A new business headed by veterans of the financial technology industry is aiming to deliver the kind of personalized wealth management service usually associated with the ultra high and high net worth client segments to the affluent.

The new business, Personal Capital, is a Silicon Valley-based RIA and utilizes web and mobile apps to deliver many of its services, but combines this with professional advice. It attracted $27 million of startup funding from two large venture capital firms prior to its launch.

The team behind the venture consists of Bill Harris, formerly chief executive officer of Intuit and of PayPal; Rob Foregger, co-founder of EverBank and head of Fidelity's banking services; Jay Shah, formerly chief information officer of E-Loan; and Jim Del Favero, formerly group product manager for Quicken.

Available through its website, Personal Capital says its free service includes a real-time financial "dashboard" to track all clients’ money at all banks and brokers; transaction monitoring, daily alert emails and “military-grade” security; investment “check-ups”, including details of asset allocation and mutual fund fees; and financial analysis and objective advice based on a client’s financial picture.

Personal Capital also offers another, higher level of service which adds a dedicated financial professional, a personalized portfolio with global multi-asset class allocation, continuous rebalancing and tax optimization, and cash management services for high-yield government-guaranteed cash deposits.

A number of players have been targeting the mass affluent client segment, in a move to drive individual client profitability. Customers with between $50,000 and $250,000 are the fastest growing customer segment in the financial services market, according to research from Bank of America. The bank is rolling out its Merrill Edge program in a concerted effort to add to its preferred customer base, aiming to double the number of financial solutions advisors to 1,000 by year-end.

BofA is also running incentives such as Platinum Privileges, which rewards customers who maintain $50,000 or more in deposit balances with Bank of America or investment balances with Merrill Edge, and has introduced Merrill Edge mobile application for iPad, iPhone and Blackberry this year.

As Robert Ellis of Fast Track Advisors, who has examined the client segmentation issue in some detail, recently said, the mass affluent market is, broadly speaking, the “sweet spot” in wealth management. In the US these clients have as much wealth combined as the high net worth and ultra high net worth markets, and fewer client demands, providing the possibility of higher margins, says Ellis. He added the caveat that a number of factors such as a firm’s market position and brand will affect its profitability in different client segments.