Executive Brief: United Income Inc.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

United Income represents a compelling case study in fintech innovation within the retirement-focused wealth management sector, demonstrating both the promise and challenges of technology-driven financial services targeting an underserved demographic. Founded in May 2016 by serial entrepreneur Matt Fellowes in Washington, D.C., United Income pioneered a hybrid robo-advisory model specifically designed for pre-retirees and retirees aged 50-70, combining algorithmic portfolio management with human advisor access to address the unique financial challenges of Americans transitioning into retirement. The company raised approximately $15.9 million across five funding rounds from strategic investors including Morningstar, Pierre Omidyar's Omidyar Network, and Capital One Ventures, achieving $746 million in assets under management and serving more than 750 accounts by August 2019 when Capital One Financial Corporation acquired the firm for an undisclosed sum. Capital One subsequently rebranded the platform as Capital One Investing in July 2021 before divesting the business to SageView Advisory Group in April 2022, with the transaction encompassing approximately $900 million in client assets and the full advisory team, marking the conclusion of United Income's existence as an independent operating entity.

CORPORATE STRUCTURE AND FUNDAMENTALS

United Income Inc. operated as a Delaware-incorporated registered investment advisor headquartered at 1660 L Street North West, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036, with primary contact through telephone number (855) 215-3032 and secondary corporate line (202) 558-2015. The company was founded by Matt Fellowes, a distinguished financial technology entrepreneur who earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master's in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University, bringing academic rigor and policy expertise to consumer financial services innovation. Prior to establishing United Income, Fellowes served as a Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2008, where his research focused on consumer finance, poverty, household debt, and retirement planning, subsequently founding HelloWallet in 2008 with a $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and ultimately selling that company to Morningstar in 2014 for $52.5 million.

The company's leadership team assembled extraordinary policy credentials that distinguished United Income from competing robo-advisory platforms, including former U.S. Social Security Administration Director of the Office of Policy Evaluation and Modeling Howard Iams, former Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Groshen, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy Adam Looney, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Retirement and Health Policy Mark Iwry, and Steve Utkus from the Vanguard Center for Investor Research. This advisory board composition represented arguably the most sophisticated retirement policy expertise assembled by any fintech startup, providing United Income with institutional credibility and research capabilities far exceeding typical venture-backed competitors in the automated wealth management space. The strategic vision centered on addressing what Fellowes identified as a fundamental market failure: Americans living longer while retiring earlier and saving inadequately, creating a structural need for technology-driven solutions that could democratize sophisticated retirement planning previously available only to high-net-worth households.

MARKET POSITION AND COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS

The global robo-advisory market demonstrates exceptional growth characteristics, with industry valuations ranging from approximately $8.3 billion to $11.8 billion in 2024 depending on measurement methodology, and projected compound annual growth rates of 24-30% driving market expansion toward $50-100 billion by 2030-2033 according to analyses from Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights, and IMARC Group. North America commands the largest regional market share at 38-45% of global revenue, driven by high investor awareness, sophisticated digital infrastructure, regulatory clarity, and the presence of market leaders including Vanguard, Betterment, Wealthfront, Charles Schwab, and Fidelity. The hybrid robo-advisory segment, which combines algorithmic portfolio management with access to human financial advisors, captured approximately 60-64% of market share in 2024, representing the dominant service model and the category where United Income strategically positioned itself from inception.

United Income competed against five primary categories of market participants offering varying combinations of automated investment management and human advisory services. Betterment, founded in 2010, established the pure robo-advisor category and currently manages approximately $50 billion in assets with a 0.25% annual fee structure and access to human advisors through premium tiers. Wealthfront operates a similar model with approximately $50 billion under management, differentiating through tax-loss harvesting, direct indexing, and cryptocurrency investment options. Vanguard Personal Advisor Services commands the largest market position with over $333 billion in assets under management, leveraging Vanguard's low-cost index fund heritage and hybrid human-digital service model. Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios offers commission-free robo-advisory services with no annual management fee in exchange for maintaining a cash allocation requirement. Fidelity Go provides automated investment management with no advisory fee on balances under $25,000, transitioning to 0.35% for larger accounts, and includes access to one-on-one coaching sessions.

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO AND INNOVATION

United Income distinguished itself through five unique product features that competitors did not offer in combination. First, the platform provided sophisticated Social Security optimization tools powered by proprietary simulation technology that analyzed millions of potential scenarios for each household, determining optimal claiming strategies based on health status, longevity expectations, spousal benefits coordination, and overall financial circumstances. Second, United Income delivered comprehensive retirement income planning that transformed accumulated wealth into sustainable retirement paychecks, addressing the decumulation challenge that traditional wealth managers typically ignored in favor of asset accumulation strategies. Third, the company implemented tax-efficient withdrawal sequencing that optimized the order of distributions across taxable accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and Social Security benefits to minimize lifetime tax burden. Fourth, the hybrid service model provided access to ten in-house advisors who utilized the platform's software tools while offering personalized guidance that pure robo-advisors could not match. Fifth, United Income incorporated Medicare planning, healthcare expense projection, and downsizing analysis into its holistic retirement planning framework, recognizing that healthcare costs represent the single largest expense uncertainty for most American retirees.

The company's technical architecture employed advanced Monte Carlo simulation capabilities that generated approximately 500,000 potential scenarios for each client, encompassing varying market conditions, inflation trajectories, healthcare cost increases, and longevity outcomes to stress-test retirement plans across a comprehensive range of possible futures. United Income's algorithms incorporated factor-based investing strategies targeting securities with characteristics historically associated with higher returns and lower risk, diverging from the passive index-matching approach employed by most robo-advisors. The platform supported automatic opportunistic rebalancing designed to maintain target allocations while minimizing tax consequences, qualified dividend optimization to reduce tax liability on investment income, and exchange-traded fund implementation to minimize capital gains generation. The service structure offered three tiers: a Free Service providing one-time financial planning and Social Security advice with no account minimum, a Self Service plan charging 0.50% annually for ongoing investment management and planning, and a Full Service option at up to 0.80% annually providing concierge-level support including dedicated advisor access.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION AND INDUSTRY IMPACT

United Income produced landmark research that fundamentally changed the retirement planning industry's understanding of Social Security claiming behavior and its consequences. The June 2019 study "The Retirement Solution Hiding in Plain Sight: How Much Retirees Would Gain by Improving Social Security Decisions," co-authored by Fellowes and former Social Security Administration officials, analyzed 2,024 households using government-sponsored survey data and United Income's simulation technology to quantify the financial impact of suboptimal claiming decisions. The research found that American retirees will collectively lose $3.4 trillion in potential retirement income because they claimed Social Security at financially suboptimal times, translating to an average loss of approximately $111,000 per household over their retirement years.

The study revealed that only 4% of retirees make the financially optimal decision about when to claim Social Security, meaning 96% of Americans leave significant money on the table by claiming too early or, less commonly, too late. The research demonstrated that 57% of retirees would build more lifetime wealth by waiting until age 70 to claim benefits, yet only 4% actually delay to that age, while more than 70% claim prior to age 64 when only 6.5% would be financially better off doing so. Perhaps most strikingly, the analysis estimated that the poverty rate among elderly Americans would drop from approximately 13% to 7% if all retirees claimed Social Security at their optimal age, representing a potential 50% reduction in elderly poverty through improved decision-making alone. The research received widespread coverage in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Bloomberg, and academic publications, establishing United Income as the definitive authority on Social Security optimization and demonstrating how technology could solve previously intractable financial planning challenges at scale.

INVESTMENT HISTORY AND CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS

United Income raised total funding of approximately $15.9 million across five financing rounds between 2016 and its acquisition in 2019, with strategic investors providing both capital and industry expertise. Matt Fellowes contributed personal capital to the $5 million seed round in 2016, alongside Morningstar and Pierre Omidyar's Omidyar Network, reflecting the founder's confidence in the venture and the strategic interest of established financial services players. According to SEC filings, Morningstar and Fellowes each owned between 25% and 50% of the company prior to acquisition, with the Omidyar Network holding a smaller stake. The company attracted $200 million in assets under management during its beta testing phase, demonstrating strong early product-market fit before public launch in 2017.

Capital One Financial Corporation acquired United Income on August 16, 2019, adding to the bank's automated advice portfolio which already included Capital One Advisors Managed Portfolios launched in 2016. The acquisition price was not publicly disclosed, though the transaction followed Capital One's initial 10% preferred stake investment in 2018, suggesting strategic alignment developed over an extended courtship period. At acquisition, United Income reported $746 million in assets under management and more than 750 client accounts, with a median client age of 60 years reflecting the company's targeted demographic focus. Capital One rebranded the platform as Capital One Investing in July 2021, with Fellowes continuing as Head of Wealth Management for the division. However, by November 2021, reports emerged that Capital One sought to divest the robo-advisor unit, culminating in SageView Advisory Group's acquisition of the business in April 2022 for approximately $900 million in transferred client assets, with the advisory team joining SageView as employees.

USER EXPERIENCE AND MARKET RECEPTION

United Income received generally positive reception from industry analysts and early adopters, with particular praise for its retirement-specific focus and sophisticated planning capabilities. The platform addressed a genuine market gap, as traditional wealth managers typically charged 1-2% of assets annually while providing minimal retirement-specific planning, and pure robo-advisors offered low fees but lacked the comprehensive services retirees needed. Reviews highlighted the platform's unique approach to spending management, noting that United Income stood alone among robo-advisors in focusing on how to transform accumulated wealth into sustainable retirement income streams rather than simply accumulating assets.

Industry commentary emphasized that United Income's fee structure of 0.50% for Self Service positioned the platform competitively against traditional advisors while exceeding pure robo-advisor pricing of 0.25%, creating a value proposition that required demonstrating superior outcomes to justify the premium. Critics noted limited transparency regarding specific investment allocations and portfolio holdings, though the factor-based approach aimed to outperform benchmarks rather than merely matching them as most robo-advisors attempted. The hybrid model received validation from broader market trends, with research indicating hybrid platforms achieve 2.3 times higher client retention than pure robo models according to the CFA Institute, suggesting United Income's strategic positioning aligned with emerging best practices. The company's research contributions generated substantial earned media and established credibility that competitors struggled to match, though translating thought leadership into sustained client acquisition proved challenging in an increasingly crowded market.

ECONOMIC SCENARIO ANALYSIS

Base Case (50% Probability): United Income as a standalone entity would have likely achieved $2-3 billion in assets under management by 2025 had it remained independent, capturing approximately 0.5-1.0% of the retirement-focused robo-advisory segment through continued differentiation on Social Security optimization and retirement income planning. Revenue at this scale, assuming 0.50-0.60% average fee realization, would have reached $10-18 million annually with operating margins of 15-25% as the platform achieved scale efficiencies. The acquisition outcome eliminated this independent trajectory, though the technology and team continue operating within SageView's broader wealth management infrastructure.

Optimistic Scenario (25% Probability): Accelerated market adoption of digital retirement planning combined with successful Capital One integration could have driven assets to $5-7 billion by 2025, positioning the platform as the dominant retirement-focused hybrid advisor. This scenario would have required Capital One to maintain strategic commitment, invest in marketing and technology enhancement, and successfully cross-sell to the bank's existing customer base of millions of credit card holders and banking customers. Revenue in this scenario would have reached $25-42 million annually with improving margins as fixed costs spread across larger asset base.

Pessimistic Scenario (25% Probability): Intensifying competition from well-funded competitors like Betterment and Wealthfront, combined with market share gains by traditional players launching competitive offerings, could have constrained United Income to $500-800 million in assets with continued profitability challenges. This scenario reflected the actual outcome, with Capital One choosing to exit the business rather than invest further in a competitive landscape requiring substantial ongoing investment to achieve scale. The divestiture to SageView preserved client relationships and employee positions while acknowledging the strategic misfit within Capital One's broader priorities.

BOTTOM LINE

United Income represented an innovative solution best suited for pre-retirees and retirees aged 50-70 with $250,000 to $2 million in investable assets who sought comprehensive retirement planning exceeding pure robo-advisor capabilities but priced below traditional wealth management fees. The platform delivered exceptional value for households navigating Social Security claiming decisions, tax-efficient withdrawal strategies, Medicare planning, and retirement income generation, particularly those willing to pay modest premium fees for access to human advisors supported by sophisticated planning technology. Industries and demographics most suited to the solution included healthcare professionals with complex pension and 403(b) coordination requirements, corporate executives with concentrated stock positions requiring diversification strategies, educators managing TIAA-CREF accounts alongside Social Security, and small business owners liquidating businesses for retirement funding. The company's research contributions permanently advanced industry understanding of retirement decision-making, and its technology and team continue serving clients through SageView Advisory Group, though the United Income brand and independent operating model concluded with the April 2022 transaction. For investors and entrepreneurs studying the retirement fintech sector, United Income demonstrates both the substantial opportunity in serving aging demographics with technology-enabled advice and the execution challenges of building sustainable competitive advantages in a market where well-capitalized incumbents can rapidly replicate innovations.