With many investors looking to park their cash in higher-earning accounts, Ankur Nagpal, who founded and exited Teach:able, is jumping into the fray. His fin-tech startup Carry is officially rolling out Smart Yield, an alternative to traditional high-yield savings accounts, today. It has been testing the product for a little under two weeks, he says.
Carry, a New York City-based investment platform focused on helping users optimize their taxes, makes automated allocations through Smart Yield into strategic money market funds, where the mix includes many tax-free federal, state and local funds.
Smart Yield is available through solo 401(k)s, traditional IRAs and brokerage accounts opened on Carry. Its daily yield scans calculate the ideal tax equivalent yield based on the user’s tax situation offering “intelligent allocations” based on their personal inputs and market yields.
“We’ll look every day whenever we find a better opportunity and move them to a different product that earns a little bit more,” he says.
The high-interest rate environment has encouraged many investors to flock to high-yield savings accounts and newer investment alternatives, such as real estate syndicate funds.
Nagpal has targeted successful entrepreneurs and other high earners through the platform. When it comes to their cash, many are tucking it away in high-yield savings accounts paying 4-5%, he says, but for those in high-tax states, taxes can cut into the yields.
According to Nagpal, Smart Yield can give them the equivalent of a taxable investment bringing a return of 5.5% or 6%. The users who can derive the most benefit, he says, are those who are holding onto a lot of cash, are in the highest federal income tax bracket, or live in areas with high city or state taxes.
“It’s simple yet powerful,” he says.
Nagpal founded Teach:able, a platform for independent course creators, in 2013, and scaled it to $60 million in recurring annual revenue. In a nine-figure exit in 2020, he sold it to Hotmart, a platform that allows users to market digital products around the world.
He opened Carry in September 2022. In addition to retirement accounts, it offers brokerage accounts and a no-free roboadvisor.
Ahmed Elsayyad, an investor on the platform, has tried Smart Yield for cash management. Previously, he says, it felt like he was playing whack-a-mole. He was using spreadsheets to compare after-tax yields on investments such as Treasuries and municipal funds, with the promise to himself he would rebalance the following week.
“Smart Yield automates the whole loop,” he says. “The algorithm continuously arbitrages after-tax yield across T-Bills, municipal bonds, and other money market cash accounts, factoring in my Florida residency (zero state income tax) and settlement frictions.” He says the net result is “higher yield with zero additional cognitive load.”
Girish Gopalan, a tech exec and former finance professional based in San Francisco, has also tried Smart Yield.
He appreciates the time saved on figuring out how to invest his cash balance. “Smart Yield automates this, giving me peace of mind that my assets are optimally allocated to generate the best after-tax yield possible,” he said.
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