This page is for the practical questions: what the product actually does, who it is for, how it connects to a broker, what the limits are, and where to start if you are still evaluating it.
Broker-connected software that helps self-directed investors run direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting with visible logic and flat pricing.
It is not a registered investment advisor, not a custody platform, and not a black-box manager quietly trading around your account.
Investors with meaningful taxable assets who care about tax efficiency, want to keep their existing broker, and prefer understanding the engine instead of outsourcing judgment completely.
HarvestEngine builds a direct-index sleeve against a benchmark you choose, monitors the held positions for tax-loss-harvest opportunities, ranks wash-safe replacements, and shows you reviewable trade proposals. The goal is to create more tax-lot flexibility than a single exchange-traded fund can provide while keeping the portfolio close to its target shape.
No. That is one of the main points of the product. Your assets stay at the brokerage you already use. HarvestEngine sits on top of the account as software instead of forcing you into a new custody stack just to access better tax-aware tooling.
No, but it is best for investors who actually care about taxable investing and want to understand the process. You do not need to be a portfolio manager, but you should want more than a robo experience that asks you to trust the wrapper without ever seeing the logic underneath.
E*TRADE is the current primary integration. The broader design assumes a multi-broker future because serious investors often have more than one account or more than one custodian. The product is being built to sit above that reality, not ignore it.
Three big differences: you keep your broker, the pricing is flat software pricing instead of a percentage of your account, and the product is built to expose more of the actual decision logic. That last part matters more than most people realize. Tax-loss harvesting is only as good as the engine making the calls.
Yes. The free Sandbox tier is the right starting point for most people. It lets you see how the sleeve is built, how the engine thinks about harvests and replacements, and whether the workflow feels credible before you connect anything live.
Start with TLH 101, then the algorithm article, then the fee math. Those three pieces usually tell you pretty quickly whether HarvestEngine is the right shape of product for you.
The simplest clear explanation of tax-loss harvesting and why direct indexing changes the economics.
How the ranking, triggers, replacement logic, and audit trail work, and why a serious customer should care.
Why flat software pricing behaves very differently from a percentage-of-assets fee as your portfolio grows.
Start in the sandbox. It is the fastest way to see whether the workflow, the tax-aware logic, and the overall shape of the product feel like an upgrade from what you already use.
Try the sandbox