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Wells Fargo Recurring Investments (2025)
Does Wells Fargo Advisors offer automatic investment plan (AIP) contributions? WellsTrade dollar cost averaging
program (DCA) setup and review. Fees on ETFs, stocks, and mutual funds monthly/weekly recurring periodic investment service.
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Wells Fargo Offer Automatic Investment Plan: Highlights
• WellsTrade has an AIP (Automatic Investment Plan) that establishes systematic purchases of mutual funds.
• The AIP at WellsTrade cannot be set up online.
• There is a $25 charge for each mutual fund enrolled in recurring purchases.
• Not all mutual funds at WellsTrade are eligible for the broker’s AIP.
Instead of logging into your WellsTrade account to place the same purchase for the same mutual fund, you can set up an Automatic Investment Plan that will make these trades for you automatically. There is a cost, however.
Overview of Autopilot Investing at Wells Fargo
WellsTrade’s Automatic Investment Plan is available only for mutual funds. It is not possible to establish recurring purchases of stocks or exchange-traded funds. Moreover, only no-load mutual funds are eligible for the AIP.
The third downside of the program is that customers must call in to set up the AIP. There is no digital tool on the website that lets clients establish an AIP on their own. The broker’s phone number is (800) 872-3377.
Cost of WellsTrade’s AIP
WellsTrade charges $25 for each mutual fund signed up for recurring investments. If a fund is a transaction-fee fund, the brokerage firm’s transaction fee will also apply to future purchases. This fee is $35.
Finding No-Load Funds
It’s easy to find mutual funds without loads using WellsTrade’s very good fund screener. To pull up this search engine, hover over the Research tab in the main menu and select Screeners from the drop-down list. On the next page, select the link for mutual funds.
With the mutual-fund search wizard launched, go into the Load/Transaction Fee section in the left-hand menu and click on the radio button for No-Load Funds. When we did this, we received 2,674 funds.
Wells Fargo Dollar-Cost Averaging
An Automatic Investment Plan can be used for dollar-cost averaging. This is a theory in investing that advocates using whole dollars on a recurring basis to purchase fractional shares of securities. Because the same dollar amount is always used, more shares are purchased when prices are low. And because the investment schedule is on a recurring and automatic basis, human emotions are taken out of the picture. There is no need to try to time the market. Volatility is less of a concern for investors who adopt dollar-cost averaging.
But there could be disadvantages, too. With a broker-dealer like WellsTrade who charges for its AIP, fees could stack up over time, especially on transaction-fee funds. Not all brokerage houses charge for recurring investments, however.
Updated on 2/4/2025.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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