Facet vs Magnifi: Which Is Better in 2026?

Prices checked October 2026. A price marked (Oct 2026) was read on the vendor's own pricing page; others are described without a number because we could not verify one.

Flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP professional, priced by complexity.

How it works: You pay an annual membership and are assigned a CFP professional who covers planning across tax, insurance, estate coordination and retirement, with investment management available inside it. Because the fee is flat and set by complexity, it does not rise as your portfolio grows, and that is its main argument against the percentage model.

In practice, Facet’s AI none; this is human planning. It is a robo-advisor (hands-off automated investing), best suited to flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP. On connecting an account: no (manages assets it custodies, planning covers the rest). On execution: advisor-managed. Cost: $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset minimum (Oct 2026).

One real limitation: The flat fee is large in absolute terms at small balances, so it only beats a percentage once you have enough assets or enough complexity.

A conversational AI investing assistant you can ask natural-language questions about funds and holdings, with account-connection features. Best for research and discovery in plain English.

How it works: Magnifi is built around a chat box: you ask plain-English questions like "what are low-cost clean-energy ETFs?" or "how diversified am I?" and it surfaces investments, side-by-side comparisons, and observations. You can link accounts so its answers reflect what you actually hold, and it points you toward funds and stocks to consider.

In practice, Magnifi’s AI conversational fund/stock research. It is an AI stock research and scoring tool, best suited to research and discovery in plain English. On connecting an account: partial. On execution: read / discovery. Cost: free plan; Premium is a paid subscription (as of October 2026).

One real limitation: Skews toward fund discovery; it is weaker at managing a concentrated stock portfolio.

Category comes first. Facet focuses on flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP (none; this is human planning), and Magnifi on research and discovery in plain English (conversational fund/stock research). On broker connection they differ too: Facet is “No (manages assets it custodies, planning covers the rest)” versus Magnifi at “Partial”. That shapes everything downstream: how personal the answers are, where trades settle, and how much control you keep over individual positions.

Every tool gives something up for what it does well. Below is the give-and-take on each, so you can weigh the specific strengths against the limitations that come with them, beyond the headline category.

For AI investing tools, the distinction that matters most is whether the tool works from your actual, connected positions or reasons from something else: a separate account it manages for you, or the tickers and numbers you feed it. It decides how personal the answers can be, and where your money physically lives.

• Facet: manages a separate account it holds. Facet does not read the brokerage you already use. It opens and holds a new account, then invests the money you move into it, so its view is limited to what sits inside Facet.
• Magnifi: partial account connection. Magnifi offers some account-connection features, but it leans toward research and discovery. It does not keep a full, continuous read of your real positions.

This is where they diverge most. One works from your real, connected account while the other does not, so if you want an assistant grounded in the exact positions you already hold, that gap is the thing to weigh first. This holdings-aware angle is the one Walnut is built around: it connects the brokerage you already use and reasons from your live positions, read-only by default, with any trades left for you to approve.

Each one wins a different job, so the answer depends on which job you need done.

• Choose Facet if you want flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP. Its AI none; this is human planning, and it costs $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset minimum (Oct 2026). It is built for someone with a few hundred thousand or more, or real complexity, who wants planning more than portfolio management and objects to paying a percentage. Keep in mind: the flat fee is large in absolute terms at small balances, so it only beats a percentage once you have enough assets or enough complexity.
• Choose Magnifi if you want research and discovery in plain English. Its AI conversational fund/stock research, and it costs free plan; Premium is a paid subscription (as of October 2026). It is built for investors who want to research and discover funds by chatting in plain English. Keep in mind: skews toward fund discovery; it is weaker at managing a concentrated stock portfolio.
• Choose Walnut if you want a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve. It is an AI investing app that connects the broker you already use, and it costs free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets.

Because they sit in different categories, this is not strictly either-or: some investors use one for flat-fee financial planning with a dedicated CFP and the other for research and discovery in plain English, and watch for overlapping costs.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Facet: $2,600, $5,500 or $8,700/yr flat, no asset minimum (Oct 2026). Magnifi: free plan; Premium is a paid subscription (as of October 2026). A percentage-of-assets fee scales with your balance, a flat subscription does not, and a “free” tier usually earns elsewhere (on cash, order flow, or premium upgrades), so the cheapest headline is not always the cheapest outcome for your situation.

Prices checked October 2026. Pricing and tiers change, so confirm the current numbers on each provider’s own site before you decide.

Walnut is an AI investing app, and it is the pick for a keep, trim or exit read on the stocks you already own, and placing the trades you approve (free; Walnut Plus $9.99/mo on the web; no fee on assets). It connects the brokerage you already use, read-only by default, gives each holding a keep, trim or exit read against the S&P 500, flags any position above a quarter of the portfolio, and places the trades you approve. You use it through its own assistant, or inside Claude or ChatGPT. See Walnut vs Facet and Walnut vs Magnifi.