Personalized Indexing breakdown and head to head in Frec vs Schwab Personalized Indexing fee comparison. Read together, those three are the only self-serve choices most people actually shortlist, and we compare direct indexing AUM fees for Fidelity vs Schwab vs Frec in dollars at five account sizes. Everything larger is advisor-only. Aperio, Parametric and Vanguard all look unpriced from their websites, and all three are exceptions once you read their filings instead. Aperio's Form ADV Part 2A dated March 31st, 2026 prices separate account indexing at 0.35% for U.S. domestic benchmark indexes, 0.40% for foreign or global, and 0.45% or 0.50% with a values-aligned screen, in a fee table filed as an image rather than text, which is why no comparison site quotes it; we set the whole schedule out on the Aperio direct indexing fees breakdown. Parametric's Form ADV Part 2A prices Custom Core Equity (Domestic) at 35 bps with a $250,000 minimum, and the same strategy carries a $25,000 minimum through Morgan Stanley Select UMA, which we set out in full on the Parametric Custom Core fees and minimums breakdown. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management files its own Form ADV too, and the July 2026 version prices the strategy from 0.20% a year with a preferred $250,000 minimum through an adviser, or from 0.27% with a $10,000,000 minimum if you go direct, which we work through on the Vanguard direct indexing fees breakdown. Betterment does not offer retail direct indexing yet despite having announced it for 2026. For context a plain S&P 500 ETF costs about 0.03%, so the fee difference is what you are paying for tax loss harvesting at the individual stock level. One caveat the fee column cannot carry: Fidelity applies harvesting "on a limited basis, at the discretion of the portfolio manager", a weaker commitment than Frec or Wealthfront make, which we go through in the Fidelity Managed FidFolios breakdown and head to head in is Fidelity Managed FidFolios better than Frec for direct indexing.
Direct indexing fees and minimums
Every direct indexing platform, side by side
Figures taken from each provider's own published pages in August 2026. Where a firm does not publish a number we have left it blank rather than repeating a figure from a comparison blog. Confirm before you fund anything, because these change without much notice.
| Platform | Access | Minimum | Annual fee | What you end up holding | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct | Direct to consumer | $5,000 | 0.09% | Individual S&P 500 companies, whole and fractional shares | The cheapest way into managed direct indexing at a small balance |
| Wealthfront Nasdaq-100 Direct | Direct to consumer | $5,000 per Wealthfront support docs | 0.12% | Individual Nasdaq-100 companies | Large-cap growth exposure with loss harvesting at the stock level |
| Wealthfront US Direct Indexing | Direct to consumer | $100,000 | 0.25% advisory, direct indexing included | A broad US portfolio held as individual stocks plus ETFs | Existing Wealthfront automated investing clients past six figures |
| Fidelity Managed FidFolios | Direct to consumer | $5,000 to be invested | 0.40% index tracking, 0.70% actively managed | A sampled basket tracking a chosen index | People who already custody at Fidelity and want one relationship |
| Frec Classic | Direct to consumer | $20,000 to $50,000 depending on the index | 0.09% to 0.35% | Direct holdings across 25 index choices | Index choice beyond the S&P 500 at a low advisory fee |
| Frec Long Short | Direct to consumer | $100,000 to $500,000 | 0.50% to 1.30% plus 0.23% to 0.86% financing | A leveraged long and short book built around an index | Investors chasing far larger harvested losses and accepting the complexity |
| Frec Diversify | Direct to consumer | $100,000 to $500,000 | 0.60% to 1.10% plus 0.23% to 0.57% financing | A concentrated position unwound into an index over time | Anyone sitting on one oversized low-basis stock position |
| Schwab Personalized Indexing | Direct to consumer | $100,000 | 0.40%, dropping to 0.35% above $2M | A sampled basket tracking the Schwab 1000 or a Solactive index. No S&P 500 strategy is offered | Six-figure accounts wanting values or sector screens |
| Vanguard Personalized Indexing | Financial advisors only | $250,000 via an adviser, $10M direct | 0.20% adviser tier 1, 0.27% direct tier 1 | A separately managed account tracking a chosen index | Clients of an advisor already on the Vanguard platform |
| Parametric Custom Core | Financial advisors only | $250,000 in its Form ADV, $25,000 via Morgan Stanley Select UMA | 35 bps standard for domestic equity, and negotiable | A separately managed account that can track any standard or customized index | Advisor-led households needing a benchmark nobody sells off the shelf |
| Aperio (BlackRock) | Financial advisors only | None filed, $250,000 via Morgan Stanley Select UMA | 0.35% US domestic, 0.40% foreign, 0.45% to 0.50% values-aligned | A separately managed account built around values screens | High-net-worth clients with specific exclusion lists |
| Betterment | Not offering retail direct indexing yet | Not applicable | Automated Investing 0.25%, Premium 0.65% | ETF portfolios today, direct indexing announced for 2026 | Watch this one: Betterment bought Rowboat and says minimums will be low |
| A plain S&P 500 ETF | Any broker | One share, or less with fractional shares | 0.03% expense ratio | One fund holding all 500 companies | Almost everyone who does not have a large taxable gain to manage |
| Indexes (this site) | Software, no account, no trades | No minimum | From $12 per month | Nothing. You hold the shares wherever you already trade | Designing and backtesting the basket before or instead of paying a manager |
The single most useful line in that table is the access column, because it splits the market in a way the marketing does not. Parametric and Aperio manage far more direct indexing money than Wealthfront and Frec combined, which is why they dominate every "largest providers" list, and neither of them will open an account for you. If you do not have an advisor, the entire institutional tier is decoration. The four retail platforms are the real shortlist, and the choice between them is mostly a question of what your balance is and where your assets already sit.
The second thing worth reading twice is how far the minimums have fallen. Wealthfront cut S&P 500 Direct from $20,000 to $5,000 in June 2025, and its Nasdaq-100 Direct product launched that October using fractional shares specifically so the entry point could stay low. Fractional trading is what made this possible: a platform no longer has to buy a whole share of every constituent, so a $5,000 account can hold a recognizable slice of 500 companies. Five years ago the honest answer to "what is the minimum for direct indexing" was $250,000. It also changed what is inside the account, and not in the same way at every provider, which is why we now keep a separate side by side of the direct indexing platforms with fractional shares for the S&P 500, quoting what each one says it actually holds. It also decides what survives a move, because ACATS carries whole shares only: we read all seven published schedules for ACATS transfer fees by broker, and none of these platforms reimburses the fee your old firm charges. Which benchmark you point the account at turns out to matter more than the fee, because the published harvest rates run from 16% on a semiconductor index to 55% on the Russell 2000: we work that through in direct indexing the Russell 3000 and the total US market. The two cheapest options are worth putting side by side on their own, which we do in Frec vs Wealthfront direct indexing. Per-vendor detail sits on our Wealthfront direct indexing, Fidelity direct indexing, Frec and Schwab Personalized Indexing pages.
Direct indexing fees
What direct indexing actually costs, beyond the headline percentage
Every platform advertises one number. Five things determine what the strategy really costs you, and only the first is on the pricing page.
| Cost line | Typical range | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory or management fee | 0.09% to 0.70% on the platforms above, negotiated in the advisor-only channel | This is the number every provider advertises. On $50,000 the gap between 0.09% and 0.40% is about $155 a year. |
| Underlying fund fees | Zero on the stock sleeve, because you own the shares directly | This is the honest structural win of direct indexing. There is no fund wrapper charging an expense ratio on top. |
| Trading costs and spreads | Usually not itemized, absorbed by the platform | Holding 200 to 500 positions and rebalancing them means far more transactions than owning one ETF. Rebalancing frequency is the driver. |
| Tax drag or tax benefit | The whole point, and the hardest line to predict | Harvested losses offset gains, then up to $3,000 of ordinary income a year with the rest carried forward. The benefit is largest early and in volatile markets. |
| Exit friction | Rarely mentioned before you sign up | Leaving means either transferring hundreds of individual lots or selling them, which can trigger the gains the strategy spent years deferring. |
Run the arithmetic before you decide, because it is less dramatic than either side of the argument suggests. On a $50,000 taxable account, moving from a 0.03% S&P 500 ETF to a 0.40% direct indexing account costs about $185 a year in extra fees. For that to be worth paying, the harvested losses have to be worth more than $185 after tax. In a volatile year with plenty of dispersion between the 500 names, that is easy. In a year where the index grinds steadily upward and nothing is underwater, there may be almost nothing to harvest, and you paid the fee anyway. The benefit is also front-loaded: a portfolio harvests hardest in its first few years, when most positions are still near their purchase price, and gets progressively harder to harvest from as unrealized gains build up.
The loss itself is worth something specific rather than something vague. Harvested losses first offset realized capital gains, then up to $3,000 of ordinary income a year, $1,500 if married filing separately, with anything left carried forward indefinitely. That $3,000 cap is the reason direct indexing is a poor fit for someone with no other gains: without gains to offset, a very large harvested loss releases at $3,000 a year, which takes a long time to matter. The full arithmetic is in direct indexing tax loss harvesting, and the per-provider cost comparison in direct indexing fees and minimums compared.
One trap deserves its own sentence because it is permanent rather than merely expensive. Under Revenue Ruling 2008-5, if you harvest a loss in a taxable account and buy a substantially identical security inside an IRA within the 61 day wash sale window, the loss is disallowed and your IRA basis is not stepped up. The loss is gone for good rather than deferred. Platforms manage this inside their own accounts, but none of them can see the IRA you hold at a different broker or the one your spouse holds anywhere.
How to choose a direct indexing platform
Four questions that narrow the list to one
Do you have gains to offset?
This is the gate, not a preference. Direct indexing buys you harvested losses, and losses are worth money only against realized gains or, at $3,000 a year, ordinary income. No gains anywhere and no expectation of any means an ETF at 0.03% is the better product and the question stops here.
What is the taxable balance?
Under $5,000 nothing is open to you. From $5,000 the retail platforms start. From $20,000 Frec Classic opens up with the widest index choice. At $100,000 Schwab Personalized Indexing and Wealthfront US Direct Indexing become available. Past roughly $1M an advisor running Parametric or Aperio is realistic, both at 35 bps for domestic equity per their own filings.
Which index do you actually want?
Most platforms track the S&P 500 and little else. Wealthfront adds the Nasdaq-100 as a separate product. Frec offers 25 index choices, which matters if you want something other than US large cap. If you want an index that does not exist yet, no managed platform will build it and you are into custom construction.
Is a screen or exclusion required?
Removing your employer, a sector you already have exposure to, or a category you object to holding is the customization direct indexing is genuinely good at. Schwab and the advisor platforms handle screens well. If the exclusion list is the whole reason you are here, weight it heavily in the choice.
Those four in order will get most people to a single answer within a few minutes. The one that trips people up is the third, because it is easy to assume that paying for direct indexing buys you index flexibility. It mostly does not. You are buying tax management on a standard benchmark, and the customization on offer is usually subtraction: drop these tickers, screen out that sector, cap this weight. Building a basket from a thesis rather than from a published index is a different activity, covered on index construction and build your own ETF.
Being straight about this
Indexes is not a direct indexing platform
What we do not do
We do not custody assets, hold cash, place trades or harvest tax losses, and we are not a registered investment adviser. If what you want is a managed account that runs the strategy for you, one of the platforms in the table above is the right answer and you should go open one. Nothing here is investment advice.
What we do instead
We are the modeling layer. Define the basket, set the weights, choose the rebalancing rule, then backtest that exact construction over real market history and track it as a named index against the S&P 500 or BTC. No minimum, no account to fund, from $12 a month.
When that is the better fit
When you are below the minimums, when the index you want does not exist, when you would rather run a 30 to 50 stock basket yourself at a zero-commission broker than pay 0.40% a year, or when you simply want to see how a construction behaved before handing real money to anyone.
The self-directed route deserves a fair description rather than a sales pitch, because it is genuinely more work. Replicating the S&P 500 by hand is not sensible. Running a 30 to 50 name basket is, and fractional shares at any major broker make the mechanics straightforward. What you are taking on is the rebalancing schedule, cost basis tracking lot by lot, and wash sale discipline across every account you and your spouse control. That is a real job, and it is the job the 0.09% to 0.40% pays someone else to do. What our tool contributes is the part before the trading: deciding what belongs in the basket, how it should be weighted, and whether that construction has behaved the way you assumed. Doing direct indexing yourself walks through the operational side in detail.
When none of these is the answer
If the money is already locked in one appreciated stock, a direct indexing account cannot help you
Every platform on this page harvests losses on money you are putting in now. None of them does anything about a gain you already carry. If you hold $400,000 of one company with $300,000 of embedded gain, opening a 0.09% account does not diversify that position, because getting the money into the account means selling first, and selling is the tax event you were trying to avoid. This is the single most common mismatch we see in the questions people send us, and the fee tables above are irrelevant to it.
There are three real routes for an existing concentrated position, and they are priced very differently from the accounts above. You can sell in tranches across tax years and simply pay, which is cheapest in fees and most expensive in tax. You can contribute the stock to an exchange fund such as Cache, which defers the gain entirely but costs 0.40% to 0.95% a year and locks the money for seven years to get the diversified basket out. Or you can use a long and short transition strategy like Frec Diversify, which unwinds the position gradually while harvesting losses to absorb the gains, at 0.60% plus financing with no lock-up.
The two are closer on price than most comparisons suggest, because most comparisons put Frec's 0.09% Classic product against an exchange fund, which measures the wrong things against each other. At a $100,000 entry the honest gap is roughly 12 basis points, and the decision turns on lock-up, leverage and whether you want a 1099-B or a Schedule K-1. We work through it in Frec Diversify vs Cache exchange fund.
Once the position is unwound, everything on this page applies again. The order matters: solve the concentrated holding first, then choose the platform that runs the diversified index afterward.
Questions
Direct indexing platforms, answered
What are the best direct indexing platforms?
It depends almost entirely on your balance. Below $100,000 the practical shortlist is Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct at 0.09% with a $5,000 minimum, Fidelity Managed FidFolios at 0.40% with the same $5,000 minimum, and Frec Classic at 0.09% to 0.35% starting around $20,000. Above $100,000 you add Schwab Personalized Indexing and Wealthfront US Direct Indexing. Past roughly $1M, an advisor running Parametric or Aperio becomes realistic, though both are more accessible than their reputations suggest. Parametric's Form ADV sets a $250,000 minimum at 35 bps and the Morgan Stanley Select UMA route starts at $25,000 before platform fees. Aperio charges the identical 35 bps for U.S. domestic benchmarks per its own Form ADV, and files no firm-wide minimum at all.
What is the minimum investment for direct indexing?
The lowest retail minimums are $5,000, at Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct and Nasdaq-100 Direct and at Fidelity Managed FidFolios. Frec starts at $20,000 for its cheapest indexes. Schwab Personalized Indexing and Wealthfront US Direct Indexing both start at $100,000. The advisor-only platforms do not publish minimums, and the figures that circulate for them run from about $250,000 to $1M and up.
How much does direct indexing cost?
Retail direct indexing runs from 0.09% to 0.40% a year in advisory fees. Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct is 0.09%, Nasdaq-100 Direct is 0.12%, Frec Classic is 0.09% to 0.35%, and both Fidelity Managed FidFolios and Schwab Personalized Indexing charge 0.40% for index tracking. For reference a plain S&P 500 ETF costs about 0.03%, so you are paying roughly three to thirteen times the index fee to buy the tax management.
Is Fidelity Managed FidFolios better than Frec for direct indexing?
They win on different things. Fidelity is cheaper to start at $5,000 versus Frec's $20,000, and it keeps everything inside an account you may already have. Frec is materially cheaper to run at 0.09% to 0.35% against Fidelity's 0.40%, and it offers 25 index choices rather than a narrower menu. On a $50,000 account the fee gap is roughly $125 to $155 a year in Frec's favor. If you value one login and a low entry point, Fidelity. If you value ongoing cost and index choice, Frec.
What is the cheapest way to do direct indexing without paying advisory fees?
Build and hold the basket yourself at a zero-commission broker with fractional shares, and accept that you are doing the work a platform would otherwise automate. You get the direct ownership and you pay no advisory fee at all, but you also personally handle the rebalancing, the wash sale rules across every account you control, and the record keeping. That trade is reasonable for a 30 to 50 stock basket and unreasonable for a 500 stock replication.
Does Betterment offer direct indexing?
Not for retail investors as of August 2026. Betterment's own pricing page lists Automated Investing at 0.25%, Premium at 0.65% with a $100,000 minimum, and a Self-Directed tier with no management fee, and it does not mention direct indexing anywhere. Betterment acquired the direct indexing firm Rowboat and has said the capability is coming during 2026, with no high dollar minimum and using fractional shares. Treat it as announced, not available.
Do direct indexing platforms monitor wash sales across all my accounts?
None of them can, and Schwab is the one that says so plainly: it monitors for wash sales within the account but "does not monitor for wash sales in other accounts held by a client", including other accounts of the same type. The wash sale rule applies across every account you own, so an automatic 401(k) or IRA contribution can disallow a loss your direct indexing account just harvested. In a taxable account that is a deferral. Under IRS Revenue Ruling 2008-5, if the replacement shares land in an IRA the loss is forfeited permanently and your IRA basis is not stepped up. Whichever platform you pick, that reconciliation is yours.
Which platforms let you borrow against a direct indexing portfolio?
Frec runs a portfolio line of credit against its direct indexing accounts, lending up to 70% of portfolio value at a floating rate set at the effective federal funds rate plus one percent, which Frec published as 4.64% when we checked in August 2026. Schwab and Fidelity both offer securities-based lending through the wider brokerage rather than as a feature of the direct indexing product. Rates move with the fed funds rate, so check the current number rather than a figure quoted in an article.
Do direct indexing platforms reimburse ACATS transfer fees?
Transfer fee credits are promotional rather than structural, so no honest answer holds for long. Several platforms have run offers covering the outbound fee your old broker charges, typically capped and requiring a minimum transfer. Ask the platform directly before you initiate, and be aware the bigger cost of leaving a direct indexing account is usually not the ACATS fee but what happens to hundreds of individual tax lots.
What is the difference between direct indexing and custom indexing?
Direct indexing means holding the individual components of a published index instead of a fund that tracks it, so the manager can harvest losses at the stock level. Custom indexing usually means the same mechanics with the rules changed: you drop names, tilt weights, apply screens or start from your own list rather than a published benchmark. Every direct indexing platform above allows some customization, which is why the terms have largely merged in marketing.
Is direct indexing worth the fee?
It is worth it when you have enough taxable gains for the harvested losses to offset, and it is close to pointless without them. The strategy converts a fee into a tax asset, so the arithmetic only works if you have taxes to reduce. In a tax-advantaged account it is worse than an ETF, because you paid extra for a benefit you cannot use. The usual rule of thumb is a taxable balance in the low six figures with realized gains elsewhere, though the $5,000 minimums have pulled that threshold down.
Can I do direct indexing myself?
Yes, for a basket of a few dozen names. Fractional shares at the major brokers make a 30 to 50 stock replication practical, and the direct ownership and loss harvesting opportunity are real. What you take on is the operational load: rebalancing on a schedule, tracking cost basis lot by lot, and staying clear of wash sales across every account you and your spouse control, including IRAs. Revenue Ruling 2008-5 is the trap worth knowing, because a replacement purchase inside an IRA disallows the loss permanently.
What are the largest direct indexing providers?
By assets under management the leaders are institutional rather than retail. Parametric is the largest by a wide margin, holding approximately $684.7 billion in total client assets as of December 31, 2025 according to its Form ADV, followed by Aperio under BlackRock and the bank and wirehouse programs, all reached through a financial advisor. In the direct to consumer channel Wealthfront, Fidelity, Schwab and Frec are the ones an individual can actually open on their own. Size is not a buying signal here, because the largest platforms are the ones you cannot access without an advisor relationship.
Compare direct indexing AUM fees: Fidelity vs Schwab vs Frec
On the headline advisory fee Frec is cheapest, then Fidelity and Schwab effectively tie. Frec Classic runs 0.09% to 0.35% depending on strategy, from a $20,000 minimum. Fidelity Managed FidFolios charges 0.40% for its index strategies and 0.70% for the actively managed ones, from $5,000 invested. Schwab Personalized Indexing charges 0.40% up to $2,000,000 and 0.35% above it, from a $100,000 minimum. On $250,000 that is roughly $225 a year at Frec's S&P 500 rate against $1,000 at either Fidelity or Schwab. The minimums move in the opposite direction to the fees, so the cheapest option you can actually open depends on your balance.
What is the cheapest way to do 100% direct indexing without traditional RIA fees?
Skip the advisor channel and open a self-serve platform. Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct is 0.09% from $5,000, and Frec Classic is 0.09% for its S&P 500 strategy from $20,000. Both are roughly a quarter of what Fidelity and Schwab charge and a fraction of a traditional 1% advisory relationship. The genuinely free route is doing it yourself in a commission-free brokerage that supports fractional shares, which costs nothing in fees but puts rebalancing, lot-level basis tracking and wash sale avoidance on you. Revenue Ruling 2008-5 is the trap there, because a replacement purchase inside an IRA disallows the loss permanently.
Are there direct indexing apps that charge less than 0.25% AUM?
Yes, two that a US individual can open without an advisor. Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct is 0.09% with a $5,000 minimum, and Wealthfront Nasdaq-100 Direct is 0.12%. Frec Classic starts at 0.09% for the S&P 500 strategy from $20,000, though 14 of its 25 strategies cost 0.15% or more and some reach 0.35%. Everything else in the retail market sits at 0.40% or above. Below 0.25% the menu is genuinely short, and it narrows further once you require a specific index rather than accepting whichever one happens to be cheapest.
What if I hold one big appreciated stock rather than a portfolio?
Then direct indexing is only half an answer, and the product category you also want to look at is exchange funds. Direct indexing invests new money efficiently; it has no mechanism for a gain you already carry, because getting the money in means selling first. An exchange fund lets you contribute the stock into a partnership under IRC 721 and receive a diversified stake without triggering the gain, at the cost of a seven-year lock-up and a mandatory 20% illiquid sleeve. Frec Diversify is the middle route, transitioning the position gradually using harvested losses with no lock-up.
Go deeper
Model the basket before you pay anyone to run it
Build the weighted index, backtest the construction over real history, and track it against the S&P 500. No minimum, no account to link, no trades placed. Educational and informational only.