Wahed Invest Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF

Wahed Invest was founded in 2015 by Junaid Wahedna 'to solve the Riba problem' and has grown into the most visible halal investing brand globally: over 400,000 clients across 130+ countries, licenses in 9 jurisdictions, and more than $1 billion in assets across its entities (all company-reported), with backers including Saudi Aramco's Wa'ed Ventures and Qatar Development Bank. The US business is Wahed Invest LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser headquartered in New York, with custody at Apex Clearing (SIPC-protected up to $500,000). Mohsin Siddiqui, formerly of ComplyAdvantage and OANDA, became CEO in 2023 with Wahedna moving to Chairman.

The core product is a discretionary wrap program: answer a risk questionnaire and Wahed assigns one of six portfolios, from Very Conservative (about 79% KWIN income ETF plus sukuk) to Very Aggressive (about 65% global equity and 34% emerging-markets equity). Portfolios are built on Modern Portfolio Theory from Wahed's own ETFs plus sukuk and gold, rebalanced on risk-profile changes, cash flows, and major volatility. The minimum is $100, dividends reinvest automatically, and account types span taxable plus Traditional, Roth, SEP, and Rollover IRAs. There are no human advisors - everything runs through the app - and ACH withdrawals take about 7–8 business days.

Pricing is a single all-in wrap fee covering management, custody, and transactions: 0.49% per year plus $60, dropping to a flat 0.49% at $100,000 (where clients also become eligible for a free one-time financial plan). Two caveats: the fixed $60 makes small accounts proportionally costly (roughly 0.9%+ effective under $20,000), and Wahed's site currently displays an older 0.79%/0.49% tiered schedule alongside the newer structure - the newer pages carry the 0.49% + $60 disclosure. ETF expense ratios are charged separately, though Wahed states it does not double-charge on its own funds held inside portfolios. Billing accrues daily on the lesser of portfolio value and net deposits, collected monthly in arrears.

Wahed is also an ETF issuer, which is rare among robo-advisors. HLAL (Nasdaq, July 2019, 0.50%) tracks the FTSE Shariah USA Index screened by Yasaar Limited; UMMA (Nasdaq, January 2022, 0.65%) loosely tracks the Dow Jones Islamic Market International Titans 100 with an ESG overlay; and KWIN (NYSE Arca, November 2025, 0.51%) is an options-based 'Shariah alternative income' fund - Krane Funds Advisors is the adviser with Wahed as sub-adviser - that writes call options and buys puts to generate income without interest. KWIN now anchors the conservative portfolios and powers the Everyday Shariah Account, a wrap securities account marketed as a halal savings alternative targeting returns 'on par with the nation's best high-yield savings accounts.' Investors should understand the ESA is an investment account with market risk and SIPC (not FDIC) protection, and that KWIN's pre-launch performance shown in Wahed's calculator is back-tested, not real.

The record isn't spotless, and we weight this heavily. In February 2022 the SEC charged Wahed with making misleading statements and breaching fiduciary duty: between 2018 and 2019 it advertised proprietary funds that did not exist, promised rebalancing it didn't perform, seeded HLAL's launch with client assets without disclosing the conflict, and - despite marketing its Shariah purification process - had no written Shariah-compliance policies. Wahed consented, without admitting or denying the findings, to a cease-and-desist, a $300,000 civil penalty, and an independent compliance consultant. The compliance infrastructure Wahed publishes today - annual SSB audit reports (2019–2024), a Shariah transparency process document, per-fund fatwas - post-dates and directly addresses that gap. It is a genuine remediation story, but investors deserve to know it happened.

Shariah governance today is among the most documented in the space. The board comprises Sheikh Sajid Umar (PhD in financial risk management, qualified mufti), Sheikh Dr. Aznan Hasan (sitting AAOIFI Shariah board member, Deputy Chairman of Malaysia's Securities Commission Shariah council, and a member of the UAE Central Bank's Higher Shariah Authority), and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Sultan, with Shariyah Review Bureau as external independent advisor and an in-house Shariah risk analyst. Screening excludes conventional financial services, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment, and weapons, and applies asset and debt-ratio tests; quarterly purification amounts are published per fund, and a built-in zakat calculator estimates zakat on your Wahed balance. Newer products extend the same discipline: the Regulation A real estate offerings (fractional single-family rentals from $500; a diversified fund from $100 targeting 5–7% net, company-projected) are 100% equity-financed with zero mortgages, run by affiliate Wahed Financial LLC with Dalmore Group as broker-dealer.