LearnVest Planning doesn’t joke about money. Or do they?

Every time Alexa von Tobel says she has news, you can trust it’s never just one thing. A new product, a staff announcement and a SEC registration. A wedding, a pricing plan and a new office. Friday’s news—that LearnVest.com has raised an additional $16.5 million, has given an overhaul to its financial planning packages and has acquired not only new advisors but can now open up new channels of distribution as a result—is no different.

LearnVest.com has set new benchmarks in terms of turning financial planning into a consumer product over the past few years. Its users log in 22 times a month on the web-based money center and on average twice a day through the iPhone app. While there’s no count of users, von Tobel says growth was 300% from 2011 to 2012 and 200% so far this year. While demographics have skewed from the mostly female users that made their early clients, the average user currently has a take home salary of roughly $75,000. If you’re Alexa von Tobel, most every day is a good day.

But Friday’s slew of announcements might just be the biggest rundown for the business to date. Cash to bolster the infrastructure she needs to scale the business is exciting—it means the opening of a Phoenix, Ariz. office affectionately called “LearnWest” where the ranks of certified financial planners that are the braintrust of the business will be trained—but put together with advisers, a shiny new product and an aggressive distribution plan make it almost too much good news to keep straight.

What’s good in the bank account: $16.5 Million

With today’s $16.5 million cash infusion von Tobel and company have raised a cool $40 million in just three years. This new investment includes early investor Accel Partners. and new investors American Express American Express Ventures, Claritas Capital private equity, Ed Mathias, a founding member of The Carlyle Group and Todd Ruppert, the former CEO of T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services.

“We are passionate about making financial planning—dare I say it—an exciting consumer product,” says Alexa von Tobel, Founder and CEO. “We’re eager to use this latest investment to focus on scaling LearnVest Planning’s award-winning technology and to provide widespread access to our team of Certified Financial Planners.”

What’s good in product: The LearnVest Planning Action Program

“This product is the culmination of everything we’ve been working on for so long,” von Tobel said this week in her Union Square office—now home to more than 80 employees. “We’ve finally been able to bundle it, package it and sell it. This is our product for the future.” The product is LearnVest Planning’s seven-step program aimed to help, well, everyone from the entry level recent grad to the wealthiest of retirees, set budgets, trim spending and achieve savings goals for the future, continuing von Tobel’s three-year old mission to make LearnVest the Weight Watchers of personal finance.

The company offers 15 minute free diagnostic calls to potential clients and with what von Tobel calls a “jargon-free” unbiased conversation the conversion rate to buying the financial planning services— at $89, $299and $399, lower prices than a year ago —have so far exceeded expectations. The seven step plan takes clients from diagnostics (“where is your money?”) to budgeting to savings to goal-setting, and is peppered with challenges along the way. “Just like when you do Weight Watchers, the first thing they make you do is clean out your fridge,” von tobel says. “Our financial challenges start small and we feel that helps users to build the momentum to taking on bigger tasks.”

What’s good in new advisers: Weight Watchers, AOL AOL. T. Rowe Price and Carlyle Group

New investors Ed Mathias of Carlyle and Todd Ruppert of T. Rowe Price bring years of financial services experience to the company while Susan Lyne, AOL’s Brand Group CEO and Vice Chairman of Gilt Groupe brings consumer and lifestyle know-how. But the biggest win, especially for von Tobel who’s love of Weight Watchers as a brand has never been a secret, is the addition of Ann Sardini, the company’s former CFO to LearnVest Planning’s advisory board.

“Ann will be working with us, actually out of our offices as we grow and scale. We’re very excited about that,” von Tobel says. “These advisors were each picked specifically to help us scale in a different direction. They bring a massive amount of talent and insight to the conversation.”

What’s good with distribution: leveraging human resources

Friday’s announcement also includes the announcement of a new distribution channel called Workplace Solutions, an enterprise solution von Tobel believes that will bring financial wellness to the workplace as an employee benefit.

“We’re breaking into workplace,” she says, “Which is just the Action Program but packaged ina way to be distributed in the workplace. So you get your 401k, imagine if it came with an advisor to help you with the rest of the financial picture? We believe it can. Employers are spending a lot of money to get you that 401k. They want you to use it.”