Matt Fellowes (born February 27, 1975) is an American financial technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of United Income, a retirement-focused online investment management, and financial planning company based in Washington, D.C.[1] He previously founded financial planning technology company HelloWallet, which was acquired by Morningstar, Inc. in 2014 for $52.5 million.[2]
Fellowes holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Master's in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from St. Lawrence University.[3]
Fellowes was a Brookings Institution fellow from April 2004 to April 2008. His academic research focused on consumer finance, particularly poverty, household debt, and retirement planning.[4] In 2008, he left Brookings to found financial planning technology company HelloWallet with a $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.[5] Following the acquisition of HelloWallet by Morningstar, Inc. in 2014, Fellowes served as Chief Innovation Officer at Morningstar.[6] In 2016, with $5 million in seed funding from his own resources, Morningstar, and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's Omidyar Network, Fellowes founded online financial planning and investment management company United Income.[7][8][9] United Income was acquired by Capital One Financial in August 2019.[10]
Fellowes founded United Income in September 2016. United Income is an investment firm that offers a "hybrid service" with access to human advisors who rely on financial software in their decision-making process.[11] The company deploys sets of statistics on investment performance, retiree spending, longevity, and other factors to simulate potential financial outcomes.[12][13] Its "unified consumer finance system" recommends a retirement strategy based on millions of simulations for each individual. Its purpose is to offer retirees financial advice different from traditional financial planning software.[14][15]
United Income's team of policy experts includes former U.S. Social Security Administration Director of the Office of Policy Evaluation and Modeling (OPEM) Howard Iams; former Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erica Groshen; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Office of Tax Policy Adam Looney; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Office of Retirement and Health Policy Mark Iwry; and Steve Utkus, Head of the Vanguard Center for Investor Research.[14]
The company attracted $200 million in assets under management during its beta stage.[16][14]
United Income raised $5.8 million in seed funding in 2016. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Morningstar, Inc. and Fellowes each own between 25% and 50% of United Income. A smaller stake is owned by the Omidyar Network, funded by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.[16] On July 31, 2019, Capital One acquired United Income.
