This month, Wealthfront launched fractional share trading of stocks with zero commissions.

Wealthfront Stock Investing Accounts, which can be opened with just $1, offer clients curated stock selections and round out the brand’s saving, investing, and lending suite.

To learn more, Benzinga spoke with vice president of product Dave Myszewski, who began his career at Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) as an engineer on the original iPhone.

Frustrated with the financial advisory space, Myszewski went to Wealthfront in 2016. Read on to hear his thoughts on why this launch is so important for young investors who are keen on wealth-building in today's market.

BZ: What exactly was the frustration with the financial advisory industry?

D.M.: A number of things led me to manage money myself. Understanding why and how to manage your money is the hardest part while actually doing it is a bit more simple. Anyways, I was wondering why there wasn’t a company out there that was offering a solution to my problems, and I stumbled upon Wealthfront which was engaging in some heavy technology investment.

What did your experience at Apple teach you?

My very first demo as an executive was a proud moment for me. This executive was complaining about a problem he had for a very long time. In the middle of that demo, he pointed out something that was still wrong, and that was formative for me in that he pointed out the bad, not the good. It held me to a super high standard. Holding yourself to high standards is important in creating good product experiences.

What makes Wealthfront so special?

Wealthfront integrates investing and savings products to help young professionals build long-term wealth in any market condition. The company pioneered the robo industry, and we now have diversified investing and low-cost margin loans, as well as high-yield cash accounts that offer 4.05% APY and $2 million of FDIC insurance through Wealthfront's partner banks.

What prompted Wealthfront to add Stock Investing Accounts?

Most clients buy stock in a company that they are excited about. Another observation we made, prior to creating Wealthfront’s Stock Investing Accounts, is that there is a ton of data that shows clients have $40 billion or so sitting in external brokerage accounts. Through Wealthfront, clients can use the money better. We thought there was value to be added. So, this is not a trading platform. Rather, it’s about buy and hold, long-term investing.

What’s the experience of this new feature like?

What’s often a problem for investors just getting started?

Are there many collections to choose from?

How do you create these packages or portfolios people can invest in?

We assess what clients are thinking about or should be thinking about, and then we create collections based on that. Our investment research team decides which equities make sense as part of that based on a variety of factors.

Are the transactions instantaneous?

We do limit trading activities. This isn't made for day traders. It's really made for long-term investors. Our clients tend to invest in about three securities a month. They're not really making a lot of purchases. They are buying and holding. We're not taking payments for order flow or PFOF as part of this, too. We're making money based on the money that sits uninvested in your cash account.

How does that execution work?

We aim to get that done within 30 minutes. We're interested in speeding up that over time. We’ll bundle up client orders into different batches and, as we scale, that speeds up.

Can you talk about protecting customer accounts when there’s volatility or failures?

We launched Wealthfront Cash with $1 million of FDIC insurance by sweeping money into partner banks. We’ve increased that to $2 million over the past six months or so, and we're also looking at increasing that to $3 million. Now that's per account holder. It's $2 million for a personal account. $4 million for joint account.

What are the different types of accounts you can open through Wealthfront?

What is the rough timeline of all the different types of product introductions?

Our advisory product was introduced in 2011. Wealthfront Cash was released in February 2019. And then the Stock Investing Account was introduced at the beginning of the month.

Where else can you add value?

I think we’re excited to add some value to our Wealthfront Cash clients with interest rates in the 4 or 5% range. We haven’t seen that in a while. We’re trying to lay the groundwork for major product categories our clients need. With interest rates high, some investors may opt to earn more yield on their cash and sit out when there’s more perceived risk in the market.