Personal Capital is a digital asset management service that offers investment advisory services to its clients. It also provides an online dashboard, making it easy and secure to manage all aspects of your finances, from saving money in banks to getting advice on what accounts you should open.

The personal wealth management company was founded by Bill Harris, a former PayPal and Intuit chief executive. Today, Personal Capital is considered one of the top online financial advisory services and has multiple offices across the US.

Personal Capital Fees

Who Is Personal Capital For?

Personal Capital is for anyone with a balance of $100k or more and who wants to invest their money, grow it by minimizing taxes and fees while maximizing returns.

The types of investors Personal Capital is most suitable for are:

High Net Worth Investors

Since Personal Capital requires a minimum balance of $100k, it is most suitable for high net worth investors. High net worth individuals can benefit from a dedicated financial advisor for their money while investing in private equity opportunities.

Socially-Minded Investors

Personal Capital is also suitable for those who want to invest their money and be socially responsible. It offers unique portfolios that give you access to the best investments aimed at creating a more sustainable future, such as energy efficient companies and organic food producers.

Retirement Investors

For retirement investors, Personal Capital provides free software tools and tax optimization strategies designed with one main goal: helping individuals maximize returns while minimizing taxes in every phase of life. This way, they can make sure they have enough saved up by the time they retire so that they never have to worry about outliving their savings again.

Hands-Off Investors

Personal Capital is an excellent choice if you want to invest your money but don’t have the time or expertise. The fees are on the higher side compared to other investment advisors. Still, they guarantee that their advice will earn you more than what it costs and offer personalized financial planning and ongoing support from dedicated professionals.

Complex Financial Situations

Personal Capital is suitable for anyone with a complex financial situation. They can help you manage your net worth by consolidating all of your accounts, investments, and assets into one place, making them easier to understand and optimize.

In addition, access to financial advisors can bring clarity to your overall financial situation. If you have a lot of assets but are not sure how to manage them, Personal Capital can help by providing professional advice on the best way for you to invest or save money to reach your personal goals.

Investors Who Want To Track Daily Financial Accounts

Suppose you are looking for a way to track your daily financial accounts. In that case, Personal Capital provides its clients with free real-time information on all of the spending and transactions that happen across their different bank and credit card accounts. This way, they can make sure they know precisely where every dollar is going, which will help them better manage finances.

Inquisitive Investors

For investors interested in many different financial products and want to find out about new ones as soon as they hit the market, Personal Capital is perfect for them.

They have access to many investment opportunities across all types of assets classes, including ETFs from most significant companies. In addition, Personal Capital produces many white papers, reports, and industry updates that can help investors stay ahead of the curve.

How Much Does Personal Capital Charge?

As you might expect from a service that pairs you with a dedicated financial advisor who has in depth knowledge of your personal circumstances, pricing and account minimums are higher than at rivals like Betterment and Ellevest.

Annual fees range from 0.49% – 0.89% depending on how much capital you invest. Deposit $100,000 and you’ll pay the higher amount; the more you invest the bigger the fee break.

With a high minimum of $100,000 to get started, not everybody will be a fit for Personal Capital but even if you don’t qualify for money management services, you can still download the free Personal Capital app.

It ranks among the very best personal finance apps and helps you to easily track income, spending, and net worth.

If you want the best of both worlds: automated investment management plus human advisors who know your financial situation intimately, Personal Capital is virtually unmatched.

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How Does Personal Capital
Make Money?

When you invest up to $1,000,000, you will be charged a management fee of 0.89%. For example, a client investing $100,000 would pay $890 per year.

For investors with larger account sizes, fee breaks are offered and drop as low as 0.49% for “whales” who invest $10,000,000 or more.

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How Personal Capital
Invests Your Money

Personal Capital incorporates the research of Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, Harry Markowitz, and behavioral finance expert, Shlomo Benartzi, to create an asset allocation formula called Smart Indexing^TM that is designed to boost returns and lower risk compared to the S&P 500.

Smart Indexing^TM is applied to portfolios with greater than $200,000 invested. (Elsewhere, Smart Indexing is referred to as Smart Beta)

The investment method is designed to increase returns and lower risk by allocating equally to all sectors, as opposed to mirroring the S&P 500.

In back-tested studies, the results show returns outperformed by 1.5% annually using Smart Indexing^TM  and reduced volatility compared to investing only in the S&P 500.

The weighted average expense ratio of a portfolio of exchange-traded funds in which assets are invested is a very reasonable 0.09%.

Personal Capital Experts

In addition to providing an online dashboard for managing your finances, Personal Capital also offers advice from experts on investment portfolios based on each individual need as well as risk tolerance levels.

It also helps you build a digital wealth plan according to your specific goals, such as saving enough money for college tuition, planning their investments, tracking their net worth, managing expenses, budgeting for goals, and monitoring investment options.

Personal Capital leverages modern portfolio theory and the effects of correlation and diversification to create a personalized plan for each client. The company also gathers information from other sources such as 401(k), IRA, brokerage accounts, and insurance policies to help clients achieve their goals.

Review Personal Capital: Free Tools

You can use Personal Capital’s free money tracking and management tools without cost. They provide valuable data, such as net worth and expenses. You can also visualize how you spend money each month, what income sources are bringing in the most revenue, and how much cash flow is available to invest or save.

The money management & long term financial tools available include:

Net Worth Calculator

The net worth calculator allows you to track your assets and liabilities over time. It helps you understand how much money is being generated by the investments or holdings that you own and what portion of your net worth reflects cash savings.

Personal Capital also provides steps to how you can improve your net worth, like setting up an automatic savings plan, paying down debt, and investing in tax-deferred accounts.

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Cash Flow Analysis

Cash flow analysis allows users to understand their cash position by using data collected from all transaction history linked with bank accounts, credit cards, and investment portfolios added to the system through connections to third-party providers.

Users will be able to see which transactions are complete first in terms of priority, giving them a clear idea of how much cash they have available in the immediate future.

Savings Planner

The savings plan allows users to set a monthly savings goal and see how much they need to save to meet their goals. Users can also choose from different time horizons for saving, which will give them an idea of the types of returns that are expected based on when they start investing.

The savings planner is handy for those who are saving for retirement. This is because users can set a target that will give them an idea of the amount they must invest every month to reach their goals.

Budgeting Tools

The budgeting tools allow you to track expenses and analyze spending patterns. Users can also generate reports so they can gain an understanding of their income, expenses, and net worth over time. This will help them plan for the future by setting short-term goals or establishing a monthly savings target that is more realistic than before.

Users can automatically organize their spendings and savings by category or date, giving them the ability to monitor their expenses and make adjustments based on the real-time data.

Retirement Planner

The retirement planner is a powerful tool that helps users calculate their progress towards retirement, no matter how much they have saved so far.

Users can input desired income and expense amounts and the number of years until they retire to ensure that their savings are on track with what is needed to reach this goal. They can then add expected significant expenses like college fees, home purchases, and other big-ticket items to understand their spending needs.

The retirement planner uses Monte Carlo simulations to give users an idea about the probability of achieving specific goals or what could happen if different factors are changed – for example, by increasing the rate at which you save money over time.

Investment Checkup

The investment checkup is a tool that helps users understand whether their assets are appropriately allocated to maximize returns. Users can also assess the risk of their portfolios by looking at asset allocation, past performance, and investment costs.

The investment checkup compares your current holdings with other possible allocations and how they could affect your portfolio. The results will help investors determine whether or not there is a need to diversify their investments by adding low-cost funds, ETFs, and stocks from different companies to cover all risk levels.

Education Planner

The education planner is a tool that gives users an overview of their financial path to college. Users can input different data, including the amount of money saved so far, the number of children currently in school, and expected tuition rates, to see how much they should be saving each year towards their future education costs.

The education planner is an excellent tool for parents who are saving towards their children’s education – especially since they can set a goal of how much money they will need to cover tuition costs. This is beneficial because users can track each year’s progress and make adjustments based on what is realistically achievable instead of simply guessing or setting unrealistic goals.

Fee Analyzer

The fee analyzer is an essential tool that helps users understand how much they pay for their investments. Users can uncover hidden fees and compare fees across different investment accounts to see how to reduce costs or switch to a cheaper option.

The fee analyzer can help to expose unnecessary fees. This will help you determine whether certain investments are actively managed or sitting in an account and contribute to higher broker fee costs.

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Paid Client Services

Personal Capital’s primary focus is on personal wealth management, and they provide a range of paid services.

These include:

Financial Roadmap

The Financial Roadmap is a personalized financial plan that helps you take control of your future. The tool creates prioritized lists based on data from an individual’s financial history.

The tool helps you make critical financial decisions. It will recommend how much to save for retirement when it’s time to pay down debt and build up an emergency fund or start saving in baby steps by adding more money each month into your savings account every single week without fail.

Personal Strategy

In the world of finance, there are millions of dollars worth of investments happening each day. If you’re looking for a way to diversify your portfolio and get in on some great opportunities at one time or another, then Personal Strategy service can help.

With Personal Capital’s advanced technology combined with their expert team, they offer personalized solutions. This means every individual has their own customized strategy designed just for them, which means better returns along with increased risk management.

Clients will receive a dedicated advisor to help them through their plan and keep track of all progress. Clients will get a tax optimization strategy and the best possible return for their money.

Smart Withdrawal

The Smart Withdrawal service is a tool that gives users the ability to make better spending and savings decisions. This enables them to manage their money optimally while using Personal Capital’s advanced technology. Using Personal Capital’s advanced tax forecasting, clients in retirement will be able to optimize withdrawals for tax efficiency.

Employed Plan Analysis

The Employed Plan Analysis gives clients insight into their existing employer-sponsored plans by providing them with a complete review of their accounts.

This service enables clients to understand the value and potential risk involved in their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), 403(b), or 401(k). They can use this information to make better decisions that will affect both short-term spendings and long-term retirement planning.

The Employed Plan Analysis helps clients to forecast the value of their accounts in the future by leveraging Personal Capital’s advanced financial technology and tax optimization strategies. This will help them understand how much they should be saving each month to retire comfortably at a time when it best fits into their lifestyle instead of worrying about whether they are on track for their retirement goals.

Socially Responsible Personal Strategy

Like its rival, Betterment, Personal Capital has added socially responsible portfolios to its lineup of products.

The Socially Responsible Personal Strategy^® allows customers to invest in companies that make them feel good about where their money is allocated.

For investors who care about environmental, social, and governance factors (“ESG”), and the sustainability practices of companies, Personal Capital now makes it easy to align investments with personal values.

ESG and sustainability data comes from Sustainalytics, a global leader in ESG and corporate governance research so you can have confidence in the integrity of the strategy.

If you elect a Socially Responsible Personal Strategy, the same features apply to your portfolio as with core portfolios, including exposure to all six major asset classes.

It also features Personal Capita’s proprietary Smart Weighting^TM methodology to balance exposure to style, size, and sectors within U.S. equity asset classes.

Plus all the benefits that customers enjoy elsewhere still apply to socially responsible portfolios, including:

• Rebalancing
• Tax-loss harvesting
• Tax location
• Dashboard reporting

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Personal Capital Review:
Pros and Cons

Personal Capital sets itself apart from other robo-advisors by connecting clients enrolled in its advisory service to human financial advisors.

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Personal Capital
Fees & Account Minimums

Personal Capital charges higher fees than pure robo-advisors who offer no human advice but less than the average human financial advisor.

Personal Capital
Account Types

Personal Capital will manage the following accounts and will advise on accounts that it will not manage.

Personal Capital Tax Strategy

Personal Capital allocates assets across taxable and tax-advantaged accounts to optimize for tax consequences.

Personal Capital Alternatives

Although there are many benefits to using Personal Capital, investors have other options as well. Some of the alternatives include Betterment and Wealthfront.

Some of the top alternatives to Personal Capital are:

Betterment

Betterment is one of the best alternatives to Personal Capital because it is a mixture of Robo-advisor and bank account. Betterment is perfect for hands-off investors who don’t want to manage anything but still need a way to save for retirement and other financial goals.

Wealthfront

Wealthfront is a cheaper alternative to Personal Capital because their advisory fees are 0.25%. However, unlike Personal Capital, Wealthfront won’t offer instant access to financial advisors or tax optimization services.

Instead, Wealthfront focuses on its technology and automation to help investors grow and manage their money.

Vanguard

Vanguard is a low-cost alternative to Personal Capital. They have one of the most well-known investment strategies and focus on long-term returns rather than short-term.

Mint

Mint is a free alternative to Personal Capital which you can use if you don’t have enough money to meet their minimum investment of $100,000. It is a budgeting app that makes it easier to track where your money is going.

Is Personal Capital Safe?

Personal Capital Security

Users are required to register each device when logging on.

We found that even after registering a computer, Personal Capital looks to validate a user who moves to a different IP address.

For example, if you navigate to the Personal Capital login from a local coffee shop, your identify will be validated again.

All your information is stored as read-only, meaning that even if someone gets a hold of your mobile device and somehow gets past your pin code or fingerprint scanner on iOS devices, they still cannot transfer money from within the Personal Capital app.

The only way Personal Capital could heighten its security is by adding two-factor authentication, which is standard on cryptocurrency digital exchanges, which store your money.

But because your money cannot be accessed via the Personal Capital app, two factor authentication is not as big a concern.

The Future For Personal Capital

Personal Capital has visibility at over $1T in linked account value and provides a wide range of services to individuals and businesses.

It has over 26k wealth management clients and have grown by over 33% in new assets under management within the last couple of years.

With new technologies being developed rapidly, Personal Capital will also look to adapt its services accordingly. This can be seen in their technology-forward mentality and their app, available on both iOS and Android devices.

Personal Capital Review: The Bottom Line

Personal Capital is one of the best online financial advisors and wealth management companies for those with a high net worth. It provides many different services that will help people make smarter decisions with their money, whether optimizing taxes or finding new investment opportunities. For those who may not afford Personal Capital’s services, there are still many free tools on their site that can help you make the most out of your money.

It is designed for higher net worth, fee-savvy investors capable of meeting the $100,000 account minimum.

Is you wish to avoid the higher fees associated with human financial advisors yet still want to have contact on-demand with a dedicated financial advisor, Personal Capital is your best option.

For those who can’t meet the account minimum, Personal Capital offers an excellent mobile app complete with great tools to evaluate spending habits, recommend asset allocation improvements, and visualize retirement goals.

Few robo-advisors provide the top tier service offered by Personal Capital. Even those that offer human advice tend not to pair clients with dedicated financial advisors. So the bottom line is you are looking for a top tier service that combines automated investment management with a personal touch, Personal Capital likely has everything you need and then some.

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Still not sure? Check out our Personal Capital vs Betterment review.

Bonus: Personal Capital App Review

In addition to its investment management services, the free Personal Capital mobile app is available to anyone. You can download the app from the App Store if you have an iPhone or iPad, or the Google Play store if you have an Android device.

The app syncs with your bank accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts and other investment accounts so you can easily track travel, entertainment, taxes, loans, personal care, clothing, groceries, and so on.

You can use it monitor spending habits but it’s more than a simple budgeting app because it tracks your assets, liabilities, and net worth too.

Bonus 2: Personal Capital Retirement Fee Analyzer

For fee-conscious investors, the Retirement Fee Analyzer is an excellent tool to help you identify at a glance how much of your money is being lost on pesky fees charged by funds.

It will also inform you how much to modify each asset class holding to match your recommended targets.

And it provides retirement forecasts so you can see what needs to be done to hit your retirement income goals.

> Compare Personal Capital vs Mint

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The article Personal Capital Review 2021 – Pros, Cons & Fees was originally posted on Investormint

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% - 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

In this Betterment review, you will see how Betterment stands apart from its competitors and why it deserves its perfect rating.

Betterment uses a sophisticated computer algorithm as well as a team of investment managers to manage client funds.

The company manages approximately about $22 billion in assets serving hundreds of thousands of investors, and feedback from Betterment clients is overwhelmingly positive.

From automated investment management to human advice and from retirement tools to smart saving, Betterment is the most complete robo-advisor and is virtually unbeatable on price.

Betterment Review

There are good reasons why over 500,000 people have signed up to Betterment.

While most robo-advisors launch their services with purely digital advice, Betterment has expanded its product offering to include a wide variety of additional features, including tax-loss harvesting, socially responsible investing, goal-based investing, and cutting-edge financial tools and calculators.

Although Betterment has been an industry leader for years, it strengthened its claim as the best robo-advisor when it added human financial experts to its already strong product offering.

With so many bells and whistles, you might expect Betterment to charge hefty fees, but its pricing is highly competitive, ranging from 0.25% to 0.40% depending on what service level you choose.

If you want automated investment management only, the lowest fees are charged however if you want access to human advice, you will pay the higher amount.

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Betterment Promo + Features

Betterment Promo

If you make a deposit within 45 days, you can receive a reward and with a deposit of $250,000+ get up to one year of automated investment management free.

You also get a free investment review to help you assess your current investment approach. Four areas are covered, including:

• Investment accounts
• Tax savings
• Fees
• Risk exposure

Is Betterment Right For You?

Betterment initially offered just a pure robo-advisor service, now called Betterment Digital. Now, Betterment includes Chartered Financial Professionals as part of its Premium offering; this has a higher minimum of $100,000, compared to no minimum for Betterment Digital. 

Fee-conscious, hands-off investors focused on the long-term will find Betterment portfolios to be a great fit.

Unlike traditional financial advisors, who typically charge north of 1% annually, Betterment fees are just 0.25% for its fully automated offering, Betterment Digital.

Customers who value support will find Betterment to be exemplary. Customer service is embedded in the Betterment culture. For example, CEO Jon Stein is known to answer customer phone calls from time to time, thereby setting the example across the firm that customer satisfaction is a top priority.

Betterment CEO Jon Stein

The company serves stock market beginners, savers and non-self-directed investors exceptionally well. The online portal is easy to use and complete with education, financial tools, and retirement calculators.

It’s easy to transfer funds, set financial goals to target retirement objectives and shorter term targets, such as buying a car, and even analyzing outside portfolios to gauge diversification and fee levels.

For clients wishing to save and invest for retirement, but who are not keen on a self-directed approach, Betterment is the de facto standard other robo-advisors aspire to reach.

Betterment portfolios are best for:

• Investors of any wealth level
• Investors focused on the long-term
• Hands-off investors
• Investors who want excellent support
• Retirement investors

RETIREMENT INVESTORS

Betterment doesn’t just serve growth-oriented investors who are a long way from retirement. It also offers a low-risk alternative to the Betterment portfolios that are designed for retirement investors, called the Blackrock Target Income Portfolio Strategy.

The portfolio is made up 100% of bonds with a range of income targets designed to provide steady income with low risk.

The interest earned from bonds is generally taxed as ordinary income, so it is best suited for a retirement portfolio that enjoys deferred tax breaks, like a Betterment IRA.

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Betterment Fees

Betterment fees are tiered based on the customer plan selected:

• 0.25% of assets under management for Betterment Digital, which is a purely automated advisory and tools service.

• 0.40% of assets under management for Betterment Premium, which provides account monitoring by a team of Chartered Financial Professionals and permits unlimited phone calls and email access.

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Reviews Of Betterment Investment Method

How good are Betterment returns? According to the robo-advisor, annual returns are 2.9% better than the average investor.

Betterment Investing Review: The company’s investment philosophy has been influenced by Robert Shiller and Eugene Fama, both Nobel Prize winners.

Betterment offers an automated investing solution designed to counter the risks associated with emotional investing, such as being greedy when markets are buoyant and selling in a panic when markets fall.

Betterment portfolios are designed to generate optimal returns for each level of risk appetite by creating low-fee, diversified portfolios made up of exchange-traded funds from up to 12 asset classes.

Proprietary algorithms are in place to automatically rebalance portfolios if certain positions start to drift and weigh more heavily on the overall portfolio.

BETTERMENT ETF STOCK FUNDS

BETTERMENT BOND FUNDS

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Betterment Tools

Betterment’s stand-out tool is its advanced retirement calculator, RetireGuide. Other valuable tools help you to understand if you are overpaying on fees in your 401k, and help you to invest unused cash.

Retirement Calculator

Betterment provides a retirement calculator called RetireGuide, which calculates how much you need for retirement and whether you are on track to hit your financial goals based on a series of questions you answer.

Retirement goals can be applied to IRA, 401k, and taxable accounts. You can even link external accounts (e.g. bank savings account) to a Betterment Safety Net goal.

Retirement Advice Goals

RetireGuide is not a standalone service. Instead it is integrated to the Goals area so you and your spouse, for example, can project retirement income.

Retirement Goals provides advice on:

• How much to save for retirement each year
• How to spread money across taxable accounts, employer-sponsored plans, and IRAs

If you are not sure how much you should be saving each year and what income you can earn from your savings, the RetireGuide calculator can give you insights on these questions and other common ones, such as how much you can afford to spend in your retirement years annually.

The big idea is that spending and savings rates are compared to assess whether sufficient funds will be amassed by retirement to meet spending needs.

By understanding how much you plan to spend each year in retirement and how much you will earn from social security and other supplemental income sources, a nest-egg estimate can be approximated.

All you need to do is sync your existing bank and financial accounts, and Betterment figures out the rest.

Betterment Smart Deposit

Another nice feature we found as we conducted our Betterment review was Smart Deposit.

When you activate it, this tool automatically calculates how much excess cash you have in your bank account above a certain threshold and sweeps it into your Betterment accounts.

Betterment 401k Analyzer

Betterment allows users to connect third-party accounts, including 401ks, analyze fee-savings and recommends portfolio optimizations.

In our Betterment review, we found it easy to connect to outside accounts so portfolios held elsewhere can be analyzed to identify and improve upon expense ratios and performance returns.

External Account Analyzer

What separates Betterment from most robo-advisors is its external account analyzer.

It’s a cinch to set up alerts when high fees hit your account or you have excess idle cash sitting around.

And you will receive visual financial projections to see what your portfolio would look like if you rolled it over to Betterment.

The bottom line is goal projections factor in external accounts too.

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Socially Responsible Investing

Socially responsible Investing (Betterment SRI portfolios) is available to all Betterment customers to better align their investment dollars with their personal values.

Is Betterment a good way to invest? Increasingly, customers demand robo-advisors invest their dollars in a way that is aligned with their philosophical beliefs.

You may wish to avoid companies that have controversial histories, such as oil spills and data hacks.

Highlights of Betterment SRI portfolios include:

• Tax loss harvesting and tax-coordinated portfolios supported
• No loss of diversification but a 42% increase in social responsibility scores on U.S. large cap assets
• Global diversification, tax optimization and cost controls maintained while orienting investments towards environmental, social, and governance criteria.

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Betterment Flexible Portfolios

If your preferences differ from Betterment advice, you can choose Flexible Portfolios that provide you more control over how you allocate your capital to asset classes. 

Betterment Investing Review: Beyond socially responsible portfolios, Betterment now offers Flexible Portfolios to customers who want to exercise more control over their investing preferences.

You can modify asset class weights within a Betterment portfolio strategy and receive real-time feedback about how those changes affect portfolio diversification and risk.

The standard benefits apply to Flexible Portfolios, including  automatic rebalancing, Tax-loss Harvesting+, Tax Coordination+, and Tax Impact Preview.

The one caveat is you will need to invest $100,000 or more to gain access to Betterment Flexible Portfolios.

Betterment Tax Efficiency

Betterment Tax Strategy: The goal of investing is to put more money in your pocket, and while focusing on gross stock market returns is good, paying attention to how much you get to keep after taxes is important too.

To optimize for tax efficiency, Betterment uses two primary methods: tax-loss harvesting and tax-coordinated portfolios.

Betterment allocates money between taxable and tax-advantaged accounts to optimize for tax consequences.

TAX LOSS HARVESTING

When you have winners in your portfolio that you plan to sell, you can lower your tax bill by selling losers that count against those winners. This practice of counting losers against winners to minimize your tax impact is called tax-loss harvesting.

But if you have sold two positions, is your portfolio still diversified? Maybe not! And that’s why Betterment replaces the sold security with a similar one to ensure that your asset allocation is optimized.

Capital losses can lower your ordinary taxable income by up to $3,000 annually, creating significant savings over time.

Betterment claims that tax-loss harvesting can generate surplus returns of as much as 0.77% annually.

That may not seem like a lot, but over time it translates to an extra $44,692 in portfolio gains in a taxable account.

TAX COORDINATED PORTFOLIOS

How good is Betterment? Boosting after-tax returns in your taxable account via tax-loss harvesting is one thing but how do you minimize the impact of taxes across all your accounts, both retirement and taxable?

That’s where tax-coordinated portfolios come into play.

The idea in a nutshell is to put tax-inefficient assets into tax-efficient accounts and tax-efficient assets into tax-inefficient accounts.

If that sounds like a brainteaser, here is the simple way of thinking about it. A municipal bond already enjoys tax advantages, so Betterment wouldn’t put it into a retirement account, such as an IRA, that already enjoys tax benefits. Instead, the municipal bonds would be placed into a regular taxable account that is less tax-efficient.

Without asset allocation applied to accounts, a portfolio may look something like this:

But with asset allocation, the overall portfolio would look like this:

Betterment claims tax-coordinated portfolios can boost portfolio value by as much 0.48% per year, which translates to as much as 15% over 30 years.

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TaxMin Lot Selling

Betterment has developed a series of rules called TaxMin that automatically apply when a security is sold.

Most brokers use an approach called FIFO (first-in, first-out) that compares when securities are bought and sold but Betterment examines not only the timeline of purchases and sales, but also the cost basis too in order to lower the tax impact of stock or ETF sales.

Betterment strives to generate higher returns after taxes by following a strict order in which lots are sold:

1. Short-term losses
2. Long-term losses
3. Long-term gains
4. Short-term gains

The idea is to exploit all taxable possibilities in one category before moving to the next.

In the example below, Betterment saves a customer $3,883 by using its proprietary TaxMin algorithm versus applying traditional brokerage FIFO rules.

Tax Loss Harvesting For Spouses

If you already have tax loss harvesting turned on in your own account, you can apply it to your spouse’s account too so that your overall portfolios as a couple are managed holistically as one to optimize for taxes.

Betterment Pros and Cons

Betterment has a demonstrated history of success attracting and retaining clients by offering low fees, superb customer support, access to Chartered Financial Professionals, and easy-to-use retirement tools. Although account minimums are high for more personalized service, the fees charged are highly competitive compared to traditional financial advisors.

Where Betterment Shines

Betterment Digital is designed to meet the needs of all sorts of investors, so there is no account minimum – a big advantage. The management fee is 0.25%, which is lower than or equal to the amount charged by competitors.

Best of all, financial advisors are available through in-app messaging, so investors aren’t completely on their own.

As a new customers enjoy promotional pricing on management services. For example, Betterment Premium regularly offers up to one year of free management with a qualifying deposit.

Outside of promotional periods, Betterment Premium clients pay 0.40% for extra features, including unlimited phone access to certified financial planners. There are no annual fees, transfer fees, or closing fees with a Betterment account, which can make a big difference for small investors.

While Betterment does most things quite well, there are a few areas of opportunity. If these are important to you, another provider might better fit your needs.

What You Need To Know

First, Betterment does not offer a tool for direct indexing. On large accounts, direct indexing may offer substantial tax savings. Investors with taxable accounts have reduced ability to isolate opportunities for tax-loss harvesting when they work with Betterment.

Next, some financial advisors disagree with Betterment’s strategy for investing funds intended to cover emergency expenses. They state that emergency funds should not be in an account that could lose principal, and they should be easy to access if needed.

In addition, distributions from investment accounts may incur capital gains taxes, while withdrawals from standard savings accounts do not.

Finally, some former clients have pointed out that moving their assets from Betterment to another firm is unnecessarily difficult. They indicate that the process is inconvenient and time-consuming. This could be an issue if you don’t intend to stick with the service long-term.

Betterment Review: Fees & Minimums

Betterment has competitive fee charges compared to other robo-advisors and substantially lower fees than most traditional personal financial advisors.

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Betterment Account Types

Betterment manages the following accounts and advises on accounts that it will not manage, such as 401ks.

Is Betterment Safe?

Betterment uses bank-level security and offers SIPC protection on each account up to the maximum $500,000.

Betterment Review Summary

A new breed of investment tools has finally leveled the playing field. So-called “robo advisors” make it possible to automate your investment strategy, even if you don’t have millions in your account.

At the top of the list stands Betterment, a top-rated robo-advisor service that offers high-quality financial tools and support at an affordable price.

Should You Choose Betterment?

Betterment serves non-self-directed investors of all wealth levels who are fee-conscious and goal-oriented. In addition to its purely automated investment offering, Betterment Digital, Chartered Financial Professionals are available with higher account minimums for investors seeking more accessibility to experts.

As a top tier roboadvisor, it has lots of tools to support analysis of retirement objectives and provides free syncing with non-Betterment accounts to identify lower fee funds and improved allocation opportunities.

Plus, for customers looking for a little extra handholding, a nice feature Betterment provides is the ability to message licensed financial experts via the Betterment mobile app.

Betterment earns high marks for its focus on tax efficiency through tax-loss harvesting, tax coordinated portfolios, and even optimizing for tax impact across spouse’s portfolios.

The bottom line is if you want an automated investing solution that allows you to be hands-off and is jam-packed with portfolio-return-enhancing features and insightful tools all for a highly competitive cost, Betterment is very hard to beat.

Open a Betterment Account

Free Retirement Guide: Grow Your Wealth Automatically

The article Betterment Review 2021 was originally posted on Investormint

Ellevest offers three levels of service:

• Essential
• Plus
• Executive

Ellevest Essential is an automated robo-advisor designed for the hands-off individual who wants Ellevest to manage her money without lifting a finger.

On the other hand, Ellevest Plus and Executive memberships allows for retirement account management, such as Roth and SEP IRAs.

Like most other robo-advisors, Ellevest relies on exchange-traded funds to build diversified portfolios and has substantially lower fees than most human financial advisors. On fees, it also comes up trumps when compared to many of its peers.

Ellevest Spotlight

ELLEVEST SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4.5 out of 5 stars	Ellevest Essential: $1/mo Ellevest Plus: $5/mo Ellevest Executive: $9/mo Get Started via Ellevest secure site

Ellevest Features

Ellevest Essential Vs Plus Vs Executive

Ellevest offers both a purely automated investment management offering as well as a higher tier of service, Ellevest Executive, for higher net worth clients who prefer human oversight and accessibility.

Essential

Ellevest Essential is a technology-powered robo-advisor designed for the hands-off woman who wants to invest her money in a diversified portfolio of exchange-traded funds at less cost than a traditional financial advisor would charge.

For a low monthly cost of just $1, Ellevest Essential constructs client portfolios using a goals-based approach. For example, you specify financial goals, such as saving for a new home or buying a new car, and Ellevest will examine your timeline, savings, target amount, and capacity for risk to build a customized investment portfolio.

Personalized investment portfolios take into consideration other factors too, including your salary, expected salary growth, and assets in order to make portfolio recommendations.

As you get closer to the target date for your financial goals, portfolio recommendations become increasingly more conservative. This dynamic allocation adjustment over time that factors in a client’s changing capacity for risk raises the bar for all robo-advisors.

During our discussions with the senior team, this dynamic allocation feature was described as roboadvisor 2.0, and we wholeheartedly agree that it is in the best interests of clients to modify risk exposure as time goes by to reflect changing financial circumstances.

Where Ellevest shines also is in providing insight into how likely you are to meet your financial goals. Ellevest displays a 70% likelihood of meeting your financial goals, which compares favorably to the 50% benchmark figure used in the industry, so you enjoy a higher degree of confidence that you will achieve your goals.

Where Ellevest Essential Shines

The perks don’t stop at money management. Essential members have unlimited access to learning workshops, video resources, and email courses from a team of financial planners.

You can also save more easily by electing to participate in a “rounding up” program whereby extra change is deposited into an FDIC insured account.

Members also receive unlimited ATM fee reimbursements.

Perhaps one of the biggest perks is the 20% discount off of one-to-one coaching sessions.

Plus

For members with retirement accounts, Ellevest offers a higher tier of service for a fee of $5 per month.

When you see what you get for this fee, you will realize it is highly competitive when compared to the costs and services provided by other leading robo-advisors.

As you might expect, Ellevest will build a diversified portfolio for you using a combination of the following securities and investment options:

• Common stocks
• Preferred stocks
• Bonds
• Municipal securities
• Government securities
• Mutual funds
• ETFs
• Unit investment trusts
• Hedge funds
• Alternative products

And like other robo-advisors, Ellevest does not attempt to time the market or make bets on specific assets, sector classes, or individual securities.

But where Ellevest Plus earns brownie points is:

1. You receive a 30% discount for 1:1 access to Chartered Financial Professionals for personalized guidance on finances and money growth strategies; and
2. You receive a 30% discount for 1:1 access to Executive Coaches for guidance on salary negotiations and career events.
3. A personalized investment plan that encompasses all your retirement accounts.

These services distinguish Ellevest from most other robo-advisors because Ellevest emphasizes that men and women have earning trajectories that follow different arcs.

As a company that relies on data about where women’s salaries peak in general, Ellevest can better serve women by customizing financial guidance to their specific needs.

While some robo-advisors have a cookie-cutter investment management services that serves men and women equally without factoring differing earnings arcs, which can lead to sub-optimal portfolio allocations and money strategies for women, Ellevest optimizes for an individual’s financial circumstances.

Both women and men can benefit from this deeper insight and more thoughtful approach to serving clients.

Executive

The Executive plan is all about setting goals. Research shows that setting financial goals correlates with a higher rate of achieving them versus those who do not set goals.

The Executive level of membership features all the benefits of the Essential and Plus plans but also includes a focus on goal-based investing for up to six customized accounts.

Open an Ellevest Account

Ellevest Fees

Ellevest fees are tiered based on the level of service required.

The monthly fee for Ellevest Essential is $1 per month while $5 is charged for Plus and $9 for Executive.

• Essential: $1 per month
• Plus: $5 per month
• Executive: $9 per month

Like most robo-advisors, these management fees are exclusive of fund fees that range from 0.06% to 0.16% annually.

Our research shows that these fund fees are highly competitive, an another reason why Ellevest deserves your serious consideration, whether you are a woman or a man.

Open an Ellevest Account

Ellevest Investment Method

Ellevest uses low-fee ETFs to build diversified portfolios that are aligned with clients’ financial goals, time horizons and capacity for risk.

Ellevest astutely realizes that risk tolerance may not be the optimal gauge to assess an investor’s risk profile because when markets are rising investors often overestimate their risk tolerances and when markets are falling they underestimate their risk tolerance levels.

Instead, Ellevest focuses on capacity for risk as a better tool to incorporate the timeline of reaching a financial goal.

Upon learning what your risk profile is and having a better holistic understanding of your financial goals and time horizons, Ellevest uses low-fee exchange-traded funds, including many from Vanguard, to build customized, diversified portfolios.

Essential

Model portfolios are used by Ellevest to manage clients’ assets. Ellevest allocates client monies to ETFs and cash equivalents on a discretionary basis using proprietary algorithms.

For each goal you set, Ellevest invests in a portfolio of ETFs using a method influenced by your time horizon, which you can change at any time.

Your accounts are monitored automatically, managed digitally, and rebalanced periodically according to the model strategy.

Rebalancing does carry a tax risk – for example, if winners are sold near year-end, the capital gains taxes may be significant.

Unlike Betterment and Wealthfront, Ellevest does not apply a broad tax-loss harvesting “brush” to all client portfolios.

The team doesn’t believe this is necessarily the best way to optimize for after-tax returns. For more information on the tax strategies employed by its rivals, you can view this tax article.

However, Ellevest doesn’t ignore tax considerations. Quite the contrary, it employs what it calls a Tax Minimization Methodology, which we describe below.

Open an Ellevest Account

Private Wealth

A primary difference between the basic accounts and Private Wealth accounts at is human oversight. Ellevest personnel monitor client accounts and make portfolio adjustments as necessary but the minimum investment to elect the private wealth management option is $1,000,000 in investable assets.

Think of Ellevest Private Wealth as a more tailored solution to your individual needs, risk profile and financial objectives.

Ellevest builds a globally diversified portfolio that may include:

• Individual debt instruments
• Mutual funds
• ETFs
• Individual equities
• Closed-end funds
• Partnerships
• Private and illiquid investments

Ellevest will look to apply tax minimization methods, including deferring capital gains and realizing losses when tax benefits outweigh transaction costs.

While investment methods are similar, perhaps the greatest benefit of Ellevest Private Wealth extends beyond your portfolio to factor in your money growth strategies for life.

We were impressed that Ellevest doesn’t just “talk the talk” when it comes to building a financial solution for clients. Because of its insights into how income and spending patterns differ for men and women, Ellevest can help clients to better navigate career hurdles by providing Executive Coaches at no extra charge.

And because clients get 1:1 access to Chartered Financial Professionals, Ellevest has a more holistic overview of your overall financial situation, which means a more personalized and tailored experience.

Open an Ellevest Account

Ellevest Tools

Ellevest’s stand out tool is its trade-off algorithm which spotlights the cost-benefit analysis when you allocate more to one investment than another.

Ellevest has a nice trade-off tool which gives you insights into the effects of prioritizing one goal over another.

For example, if you are saving up for a new car but set a new goal to go on a fancy vacation abroad, Ellevest will inform you what the impact is to your car-buying goal.

You can view your goals on Mint also if you wish. Simply eSign on the Ellevest dashboard and away you go!

Ellevest Pros and Cons

Ellevest charges competitive fees for both its Essential, Plus and Executive services, provides Chartered Financial Professionals and Executive Coaches, and even has a private wealth management service for higher net worth individuals. 

Open an Ellevest Account

Ellevest Minimums

Unlike most traditional advisor who charge management fees on both invested assets and cash, Ellevest stands out by charging no management fees on money held in emergency funds. Overall fees compare well to other robo-advisors.

Ellevest Accounts

As the new kid on the block, compared to the the likes of Betterment, Wealthfront and Personal Capital, who started almost a decade earlier, Ellevest is playing catch up with the selection of accounts it has on offer.

Ellevest Tax Strategy

Some basic tax minimization strategies are included as part of Ellevest’s offering, from deferring capital gains taxes and comparing transaction costs to realizing losses for tax purposes, but Ellevest differs from Betterment and Wealthfront when it comes to providing a “one-size fits all” tax-loss harvesting solution.

The Tax Minimization Methodology employed by Ellevest places tax-inefficient assets in tax-efficient accounts and tax-efficient assets in tax-inefficient accounts.

For example, tax-efficient municipal bonds are placed in taxable accounts while corporate and government bonds are placed in retirement accounts.

Plus, when your accounts need to be rebalanced, Ellevest maximizes your tax losses and minimizes your taxable gains wherever possible.

For specific tax advice, Ellevest encourages clients to consult with tax specialists.

Ellevest Review Summary

Top robo-advisors need to look over their shoulder because the new “kid” in town has a lot to offer. Ellevest may be younger than its leading rivals, Betterment and Wealthfront, but what it lacks in age it makes up for in a world class product offering.

Ellevest charges low monthly fees for its membership levels: Essential, Plus, and Executive. Where Ellevest has the edge is its lower account minimum and it goes the extra mile by providing Chartered Financial Professionals and Executive Coaches who help with salary negotiations and career guidance.

Another standout feature at Ellevest is its gender focus. By recognizing that men and women experience salary peaks at different points in their respective careers, Ellevest constructs portfolios that are tailored to client needs. Plus, portfolio allocations dynamically adapt as clients get older to account for modified capacities for risk.

Ellevest considers tax impact in its service offerings and automatically rebalances portfolios as you might expect of any leading robo-advisor.

The bottom line is whether you are a woman or a man, you will need to go a long way before finding a robo-advisor that beats Ellevest.

Open an Ellevest Account

The article Ellevest Review 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% – 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

Not long ago, there was a sharp divide between those who could invest in the stock market with the help of a financial advisor and those who were left to fend for themselves.

Professional financial advice of any sort was simply not affordable for people with average income and assets.

All of that changed when Betterment launched the first true automated investment advisor.

Also known as a robo-advisor, Betterment created algorithms capable of offering customized investment advice at minimal cost.

This transformed the industry, making it possible for almost anyone to enter the market regardless of their portfolio size – but some potential investors are still doubtful.

Can an algorithm really provide smart guidance on money management?

Betterment Puts Investing
On Auto-Pilot

Managing money is not for the faint of heart. Whether you have a little or a lot, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the decisions that need to be made.

Should you open a money market account or a brokerage account? Should you buy stocks or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)? And which ones?

Are you setting enough of your income aside? How much risk is too much? Most importantly, are you going to be able to meet your financial goals?

Answering these questions based on your unique financial situation is Betterment’s specialty – and believe it or not, it’s all done through an automated service.

You start by completing your profile and setting financial goals, then the system suggests how much you should save and ensures your money is invested in a manner that is most likely to get you where you want to go.

Betterment accounts are best for those who are more of a set-it-and-forget-it sort. The process is fully automated, so you don’t have to make any day-to-day decisions. 

The service is most popular among beginner investors, those who prefer a hands-off approach, and those who are starting with relatively low balances.

It is also a favorite among investors who are focused on their retirement savings, as well as those who want to achieve other specific financial goals, because a long list of tools and educational resources are included with every account.

>> Betterment vs Robinhood

How Does Betterment Work?

Betterment account holders choose one of two options, depending on the size of their balance and how important they consider the ability to access live Certified Financial Planners.

The basic Betterment Digital service has no minimum balance requirement. Management fees come to 0.25% of the total account balance, so those with less in the way of assets pay less in real dollars than peers with a bit more in their Betterment accounts.

Investors with $100,000 or more under management with Betterment can access the Betterment Premium service. 

This is a bit more costly at 0.40% of total assets under management, but it comes with extra benefits like unlimited phone access to Certified Financial Planners.

>> Betterment Safety Net Fund Review

Can You Buy Stocks On Betterment?

Some investors are surprised to hear that they cannot buy stocks on Betterment. After all, brokers like Schwab make it possible for average people to buy shares of top-notch companies.

Betterment takes a different approach – one that tends to offer better returns over time when compared to self-directed investment accounts.

A team of experts looks at a wide selection of domestic and international Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

The top contenders are rated based on a number of criteria, including the associated expense, then your money is invested in the best of the bunch.

The advantage? Automatic diversification.

With ETFs, your assets are spread among multiple industries – and several companies within those industries – to ensure you don’t make the mistake of keeping all of your eggs in one basket. 

With that said, how your money is invested and which ETFs you hold in your portfolio will be different from the selections made for other Betterment clients.

Your portfolio is customized to meet your personal financial goals in a timely manner, and you can make certain choices based on what is most important to you.

For example, Betterment has a socially responsible investment strategy available, as well as one that is focused on generating income. If you are trying to reach several goals with differing end dates, you can create a multi-strategy portfolio that meets those needs.

Your benefits don’t end with investment selection. Betterment also handles on-going maintenance that is critical to maximizing your returns. Examples include tax loss harvesting to minimize your tax bill, as well as tasks like automatic rebalancing, reinvesting dividends, and so forth.

That alone is well-worth the 0.25% fee, considering the amount of time it takes to complete these transactions properly.

>> Acorns Vs Betterment Comparison

Can You Make Money With Betterment?

Betterment’s mission statement says it all in terms of whether you can make money through the service.

In short, the company’s mission is “to empower people to do what’s best for their money so they can live better.”

Certainly, that mission statement is no guarantee of specific returns, but the goal is clear.

If you leave your money in the hands of your Betterment robo-advisor, you can count on making the most of whatever opportunities the market offers.

>> Compare Betterment Vs DIY

Can Betterment Make You Rich?

Some investors want to know that they can count on specific returns – the sort of returns that will take them from getting by to getting rich.

They want Betterment to get them in on the ground floor of the next Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon, so that ten years from now, they can live the high life.

Alas, Betterment doesn’t work quite that way. In fact, no advisor, automated or otherwise, can promise riches.

The stock market is unpredictable and Betterment aims to intelligently build diversified portfolios.

Certainly, there are some who have made fortunes through their stock picks. Warren Buffett is one of the most famous, but even he doesn’t have a magic formula – proof of that is his underperformance compared to the S&P 500 in the second decade of the millennium.

Instead, he chooses solid companies with dominant market shares and top-notch brands that can afford to pay out impressive dividends. Then he buys and holds his shares for decades to achieve his impressive results.

So, can Betterment make you rich? Perhaps, but that depends on you as much as your Betterment account.

If you want to generate long-term gains, take a disciplined approach to adding funds to your portfolio, and resist the temptation to cash out, regardless of circumstances.

Historically, the stock market has always grown given enough time, and Betterment will ensure that you are in the best possible position to benefit from any gains.

>> Betterment Vs S&P 500 Comparison

Can You Lose Money on Betterment?

No one wants to lose their hard-earned money, but unfortunately that’s a risk whenever you invest.

Whether you choose Betterment or another robo-advisor firm, or a personal investment advisor, there is always a chance that unforeseen events will erase profits – and possibly eat into your principal balance.

Some would-be investors aren’t comfortable with any risk at all. They choose to skip the markets in favor of the guaranteed returns available from traditional banking products like money market accounts and Certificates of Deposit (CD).

The problem with such a strategy is that you aren’t truly eliminating risk. You are simply exchanging investment risk for other types of risk.

One of the biggest issues that comes with guaranteed interest is that those interest rates are shockingly low. They are so low, in fact, that while you won’t technically lose principal, you won’t earn enough to offset inflation.

By the time you withdraw from your account, your original deposit will be intact. However, it will be worth less in real buying power than it was when you first opened your account.

The only way to mitigate this type of risk is to generate returns that are higher than the rate of inflation. Generally speaking, that’s only possible through a well-managed investment portfolio.

Yes, you might see some dips in your balance, but that’s part of the process. If you remain patient, you are more likely than not to recover your losses and then some when your portfolio is properly managed.

>> Betterment vs Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

Will Betterment Survive?

When the market is volatile, many start to question whether robo-advisors like Betterment can survive. After all, these companies depend on average investors to make their profits, and average investors are less able to set money aside during economic downturns.

There are some naysayers who are convinced that robo-advisors can’t survive certain market conditions, but that’s a minority opinion.

Most experts believe that self-directed investors who lose big during a market crisis are more likely to switch to services like Betterment. The low cost expert management is awfully appealing when things have gone terribly wrong.

The bottom line is that Betterment is a solid choice for investors who want to enjoy the benefits of entering the stock market without all of the effort. A Betterment account offers high-quality management for a low cost, with little or no time commitment.

>> Prosper vs Betterment Comparison

The article Can You Buy Stocks On Betterment? was originally posted on Investormint

SOFI SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Management Fees: 0.0% of assets invested Account Balance Minimum: $100 Invest with SoFi Wealth Today >>

Do you already have a student loan with SoFi? If so, you’re probably over the moon with the company’s customer service. Its reputation is stellar – a rarity among financial institutions. And SoFi’s Facebook group is chirping with satisfied customers. So you might be thinking what all the fuss is about with SoFi Automated Investing?

Or maybe this is your first time stumbling across SoFi and you’re keen to get started investing but without paying a fortune to a financial advisor? You’re in the right place.

SoFi Automated Investing allows you to put your stock market portfolio on auto-pilot. Yet it’s much more than that. Unlike most traditional financial advisors and other robo-advisors, SoFi won’t ding you with management charges.

Intrigued already? That’s just the beginning. In this SoFi Automated Investing review, we’ll show you so many perks of the product that you may decide this is the only investment option for your hard-earning savings.

Robo-Advisors 101: A Quick Primer

Once upon a time, you had to be quite wealthy to trade stocks. A typical order was 100 shares, and you were expected to have cash to cover the entire purchase. On top of that, you were responsible for an array of commissions and fees each time you made a trade.

All of that changed with the digital revolution and the subsequent introduction of robo-advisors – a class of automated investing platforms that make it possible for virtually anyone to gain exposure to the stock market in a hands-off manner.

But how is it possible for robo-advisors to make recommendations without a human touch?

The answer comes down to carefully constructed algorithms. These systems rely on algorithms combined with personal details supplied by clients to develop portfolio suggestions.

Robo-advisors might be best-known for their low and no-fee account options. Users pay a fraction of the cost of a financial advisor, and most have low or no minimum balance requirements. 

Investors that find themselves in need of personal investment advice can subscribe to costlier premium account services.

SoFi has taken the robo-advisor model and added premium services without premium fees. The biggest advantage SoFi investors enjoy is unlimited access to live financial advisors completely free of charge.

Of course, that’s not the only feature to consider when choosing a roboadvisor. This comprehensive SoFi automated investing review offers an in-depth look at the pros and cons of opening an account.

Pros and Cons of
SoFi Automated Investing

The primary features to look for when choosing a robo-advisor include low or no-fee account options, a minimum balance requirement that meets your needs, a simple, user-friendly interface, goal planning tools, educational resources, a selection of investment options, and exceptional customer service.

SoFi does well on all of the above.

Open SoFi Automated Investing Account >>

Is SoFi Automated Investing
Right for You?

While anyone can benefit from reducing or eliminating fees, SoFi isn’t right for everyone.

The service is primarily intended for those just starting out with investing, those who prefer a hands-off or self-directed approach, those who want the support of Certified Financial Planners without paying premium prices, and those who don’t yet have a large amount to invest.

SoFi’s member benefits are designed with younger investors in mind. For example, career coaching, student loan interest discounts, and financial planning for education tends to interest people under the age of 30.

With that said, the service has plenty of members who have finished their education and are well-established in their careers, so if the other features are appealing, SoFi might be the right choice for you.

Is SoFi Safe?

SoFi Securities LLC is a FINRA registered broker dealer, and your account is a brokerage account. That means it is possible for your investments to lose value. However, your assets are insured if the company fails.

Bank accounts are insured by the FDIC, but your SoFi brokerage account is insured by the SIPC. You can recover up to $500,000 in securities or $250,000 in cash if something goes terribly wrong.

With that said, broker dealers are held to the same high standards as other financial institutions, and SoFi takes that responsibility seriously. You can count on state-of-the-art cybersecurity, as well as tools and resources intended to support you in reaching your financial goals.

Open SoFi Automated Investing Account >>

How To Open A SoFi Automated Investing Account

To open your account, begin by downloading the app and completing a brief application.

The application is also available online at SoFi’s website. You will be asked to supply basic personal details such as your social security number and date of birth, and you may be asked to submit documents verifying your identity.

Once your account is open, you can fund it electronically from an existing account with another financial institution. 

It usually takes a day or two for your funds to be available for investing, but in the meantime, you may qualify for immediate access to as much as $5,000 while you wait for your deposit to clear.

While you wait, you can make plans for how you will use your account. The first question is whether you will choose your own trades or allow the automated service to handle your portfolio (the focus of this review).

If you choose the self-directed route, take advantage of the educational resources available on the site. These offer critical information on building a strategy that makes sense based on your financial goals and your investment preferences.

You won’t pay any fees for trading stocks and ETFs. If you want to buy shares that are priced out of your budget, SoFi permits fractional share purchases on certain stocks.

Open SoFi Automated Investing Account >>

How SoFi Compares to Alternative Robo-Advisors

SoFi might not have all the features of its biggest competitors, but members tend to agree that SoFi comes through where it counts. Consider the pros and cons of investing with industry leaders like Betterment and Wealthfront.

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% – 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

Betterment is widely considered the first true robo-advisor firm. It was founded in 2008 and started opening investor accounts in 2010. It is the largest independent automated advisor, and it offers a wide range of investment options, goal-based tools, and educational resources.

Like SoFi, Betterment allows investors to purchase fractional shares, and it has no minimum balance requirement. However, it does charge a 0.25% management fee, which can be waived for one year with a qualified initial deposit. For some, that’s a deal-breaker.

Wealthfront, on the other hand, is intended for an entirely different class of investors. Though it is also a robo-advisor, it doesn’t compete for the same clientele as SoFi. Wealthfront does not permit fractional shares and has a minimum balance requirement of $500.

Wealthfront charges a 0.25% management fee that is waived for the first $5,000 in assets. The biggest feature that Wealthfront offers – and SoFi does not – is daily tax-loss harvesting. For investors that see large gains from large investments, this feature can mean significant tax savings.

SoFi Automated Investing
Review Summary

The bottom line is that those who are beginning to explore the world of investing and those who don’t have a large amount to invest can realize important benefits from opening their accounts with SoFi.

In addition to the tools and educational resources the service offers, less experienced investors have the opportunity to consult with a Certified Financial Planner as needed.

More importantly, SoFi makes investing in the stock market accessible regardless of wealth through its zero fee, no minimum balance structure, the ability to purchase fractional shares, and low-expense investment options like ETFs.

Open SoFi Automated Investing Account >>

The article SoFi Automated Investing Review was originally posted on Investormint

And that has left a gaping market opportunity for a digital money manager called blooom, which was started by three guys from the mid-west.

blooom is unique among robo-advisors because it specializes in managing 401(k) accounts that so many robo-advisors overlook.

Unlike robo-advisors who require you to transfer assets, blooom simply connects to defined contribution plan accounts you already have, so getting started with blooom is easy.

Another brownie point for blooom is its pricing. blooom charges a flat annual rate starting at just $95.

Plus, blooom stipulates no account minimum so small accounts can benefit right away and individuals with large account sizes get a whole lot of bang for their buck.

blooom  Spotlight

BLOOOM SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4 out of 5 stars	Management Fee: $95 - $250 Account Minimum: $0 Get Started via Blooom secure site

blooom Vs Robo-Advisors

blooom (with three “o”s) is laser-focused on optimizing 401(k) plans for Americans. Unlike most other robo-advisors who generally cater to taxable accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs, blooom exclusively manages 401(k) plans.

If you have a chunk of change that you want to invest at low cost, a bunch of top notch robo-advisors will crop up on your radar screen.

But most of these companies focus on standard taxable accounts as well as traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, rollover IRAs and Roth IRAs. Where blooom stands apart from its rivals is its focus on defined contribution plans.

What comes as a shock to many 401(k) investors is that their investment representatives and fund companies don’t actually manage their money on their behalves.

When you first sign up with those companies, you would have picked the percentage allocation to invest in each fund, and if you’re like most people that selection process was probably random. It is not uncommon for many 401(k) investors to choose an allocation and forget about it as time goes by.

For most retirement investors, 401(k) investing is a murky world of fees and uncertain fund choices. The funds you invest in have expense ratios that eat away at your savings year after year and the allocation may be less than ideal, but how do you really know?

blooom has the ambitious goal to “fix 401(k)s for EVERY American” and it’s off to a flying start with over $500 million in assets managed. The idea is to make 401(k) help smart, simple and easily available to all Americans.

How blooom Works

To get started, connect blooom to your existing online 401(k) account. blooom analyzes your 401(k) holdings and makes changes within 10 to 30 days. Thereafter, blooom monitors your account regularly and notifies you when it automatically rebalances your portfolio.

When you sign up with blooom, your assets stay put. You don’t have to deal with the hassles of transferring funds to get started.

Unlike many other robo-advisors, which take custody of your assets, blooom simply links into your existing 401(k) accounts. As long as your account is online, blooom can get to work right away evaluating your 401(k) holdings.

The best way to think of blooom is as a digital manager that is constantly reviewing your 401(k) account holdings to check whether your allocations match your risk profile and the algorithm is looking for ways to lower your costs. Once you link your account to blooom, it takes anywhere from 10 to 30 days for blooom to “fix” your 401(k).

The heavy lifting of account analysis at blooom is done by computer algorithms in an automated way but licensed advisors and blooom account coordinators test and confirm rebalancing is accurately completed.

After changes have been made, blooom regularly monitors your account to check whether changes are needed, and takes action on your behalf so you don’t have to lift a finger.

Each time changes are made, you will be notified by email so you won’t be surprised when you receive your 401(k) statements in the mail with new portfolio selections.

Where blooom shines even more brightly is that if specific questions about your 401(k) do crop up, you have access to experts via live chat, email or phone.

Which Accounts Does blooom Manage?

blooom exclusively manages employer-sponsored retirement accounts, including:

• 401(k)
• 403(b)
• 401(a)
• 457

So far, only individual accounts are managed by blooom. Families will need to sign up separately to ensure each account is diversified, and each family member has their own blooom profile, including age and target retirement date.

For investors seeking automated investment management of taxable accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, rollover IRAs, and Trusts, robo-advisors, such as Betterment, will be a better fit.

blooom Fees Vs Robo-Advisor Fees

Most robo-advisors charge a percentage of assets under management. For example, Betterment and Wealthfront both charge 0.25% annually for purely digital advice.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is unique in charging no management fees because it makes money from expense ratios of proprietary funds which make up client portfolios.

And financial industry goliaths, such as Vanguard and Fidelity, also offer robo-advisor services for an annual fee which is a percentage of assets under management.

By contrast, blooom charges a flat annual rate of $95 – $250 depending on which level of service you choose:

• Essentials: $95
• Standard: $120
• Unlimited: $250

No matter what the size of your account, the flat rate remains the same. You won’t find any hidden “gotchas” in their fee schedule and you can cancel anytime.

For individuals with $50,000 or more in retirement savings in a 401(k), blooom is an obvious win. You pay lower fees than at most other robo-advisors and don’t have to worry about the hassles of transferring assets to another custodian.

Open a blooom Account

How Safe Is Your Account With blooom?

blooom employs five primary methods to safeguard your 401(k) account security:

blooom Portfolios Vs Robo-Advisors

Most robo-advisors incorporate Nobel-prize winning research, called Modern Portfolio Theory, into their algorithmic selection of funds when building client portfolios.

Generally, this means targeting returns that match your risk profile. Younger investors with longer time horizons can invest more heavily in stocks while individuals closer to retirement have higher weightings of bonds usually.

blooom doesn’t look to reinvent the wheel when it comes to investment selection but instead modifies portfolio allocations to align with target risk levels. If your portfolio is weighted too aggressively in equities compared to your financial goals, risk profile and time horizon, blooom makes the necessary adjustments.

A challenge blooom faces is the limited investment choices available. Unlike an IRA or standard taxable account, 401(k) accounts are limited by a set number of funds that your employer plan sponsor makes available. So, blooom looks to optimize your allocation based on the choices available rather than the universe of all stocks and bonds.

blooom Vs Robo Advisors Summary

blooom stands apart from other robo-advisors in three primary ways. First, blooom specializes in 401(k) accounts and defined contribution plans more generally as opposed to taxable accounts and IRAs.

Secondly, blooom does not take custody of your assets but instead links into existing online retirement accounts where your 401(k) is managed and monitors allocation and fees digitally using proprietary algorithms.

And finally, blooom charges a flat rate annual fee instead of a percentage of assets under management, which offers compelling value to large account sizes because fees do not increase proportionately as they do with most robo-advisors.

For any retirement-focused investor who is serious about optimizing their 401(k) holdings, blooom is our top choice digital manager.

Open a blooom Account

The article Blooom Vs Robo-Advisors Review 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

Most other online money managers avoid these retirement plans like the plague so blooom earns high marks for tackling workplace retirement plans head on.

Beyond 401(k) portfolios, blooom automatically manages defined contribution plans, like 403(b)s, 403(a)s, 457s, and thrift savings plans.

If you have a workplace retirement plan that causes your eyes to glaze over, you will want to read on. Where blooom Inc shines is by analyzing your retirement account holdings and weightings for free, and managing them automatically for as low as $95 per year.

blooom Inc Fees & Minimums

BLOOOM SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4 out of 5 stars	Management Fee: $95 - $250 Account Minimum: $0 Get Started via Blooom secure site

Fix Your 401(k) In 5 Minutes?

blooom makes the lofty claim that it can fix your 401(k) in 5 minutes and delivers on its promise.

It only takes a few minutes to link your workplace 401(k) plan to blooom.  Your company doesn’t need to have a prior relationship for you to reap the benefits.

blooom Inc Cost & Features

Is blooom Inc Right For You?

blooom is best for investors with employer-sponsored plans, who are fee-savvy, and lean towards being more risk-seeking investors.

According to blooom Inc, clients have collectively saved over $600 million in fees by using its service. And it’s no surprise that it has become so popular because it solves a real problem.

Puzzling over retirement plan choices is often a game of chance for employees. Few employees have the time or interest to research mutual fund expense ratios, ongoing fees, and performance returns of each fund selected.

To save employees the hassle, blooom takes over the process of selecting your portfolio holdings and allocating them.

Unless you are a mutual fund expert, chances are blooom can help you if you have one of the following defined benefit plans:

• 401(k)
• 403(b)
• 403(a)
• 457

blooom portfolios lean towards a heavier weighting of stocks than bonds so conservative investors should pay heed.

Regardless of your risk tolerance, you can enjoy free portfolio analysis to gauge whether opportunities for improved portfolio selections and allocations exist.

The bottom line is that for the vast majority it makes sense to hand over the responsibility of retirement plan management to blooom.

How blooom Inc Works

As part of its Standard package, blooom monitors your portfolio regularly to ensure it is optimally balanced, and rebalances it every 90 days.

Sometimes blooom may not have much choice other than to select a high cost fund because employer-sponsored plans are limited to a fixed set of choices usually. Often, only one choice of fund exists in an investment category.

But while blooom may run into a brick wall from time to time when it comes to fund selections, it can still make decisions about the optimal amount to invest in each fund in order to keep the overall portfolio composition balanced.

How Much Is blooom Inc?

blooom doesn’t impose any hurdle to get started so it’s ideal for price-conscious investors.

It’s 100% free to connect your 401(k) and analyze it, and no account minimum is imposed either.

Get Started with blooom

blooom Pricing

blooom charges a flat fee yearly regardless of how much money is in your defined contribution plan.

blooom charges an annul fee of as low as $95, which is about the cost of a Netflix subscription.

It’s hard to argue blooom is expensive at that price but if you have a small portfolio it might be a lot in percentage terms.

Whether you have a $10,000 portfolio or a $100,000 portfolio, blooom charges a fee as low as $95 for the year. If you want more service options, a higher fee is required as part of its Standard and Unlimited packages, both of which off auto optimization.

Someone with $10,000 pays  just 0.95% in fees on managed assets compared to just 0.10% for the person with $100,000.

Get Started with blooom

blooom vs Betterment

blooom stands alone as the only robo-advisor willing to directly manage your 401(k) retirement portfolio.

In the highly competitive field of robo-advisors, you might expect that blooom has lots of rivals but remarkably it stands virtually alone.

Unlike standard taxable accounts, IRAs, Trusts, and a host of other financial accounts, 401(k)s are quite messy to manage.

Employers often feature a limited pool of funds and each employer has a slightly different take on which funds are offered to employees, so the process is by no means standardized.

By contrast, a robo-advisor like Betterment can select from the entire universe of index funds when building client portfolios in non-401(k) accounts, which is precisely why so few robo-advisors compete with blooom.

But tens of thousands of businesses offer 401(k) plans to employees so there is a real opportunity for a brave robo-advisor to help the average Joe or Jane out, and so far blooom stands alone as the single company willing to directly manage 401(k)s using a technology-powered algorithm.

Personal Capital and Vanguard Personal Advisor Services will provide guidance to clients who hold 401(k)s but they won’t directly manage them, so blooom really is your only answer if you want a hands-off approach to managing your 401(k).

Open a blooom Account

blooom Performance Returns

blooom strives to improve portfolio returns by removing funds that don’t align with your retirement goals and by inserting funds that better meet your objectives.

To improve the performance of your defined contribution plan portfolios, blooom relies on computer algorithms to:

1. Analyze funds in your existing 401(k) and remove ones that don’t align with your retirement goals or have higher fees than alternatives.
2. Choose index funds to keep fees low unless an actively managed fund is a better choice to gain necessary exposure.
3. After choosing the optimal funds to meet your target allocation, blooom chooses funds with the most competitive expense ratios and managers’ experiences.
4. Lastly, blooom cross-references and verifies results to ensure they comply with your recommended 401(k) allocation.

Both fund selections and weightings are assessed every 90 days and rebalanced if necessary.

Over time, when retirement looms closer, blooom automatically adjusts the weightings of stocks in your portfolio down lower to better suit your lower risk tolerance.

blooom Review: Pros and Cons

blooom imposes no account minimum, analyzes your portfolio for free, connects you to financial experts, and charges a flat annual fee, but small account sizes will pay high annual percentage fees on managed assets.

blooom Account Types

blooom supports the following employer-sponsored plans: 401(k), 403(b), 401(a), 457 and Thrift Savings Plans.

blooom Inc Review Summary

blooom solves a real problem for retirement-oriented investors with employer sponsored plans who don’t know how much money to invest in each portfolio holding or aren’t sure which funds are best suited to meet their financial goals.

The few robo-advisors who do venture into the defined contribution plan space only provide guidance. By contrast, blooom directly and automatically manages workplace retirement plan portfolios.

The annual fee starting at $95 is low, though arguably for small account it is high on a percentage basis. Overall, we believe the value provided is significantly greater than the cost.

Open a blooom Account

The article Blooom Inc – 401k Auto Managed For $95/yr? was originally posted on Investormint

blooom is unique among robo-advisors because it specializes in helping investors manage employer-sponsored retirement plans automatically.

Like other robo-advisors, blooom Inc uses computer algorithms to build retirement portfolios. And it goes a step further by connecting customers to financial advisors, who are available by chat, email, and phone during weekdays.

During our blooom review, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the cost of managing a 401(k) starts as low as $95 per year. The low fee is compelling, especially when you consider that most other robo-advisors steer clear of defined contribution plans.

And unlike some robo-advisors, blooom won’t penalize newcomers with any account minimum hurdle. In fact, when you weigh up the pros and cons, it’s easy to see why blooom offer tremendous value.

Blooom Promo Code

BLOOOM SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4 out of 5 stars	Management Fee: $95 – $250 Account Minimum: $0 Get Started via Blooom secure site

How blooom Works

You can create a blooom account and connect easily to your existing 401(k), 403(b), 401(a), 457 or TSP plans. blooom will then analyze your portfolio for free.

If you are not sure whether your portfolio is optimized for your age, risk, and goals, blooom evaluates it using proprietary computer algorithms at no cost.

Here is a quick demo and overview of how blooom works:

Although blooom can analyze and make changes to your portfolio, it cannot withdraw funds from your account.

Once your account analysis has been completed, blooom factors in your age and timeline to retirement in order to build a target portfolio for you.

After blooom reviews your portfolio composition, it recommends investments from up to 14 asset classes.

Where blooom adds value to you is by crunching through thousands of options to select the optimal investment in each asset class to meet your needs.

Usually, low-cost index funds are favored but every once in a while blooom will select an actively-managed fund if it is a better match for your risk level and retirement goals.

Finally, blooom reviews your portfolio to ensure the portfolio built by its algorithms is indeed a match for you and fund changes are made.

Every 90 days, your portfolio will be re-analyzed to ensure portfolio weightings align with your capacity for risk and financial goals. And each time a change is made, blooom alerts you to the funds which are replaced.

blooom Inc Cost & Features

blooom Review: Is It Right For You?

blooom is designed for price-sensitive investors who want to hand off portfolio management to a financial advisor. 

Risk-Seeking Vs Risk-Averse Investors

When you join you will be invited to enter your birth date and specify when you plan to retire. With this information, blooom knows your age and the duration before you retire. It then constructs a portfolio to match your capacity for risk and financial aims.

blooom leans somewhat aggressive in its portfolio composition. Equities are weighted heavily until about 20 years out from retirement when bonds feature in the mix more prominently.

Because of the higher exposure to stocks, blooom is ideal for investors who are more risk-seeking than risk-averse.

Investors Seeking Professional Portfolio Management

Many research studies have shown that investors who receive professional financial advice outperform those who invest alone.

The reason so many investors fall short of the mark without advice is because, according to blooom, they make three major errors.

The first is to build a portfolio of bonds and stocks that have an incorrect mix compared to their risk tolerances and financial goals.

Next, investors frequently fail to diversify their 401k plans and instead invest heavily in a single company. Usually they are biased towards investing in the company that employs them.

And lastly, they don’t want to face the challenge of managing their retirement accounts, so they stick their heads in the sand like an ostrich!

Price Sensitive Investors

For investors who see the value of expert financial advice and care about the cost of receiving it, blooom is hard to beat because it charges a low annual fee.

For a low annual fee, blooom will identify areas of improvement in your existing 401(k) portfolio, make changes, and provide ongoing management of your existing portfolio.

Fix Your 401k with blooom

Investors Seeking Alternative To Financial Advisors

Unless you pay a financial advisor a much higher fee (most likely), blooom is a compelling alternative. Not only is it an excellent option for investors who don’t want to pay a dedicated financial advisor, but it is also unique among robo-advisors.

Few robo-advisors dabble in 401(k)s because they can be a nuisance to manage. Each employer has its own set of limited securities in which employees can invest and it’s a difficult challenge to automate portfolio management of defined contribution plans.

For this reason, even the robo-advisors who advise on 401(k) plans, like Personal Capital, won’t manage them for you.

In fact, if you want your 401(k) plan managed automatically, blooom is really your only option.

blooom is best for:

• Retirement-focused investors
• Beginner investors
• Fee-conscious investors
• Hands-off investors
• Investors who are more risk-seeking than risk-averse

Fix Your 401k with blooom

blooom Fees Are Low

According to blooom, the average client could save over $60,000 in hidden fees over their working life based on a balance of $43,310 and an average annual contribution of $5,000.

blooom charges an annual fee that starts from as low as $95 for its Essentials package to as much as $25o for its Unlimited package.

The lifetime savings by choosing blooom amount to an astonishing $60,000 in fees based on an average balance of around $43,000.

To save you so much money, you might assume that blooom costs a fortune but in fact the flat annual fee is very affordable, especially for large accounts.

blooom fees

• $95 – $250 Annual Management Fee
• $0 Account Minimum

Compared to traditional financial advisors or other robo-advisors, this fee is very competitive. The $95 fee gets you a personalized portfolio but lacks the auto optimization.

The Standard package will include all the features of the Unlimited package but without the priority advisor access.

For $250 a client receives:

• Personalized Portfolio
• Auto Optimization
• Transaction Activity Alerts
• Advisor Access
• Priority Advisor Access

That still compares well to a human advisor but it’s higher than Betterment and others charge to manage IRA and taxable portfolios.

The gotcha is the only place to manage your 401(k) automatically is blooom so choosing another robo-advisor is not a viable choice.

In our view, the fee is fair given the unique service blooom offers and the fact that clients have access to live advisors by email, chat, and phone.

Fix Your 401k with blooom

How Are blooom 401k Portfolios Invested?

blooom analyzes your existing 401k, removes portfolio holdings that don’t align with your objectives or cost too much, and replaces funds with others that better align with your target allocation and financial aims. 

The following algorithm is applied to assess and optimize your portfolio:

1. blooom analyzes your existing 401k and remove funds that don’t make sense.
2. To keep fees low, blooom generally selects index funds but, every once in a while, actively-managed funds are chosen.
3. After selecting funds that align with your target allocation, computer algorithms select investments to optimize for expense ratios and fund manager experience.
4. Finally, blooom verifies the results and compares the new portfolio with your recommended 401(k) allocation.

Every 90 days thereafter, your portfolio is re-analyzed to ensure selections and weightings are optimal. If needed, your portfolio will be automatically rebalanced.

As you come closer to retirement, blooom will automatically modify the weighting of stocks in your portfolio to create a more conservative portfolio.

blooom App & Tools

You can link an existing 401(k) account to blooom in order to measure fees, and evaluate its composition, and allocation.

blooom makes it simple to analyze an existing 401(k).

Simply link to your existing provider after setting up your blooom account in order to view how well your current 401(k) is performing.

Hands-off investors can leave it to blooom to manage their 401(k) while self-directed investors can act on the recommendations provided.

Where blooom earns a few extra brownie points is its risk tolerance assessment.

Risk tolerance measures are factored into the sign up process using an adjustable slider that allows you to change your allocation by up to 20% either way from the suggested allocation.

blooom Pros and Cons

blooom charges a low, flat annual fee. The onboarding process is easy and it’s free to analyze your existing portfolio.  If blooom were to be docked a few points, it would be the high fee as a % of assets under management on smaller account sizes.

Fix Your 401k with blooom

blooom Fees & Minimums

blooom imposes no account balance minimum, charges a low annual fee for account management and automatic rebalancing.

blooom Account Types

blooom supports employer-sponsored plans: 401(k), 403(b), 401(a), 457 and TSP.

blooom Review Summary

Unlike most robo-advisors, which focus on taxable and IRA accounts, blooom is unique because it manages 401(k) plans automatically for a low yearly flat fee.

By imposing no account minimum, blooom makes it easy to get started. And by charging nothing to analyze your 401(k), there is no reason not to give it a whirl.

If you are like the average blooom client, you will experience instant fee savings and, over the life of the account, potentially save as much as $60,000.

The bottom line is if you have a defined contribution plan, like a 401(k), 403(b), or 401(a), blooom offers compelling value at a fair and flat yearly rate.

Fix Your 401k with blooom

The article Fix Your 401(k) with Blooom (Review) was originally posted on Investormint

Although the company is best known as a student lender targeting Ivy leaguers and prime borrowers, SoFi now offers Personal Loans, Mortgage Loans, Life Insurance and wealth management.

One reason SoFi has grown so fast is its refreshing transparency when it comes to fees.

As you’ll see in this SoFi Invest review, the same customer-first commitment applies to its investment management products as its lending products.

No management fees and a super low investment minimum are just a few of the perks you can expect.

SoFi Wealth Spotlight

SOFI SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Management Fees: 0.0% of assets invested Account Balance Minimum: $100 Invest with SoFi Wealth Today >>

Is SoFi Right For You?

The SoFi Invest service is designed for hands-off investors who want the personal touch offered by traditional financial advisors and the low fees charged by robo-advisors.

When it comes to fees, SoFi beats competitors, such as Betterment, Personal Capital and Wealthfront. That’s because SoFi charges no management fees whatsoever!

No Management Fees

Its no-fee investment management service is just the appetizer of what you can expect at SoFi Wealth.

While rival Wealthfront steadfastly sticks with a robo-advisor solution only, SoFi goes a step further and provides access to live financial advisors, so if you’ve got questions a human can answer them for you.

Live advisors are not commission-based so they are not incentivized to sell you on other products, phew!

But wait, there’s more! (We couldn’t resist saying that!)

Exclusive Rate Discounts On SoFi Loans

Chances are you found out about SoFi Invest because you began as a borrower. And SoFi borrowers enjoy extra perks, including a 0.125% rate discount on loans.

Career & Salary Guidance

With its combination of no management fees and high service, SoFi takes direct aim at established robo-advisor competitors.

For example, Personal Capital has higher fees for a similar level of service.

And Betterment, which introduced its premium service connecting clients to live advisors, also charges higher fees than SoFi.

But the perks don’t stop there for SoFi Wealth clients, who also enjoy salary guidance and career guidance free of charge. SoFi values that promo bonus at $795.

Free Access to SoFi Events

One of the best parts of SoFi is its community. The company has fostered one of the most active Facebook groups of any financial company. It’s engaging, vibrant, and helpful.

Its online community extends offline too. You qualify to attend any one of 200+ events that are available to SoFi members.

SoFi is best for:

• Existing SoFi borrowers
• Hands-off investors
• Fee-conscious investors
• Investors who want access to human advisors

SoFi Management Fees

SoFi fees has among the most competitive fee schedules of all technology powered advisors; 0.00% of assets invested.

• Management Fees: 0.00% of assets under management

SoFi imposes a $100 account balance minimum.

Invest with SoFi >>

How Does SoFi Wealth Invest Client Money?

SoFi has an experienced investment committee, including Chief Economist, Michael Dooley, and former CEO of KKR Financial, Nino Fanlo.

SoFi uses Modern Portfolio Theory to spread investments over many asset classes, business sectors, industries, and countries to statistically optimize the mix of stocks, and bonds, as well as real estate and precious metals, such as gold.

Uses Low-Cost Exchange Traded Funds

SoFi offers a wide range of low-cost exchange-traded funds to investors.

It tracks more than 20 indexes and offers a number of different types of investment vehicles in order to keep portfolios balanced.

Investments are Diversified

Not only are investments low-cost, but they are also diversified.

SoFi offers a mix of investment vehicles including both US and international stocks, real estate, and high-yield and Treasury bonds.

SoFi also offers exposure to specific countries and regions for investors who have an interest in putting their money to work in a specific part of the world.

Portfolios Are Automatically Rebalanced

SoFi offers automatic portfolio rebalancing.

Whenever there is a change in your account (e.g. you make a deposit or withdrawal), SoFi checks your balance against your target allocation and rebalances accordingly.

It also monitors your portfolio daily and rebalances as needed to get you within 5 percentage points of your target allocation.

SoFi Human Advisors

In addition to these automatic features, SoFi offers human advisors that you can speak to from 10:30 AM to 11 PM EST on weekdays about your portfolio and your investment goals.

Unlike many companies, SoFi offers portfolio management completely for free, and investors who contribute more than $20/month are entitled to member bonuses such as free career coaching.

Lacks Tax Loss Harvesting

SoFi is planning on adding tax loss harvesting later in 2019, but for now this is not a feature it offers. This means you could lose extra money at tax time, and if you invest withSoFi you should realize this is one area where it currently comes up short.

Note: SoFi avoids conflict of interest by not receiving compensation for selecting certain funds or families of funds, meaning that funds are selected based on merits alone.

>> Compare SoFi Vs Betterment

SoFi Wealth Tools

SoFi applies a goal-based approach to wealth management.

Based on age, income and investable assets, SoFi recommends an investment portfolio to achieve investment goals that it maps out.

Clients can adjust their own level of risk tolerance to update selections.

A risk simulator in SoFi’s goal planner helps assess risk and probability of reaching set retirement goals.

Savings adjustments that increase timeline to retirement and amounts deposited will reflect on the probability of reaching retirement goals.

SoFi Wealth Pros and Cons

SoFi offers a wealth management solution with a highly competitive fee structure, combining a personal touch with technology powered investment methods.  

Plus, it has perhaps the best customer experience of any financial institution having fostered a true community feel, regular offline social meet-ups, educational events and much more.

SoFi Wealth Fees & Minimums

SoFi has the lowest fees we found among both robo-advisor firms and traditional personal financial advisors.

SoFi Wealth Accounts

SoFi supports individual accounts, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA and SEP IRA accounts.

SoFi Invest Review Summary

Among leading robo-advisors, SoFi stands out from the crowd.

While some robo-advisors offer technology-based investment management run by computer algorithms alone, SoFi connects clients to live advisors if they want human advice too.

Where SoFi Wealth shines brightest is its lack of management fees. Zero is hard to beat, and rivals who have seen SoFi build a hugely popular lending services in years gone by will likely be worried that customers will flock to the “new kid on the robo-advisor block”.

It’s not just fee-savvy investors who will be attracted to SoFi but any borrowers who enjoy exclusive rate discounts.

So too will clients who are job-hunting find the salary and career guidance valuable. If you’re looking to network with like-minded individuals the offline SoFi meet-ups are available too.

Or if you lack the time to hit the events locally, SoFi’s invite-only online Facebook group goes way beyond what most companies offer in terms of support and responsiveness.

The bottom line is SoFi Wealth is much more than an investment management service at a great price. It’s a portal that connects clients to the exclusive SoFi community which has perks galore.

Invest with SoFi >>

SoFi FAQ

Is SoFi legit?

SoFi began by serving prime borrowers from Ivy League and top tier colleges like Stanford, Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania.

The company aims to serve “HENRYs”, which are defined as High Earners Not Rich Yet.

With its wealth management solution, SoFi manages money for customers who often begin as borrowers and now have progressed in their careers to build sufficient assets to invest.

By doing so, SoFi partners with its clients throughout their entire financial life-cycle, from students in debt to equity-rich executives.

The article SoFi Invest Review 2020 – Free Portfolio Management was originally posted on Investormint

Betterment has been pushing the boundaries of online investing since Jon Stein and Eli Broverman founded the company in 2008.

On July 23, 2019, the platform launched a service called Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve. The company also started accepting sign-ups for an upcoming service called Betterment Everyday Checking, which customers can access later in the year.

What Makes Betterment Everyday Noteworthy?

Most online investment platforms force you to either invest for the long term or participate in day trading for fast profits. Betterment Everyday adds the features that you expect to get from a traditional bank.

For example, Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve lets you take advantage of unlimited withdrawals. Most online investment options only give you a limited number of withdrawals per month or year.

Betterment Everyday Checking also expands typical investment services by letting you withdraw money from ATMs all over the world.

Benefits of Opening a Betterment Everyday Account

Betterment Everyday accounts have several advantages that you don’t get from online investment platforms. You even get FDIC insurance that protects you from serious financial loss.

Some of the top benefits of opening a Betterment Cash Reserve account include:

• FDIC insurance up to $1 million
• No minimum balance
• No fees on balances
• Unlimited withdrawals
• A handsome APY

The Betterment Everyday Checking account also gives you plenty of benefits, including:

• FDIC insurance for up to $250,000
• ATM fee reimbursements
• No account fees
• No minimum balance
• No overdraft fees

The checking account comes with a Visa Debit Card that makes it easy for users to withdraw money from practically any ATM in the world.

>> Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve Vs Betterment Safety Net Fund

How Is Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve Different From Smart Saver?

If you have a Smart Saver account from Betterment, the company will automatically upgrade you to an Everyday Cash Reserve account. You should get an email or in-app notification about the upgrade.

Like most people, you probably want to know how Cash Reserve benefits you more than your Smart Saver account. It turns out that Betterment has taken time to create a new type of cash reserve account that will do even more with your money than Smart Saver.

If you liked Smart Saver, then you will love Everyday Cash Reserve because:

• Unlike Smart Saver, Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve comes with $1 million of FDIC protection
• Cash Reserve gives you a handsome APY that will help you grow your wealth faster than inflation
• Cash Reserve lets you transfer money to any checking account within 2 business days, whereas Smart Saver took up to 5 business days

The bottom line is you get to grow your money faster, protect your money from loss, and access your money sooner.

Those are huge improvements over Smart Saver, which already gave consumers several advantages over traditional savings accounts.

Betterment Tools That Make the Most of Your Money

Betterment has always given its clients tools that help them grow wealth quickly while managing risk. Those features don’t go away when you start an Everyday Cash Reserve or Everyday Checking account.

Two of the most popular Betterment tools, Cash Analysis and Two-Way Sweep, will give you the power to control your investments without losing access to your money.

Cash Analysis Helps Your Money Retain Value

Cash Analysis looks at your checking account to determine whether you could help your money retain or grow value by moving it elsewhere. For example, excess money that you have in your checking account could earn interest by moving it into an Everyday Cash Reserve account. The tool may also discover that you could grow your wealth by moving extra money to investment accounts.

Cash Analysis also makes sure that you keep enough money in your checking account. If your funds dip lower than normal, the tool can notify you.

Staying informed makes it easier to fund your account when it comes time to pay monthly bills or make big purchases.

>> Want to Budget Smarter? Compare Acorns Vs Personal Capital

Two-Way Sweep Moves Money Between Your Accounts

Cash Analysis gives your recommendations, but it doesn’t move money without your permission. You can automate your money’s movement, though, with Two-Way Sweep.

Betterment’s Two-Way Sweep financial tool works in coordination with Cash Analysis. When Cash Analysis determines that you have too much money sitting in your checking account, Two-Way Sweep will move it into your savings account to earn interest.

If Cash Analysis sees that your checking account needs more money, Two-Way Sweep will move cash from your savings account into checking.

That way, you never overdraw from your checking account. You always have the money that you need for daily purchases and monthly bills.

How to Start Your Betterment Everyday Account

If you already have a Smart Saver account, Betterment will automatically upgrade you to an Everyday Cash Reserve account. You don’t need to do anything.

If you want some of the investment features of your Smart Saver account, though, you can opt to retain them.

Since Everyday Checking is a new service, you will need to set up your account. When Betterment releases the service, you can open your account by visiting the website for directions. Betterment will then send you a debit card that you can use at ATMs around the world.

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% - 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

ps: Betterment Can Also Help You Retire

Checking and savings isn’t where Betterment stops. In fact, Betterment began as a robo-advisor that manages your money using computer algorithms.

Sound scary?

It’s not. Over the past decade and more, it’s grown in popularity as a lower cost financial money management approach than using traditional human advisors.

Unlike a human advisor who may struggle to simultaneously optimize tax-loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing on hundreds of client accounts, Betterment and its peers, like Ellevest and Personal Capital, can do so continuously at much lower cost.

For eagle-eyed customers who pay attention to portfolio diversification and tax optimization, Betterment offers tax coordinated portfolios and also features socially responsible portfolios to investors who prefer to allocate money in a way that matches their values.

The bottom line is at Betterment you get all the benefits of a bank account at Wells Fargo plus investment management at lower cost than human advisors can typically deliver.

The article Betterment Everyday Cash Reserve Review was originally posted on Investormint

Last Updated: Aug 26 2019 – Qplum has announced that they are no longer able to serve as an investment advisor.

Sitting in front of a computer all day managing your nest-egg isn’t fun for most investors, which is why robo-advisors have become so popular in recent years.

When you hand over your savings to a digital money manager, the investing experience is placed on auto-pilot.

But what if you want to speak with an advisor? Elsewhere you may be limited to a few complimentary planning sessions and then be charged fees to maintain access to real people.

However at qplum, you get the best of both worlds: automated investment management plus human advice.

And like the big-name robo-advisors, the frills of tax-loss harvesting, automated trading, and wealth management tools are provided at no extra cost.

But before switching, let’s see what else you need to consider in this qplum review.

qplum Fees

QPLUM SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4 out of 5 stars	Annual Fees: 0.50% Personalized Advice: YES A.I. Driven Investment Portfolios: YES Get Started via qplum secure site

What Is qplum?

qplum is an online investment advisory firm that combines machine learning and artificial intelligence-based portfolios with human advice.

When qplum co-founders, Mansi Singhal and Gaurav Chakravorty, began in 2015, they had a vision to approach investing as a science, not a game.

qplum portfolios are built with a focus on risk-management, smart execution, and tax-loss harvesting.

Portfolios are driven by artificial intelligence. And high frequency trading techniques are used to save you money.

Perhaps most importantly, qplum doesn’t shy away from the human element that so many investors still want.

Every customer receives personalized advice and enjoys 1-to-1 walk through sessions with a financial advisor.

qplum Management Fees

Before the Great Recession, the only ways to get professional investing advice were to pay a financial advisor a hefty fee on assets managed, north of 1% typically, or be an accredited investor and pay a hedge fund 2% of assets plus 20% of profits annually.

Those hefty fees combined with shoddy performance returns led to technological innovations when Betterment, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital came on the scene.

The wave of new robo-advisors led to lower management fees across the board. All of a sudden, you could invest your money for as little as 0.25% annually versus 1.00%+ via a traditional financial advisor.

But management fees alone don’t reveal the whole story.

When you pay the lowest rates, you generally receive the most basic service level: digital money management only.

If you want a financial advisor dedicated to you, Personal Capital will charge you over 3x that basic fee rate.

So where can you find reasonable rates plus human advice?

Enter qplum!

Get Started With qplum

How Does qplum Invest Your Money?

Qplum offers five types of portfolios:

qplum Performance Returns

At the time of research, the performance returns generated by qplum portfolios were as follows:

*Last Updated: July 9, 2018

Aside: Don’t let the lower returns from the Fairway portfolio fool you into thinking it’s a bad investment opportunity.

The Fairway portfolio seeks income and stable returns more so than upside growth. So, if you are nearer retirement or simply seeking an income stream, it may be better suited than the higher growth portfolios, like Sunflower.

Can You Trust Your Money To
Artificial Intelligence?

qplum makes the bold prediction that, over the next decade, investors will become as comfortable with artificial intelligence investing strategies as they currently are trusting mapping technology.

By way of example, qplum cites a portfolio manager who refused to trust a human for directions when visiting New York for the first time but instead put his faith in Google Maps.

As qplum explains, 10x more artificial intelligence is used in Google Maps technology than A.I.-based investing technology currently yet people are willing to trust it more because they are more familiar with it.

As time goes by and artificial intelligence investing becomes more widespread, it won’t be surprising to see it adopted by ever more investors.

qplum Pros and Cons

qplum Minimums

qplum Account Types

qplum Review Summary

qplum is one of a growing list of digital money managers offering a compelling value proposition: automated money management plus human advice at low cost.

With much less money in its coffers than its rivals it seems, qplum has admirably built an advanced investment platform powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Like its peers, it provides all the bells and whistles you might expect, including tax-loss harvesting, automated investment management, automated trading, and wealth management tools.

And it goes a step further by using high-frequency trading techniques to optimize order placement so clients save money. It also distinguishes itself from its peers in two key areas:

1. Automated risk-management;
2. Dynamic asset allocation.

Dynamic asset allocation means your portfolio’s composition changes as market conditions change. After all, why should your portfolio be a static mix when conditions change?

It makes little sense to keep a portfolio of say 60% stocks 40% bonds at all times when the reality is a heavier weighting towards different asset classes produces a more optimal mix in different economic and market environments. qplum leads the way in pioneering this innovation among robo-advisors.

Arguably, qplum has delivered on the promise of AI investing already by producing handsome returns since inception, but whether it will continue to do so remains to be seen.

The bottom line is if you want automated investment management and the comfort of knowing you can connect with a real human when you wish, qplum has much to offer.

Open a qplum Account

The article QPlum Review – Wealth Management Powered By A.I. was originally posted on Investormint

Or is it?

The growth of online roboadvisor services has led to wealth management firms pushing down fees, with some, such as SoFi, even offering 0% management fees.

Before we look at the best free money management app, we’ll take a look at what you get from professional money mangers when you do pay a pretty penny.

How Wealth Management Fees Reduce Your Gains

Roboadvisor services are still a relatively new phenomenon; until recently, all wealth management services involved getting (and paying) a human advisor. And of course, when you need a specialist to do something, it costs money.

How Much Does a Human Advisor Cost?

Financial advisors charge in different ways, but the most common method is to charge a percentage of your assets under management.

You can expect most advisors to fall between 1% and 2% in annual charges, with the average being closer to 1%.

This does not include any third-party fees you might get if you invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds.

What About Robo Advisors?

Roboadvisors use automated systems to suggest a portfolio for you based on your investment goals and attitudes to risk.

Because there is less of a human element, roboadvisor fees are often as low as 0.25% to 0.75% of assets under management. Ellevest and Betterment for example, charge at the lower end of the spectrum, while Personal Capital – which features more of a white glove service – charges at the higher end.

As with human advisors, this does not include third-party fees.

The Hidden Cost of Wealth Management Fees

A fee of 1% might not sound much. but it adds up.

The key to remember is that each dollar you pay in fees represents more than the loss of that dollar – it’s also the loss of the compound interest all those fees would have made you.

Over a long period of time, small fees might add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is one of the main reasons why many investors try to keep fees as low as possible.

Does Free Money Management Exist?

Free money management does exist (sort of); the competitive roboadvisor industry has led to some wealth management services, such as SoFi, offering 0% management fees.

SOFI SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Management Fees: 0.0% of assets invested Account Balance Minimum: $100 Invest with SoFi Wealth Today >>

Of course, you still need to pay expense ratios, but those are typically going to be under 0.1%.

The main catch is that services with lower fees may lack certain features you expect that higher-fee advisors provide. They may also be more likely to try to upsell you to other services (they’ve still got to make money somehow).

SoFi is a rare company in that it started out as a student lender, and now offers mortgages and bank accounts. It’s famous for its competitive rates. So, chances are if you find SoFi’s free money management compelling, you might be tempted to select SoFi for your mortgage, student loan refi or even personal loan. At least, they’re hoping so!

The Best Things About Free Money Management

While free roboadvisors might not provide every feature an experienced investor wants, what you do get for free is still impressive. Here are a few of their main advantages:

Great For Beginners

No-fee money management is great for beginners who may not yet have much to invest.

The lack of fees helps them get started for a low cost, and because their portfolio is small, they are less likely to miss any features or tools that are not provided.

Almost Completely Hands-Off

As with other roboadvisors, no-fee solutions are great for investors who want to take a completely hands-off attitude.

After all, if you don’t want to get involved, you may as well limit your fees to as little as possible.

Very Low Costs

The main advantage is clearly that fees are kept very low. This means your investment will grow quicker and get bigger than it would were it invested somewhere with a higher fee (assuming the portfolios were the same).

Is SoFi Wealth Right For You?

SoFi’s Automated Investing option is a popular choice for investors who want to minimize fees.

5 Reasons SoFi May Be Great For You

There are lots of reasons why investors choose SoFi:

1. Wide Range of Low-Cost Investments – Investors can choose low-cost ETFs from more than 20 different asset classes.
2. Very Low Fees – Account management fee of 0% and ETFs with average 0.085% expense ratio.
3. Certified Financial Planners – Investors get free access to certified financial planners. This is something which many other roboadvisor services reserve for premium customers only. And some, like Wealthfront, don’t offer the service at all.
4. Automatic Rebalancing – Your account is automatically rebalanced for free at least once quarterly to ensure your portfolio remains diversified.
5. Easy to Start – It’s simple and easy to get started with SoFi, and there is phone support to back you up if you have a problem.

>> Get Your 401k Managed Automatically

3 Reasons SoFi Might Not Be a Great Fit For You

Of course, no service is perfect, and SoFi’s no-cost model means there are a few compromises you might not find elsewhere:

1. Limited Account Types – SoFi supports individual and joint non-retirement accounts and Roth, traditional, SEP and rollover IRAs.
2. Relatively New – SoFi’s Automated Investing only launched this year, so it has a relatively short track record. Additionally, while SoFi offers a free account management fee to customers in 2019, it may go up in future.
3. Few Missing Features – SoFi does not currently offer tax-loss harvesting (although it claims it will be adding this soon). It also lacks some portfolio tools that some other, more mature, services offer.

Conclusion: Great Value For Money

While SoFi doesn’t offer everything that other services provide, you can’t argue with free.

Considering the lack of fees its feature set is generous, and investors looking for a low-cost, low-hassle investment option could do a lot worse.

Invest with SoFi >>

The article What Is The Best Free Money Management App? was originally posted on Investormint

Wealthsimple Black Review

Wealthsimple Black is Wealthsimple’s offering for investors who deposit $100,000 or more with them. It offers all the standard benefits from the Basic tier (for investors who deposit less than $100,000) plus lower fees, investment planning, and VIP airline lounge access.

How Does Wealthsimple Work?

Wealthsimple builds its customers a custom portfolio of low-fee funds based on their financial goals and attitudes to risk. Its aim is to help customers invest profitably with little ongoing effort and without having to make complex decisions.

To achieve this, customers can automatically contribute to their portfolio using direct debit and the system automatically rebalances and reinvest dividends.

With little human intervention (from customer or manager), fees are kept low.

Getting started is quick and easy:

• Step 1 – Wealthsimple asks you a few questions to find out about your financial objectives.
• Step 2 – Wealthsimple suggests a portfolio for you based on these answers. You can make changes if you want, including choosing socially responsible investing options or Halal investing.
• Step 3 – You make a deposit from your bank account to start your portfolio.

Overall, the process takes about 5 to 10 minutes. After that, customers can manage their accounts using Wealthsimple’s website and app, both of which are simple, clear, and easy to use.

What Features Do Wealthsimple Black Users Get?

Wealthsimple Black users get all the Basic features plus a few extra ones for them. We’ll start with an overview of the basic features:

• Account Minimum: $0
• Portfolio Mix: Between six and ten ETFs across up to ten asset classes
• Accounts Supported: Personal, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, Joint Accounts, and Trusts
• Rebalancing: Provided free
• Other Features: Socially responsible investment options, Halal investing portfolio option, free tax-loss harvesting, easy-to-use app.

Alongside standard accounts, Wealthsimple supports retirement accounts, including Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs and traditional IRAs as well as Trusts.

Wealthsimple Tax & Rebalancing Strategy

Automatic tax loss harvesting, tax-advantaged investing, and portfolio rebalancing are included in basic service.

Additionally, Wealthsimple Black users get the following three benefits:

1. Lower Fees

Users with a deposit above $100,000 get a reduced management fee of 0.4% (down from 0.5%), so they pay less per year on fees.

2. Financial Planning Session

Members can book a financial planning session with one of Wealthsimple’s team of certified financial planners to help them invest correctly according to their own attitudes and goals.

3. VIP Airline Lounge Access

You and a partner get complimentary access to more than 1,000 airline lounges in 400 cities around the world.

>> Related: Get The Best Travel Credit Card

What Are Wealthsimple Black Fees?

Basic users (those that deposit up to $100,000) pay a 0.5% investment management fee.

This is calculated on a daily basis by dividing the annual fee (0.5%) by 365 days and applying that to the closing value of your portfolio on that day. These daily fees are added up and paid monthly.

Additionally, the managers of the funds you invest in have management fees as well. These are typically about 0.2% per year. All told, basic users can expect to pay around 0.7% in fees over a year.

Wealthsimple Black fees are similar, except the investment management fee is reduced to 0.4%. This means the overall fees are going to be closer to 0.6% per year once the fees charged by investment fund managers are taken into account.

Is Wealthsimple Black a Good Investment?

Wealthsimple diversifies your investment across the stock market by using Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs, with the mix changing according to your attitude to risk and goals.

Your returns will depend upon the future performance of the market and cannot be predicted; however, user experience with the service has been positive:

User Reviews

On Trustpilot, the service has received 42 reviews and has an overall rating of Excellent. In particular, reviewers praise the customer service, how easy to use it is, and the low fees.

To date, 79% of users rated Wealthsimple as Excellent, 14% as Great, 5% as Average, and just 2% as Poor. 0% of reviews rated the service as Bad.

On the Apple AppStore, the Wealthsimple Invest and Save app has received an average 4.5/5.0 over 578 ratings.

Security

Your deposits with Wealthsimple are covered by SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corp) Insurance up to the value of $500,000 for each type of account held plus up to $250,000 for cash.

Additionally, the Apex Clearing Corporation (an independent clearing service which holds your assets) has excess SIPC insurance that covers $150 million across its clients.

Put simply: your investment is about as safe as it can get.

Fees

While Wealthsimple’s fees aren’t high, they aren’t as competitive as some of the other robo-advisory solutions available.

For example, Betterment and Ellevest charge a 0.25% management fee (compared to the Wealthsimple Black 0.4%).

Fans of Wealthsimple point to how easy to use it is, the great mobile app, and the easy access to human advisors as being worth the tradeoff.

Wealthsimple Black Review Conclusion

Overall, Wealthsimple is a good option for investors who are willing to pay a slightly higher fee in return for getting access to its specialist offerings (socially responsible investing and Halal investing), the opportunity to talk to specialist advisors, and the platform’s ease of use.

Wealthsimple Login

Getting started with Wealthsimple is easy.

Begin here to go to the Wealthsimple website and then click the ‘Get Started’ button in the top right.

You’ll need to create an account, input some personal information, and then Wealthsimple will ask you questions about how you want to invest your money.

Open a Wealthsimple Account

The article Wealthsimple Black Review: Get VIP Airline Lounge Access was originally posted on Investormint

Experts say that families and individuals should have at least enough money saved to pay for three months of living expenses. Ideally, you should have enough money to pay for a year of living costs.

Most people try to reach this goal by putting money into savings accounts. Unfortunately, even the best savings accounts only pay about 2.25%. The money in your savings account, therefore, may not even retain its value. If inflation rises above the interest rate paid by your savings account then your purchasing power is diminishes.

Instead of putting money in a savings account, you can choose to invest your savings with a service like Betterment Safety Net Fund.

Betterment Safety Net Fund Vs. Savings Accounts

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
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When you put your money in a savings account, you know that your money will lose value over time. Even during periods of extremely low inflation, you can’t expect the money in your savings account to grow by more than a few percent each year. That assumes, of course, that you have a terrific savings account that pays you a decent interest rate. Most people don’t have that luxury.

Depositing money in your safety net fund gives you an opportunity to grow wealth. With a Betterment Safety Net Fund, you contribute money into a diversified portfolio. Once you exceed your savings target, you can reinvest the excess money to grow your wealth for retirement, vacations, and other expenses.

Betterment recommends reaching 130% of your safety net fund. By following this advice, you help to ensure that you always have enough money to pay for emergencies. Even if your portfolio loses some value, the additional 30% should mean that you have enough cash reserved for unexpected costs.

Risks of Betterment Safety Net Funds

Every investment involves financial risk. It’s possible that your Betterment Safety Net Fund could lose significant value. For example, a sudden turn in the stock market could mean that your fund of $100,000 turns into a much lower amount. You probably wouldn’t lose all of your savings, but you could.

If you want to open a Betterment Safety Net Fund, you need to realize that you could lose money. Will that happen? Perhaps not over the long term. But it could.

Before the risk of investing money scares you away from putting your money in a Safety Net Fund, remember that most savings accounts guarantee that your money will lose value.

You have a choice of accepting a savings account that you know will cost you in purchasing power of your money long term or putting your money in a portfolio that could increase your wealth over time. A lot of people are willing to accept the risks of investing because they hate the idea of losing out to inflation over time due to low-interest savings accounts.

Is a Betterment Safety Net Fund Right for You?

Safety Net Funds work well for a lot of people, but they aren’t the right fit for everyone. A Safety Net Fund may be a good idea if:

• You already have money set aside for emergencies
• You don’t qualify for a savings account that pays more than 2% interest
• You have enough income that you could stand for your emergency fund to lose some value

You might want to stick with a traditional savings account if:

• You have a difficult time saving money
• You have a lot of credit card debt that you need to repay before you start investing
• You don’t earn enough money to tolerate market fluctuations

The bottom line is that you should think about opening a Betterment Safety Net Fund if you already have an emergency fund and you want its value to grow instead of shrink.

Betterment Safety Net Vs. Smart Saver: What’s the Difference?

Betterment offers two types of savings accounts that will likely benefit you more than a traditional savings account from a bank. Safety Net and Smart Saver have a few differences that you should know before you decide which type of account to open.

With Safety Net, you want to deposit money that you do not need to access. Ideally, you will never have to use the money. As long as you stay healthy and employed, you can keep the money untouched while it gains value.

Betterment designed Smart Saver to function more like a typical savings account that you might dip into a few times a year. For example, you could withdraw money from a Smart Saver account to take a weekend vacation or purchase a new refrigerator.

The money that you put in a Smart Saver account still gets invested. The account, however, uses a low-risk profile to give you a steady return without putting your savings in jeopardy.

Safety Net Funds have portfolios with slightly higher risk. By accepting more risk, you could possibly earn more money. You also run the risk of losing more money. Since you don’t plan to use your Safety Net money until an emergency happens, though, you can probably tolerate the higher risk without much concern.

The article Betterment Safety Net Fund Review was originally posted on Investormint

The money that you put in a savings account will never see much growth. Unfortunately, you can only expect to earn about 0.10% from savings accounts these days. At that rate, you might as well stuff your money under a mattress.

If you’re tired of getting such a small return from your bank, then you might want to consider opening a Betterment Smart Saver.

What Is Betterment Smart Saver?

Betterment markets Smart Saver as an alternative to traditional savings accounts. According to Betterment, you can expect to earn north of 2% from your investment.

When your money is invested in Smart Saver, Betterment places it in short-term bonds, which have performed rather well in recent years.

How much of a difference does the higher interest rate make?

Let’s say you put $5,000 into a savings account that pays you the 0.10% national average. Within 5 years, your account will have grown by $25.05. That’s just $5.01 per year!

Assuming that Smart Saver gives you a 2.4% return, your $5,000 will grow to $5,629.50 over 5 years. Instead of earning about $5 per year, you get about $130.

Plus, you enjoy tax advantages by using Betterment Smart Saver. You have to report savings account earnings to the IRS each year. Smart Saver offers some tax advantages that should lower your annual payments.

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% - 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

How Does Betterment Smart Saver Work?

Betterment Smart Saver works as a brokerage account controlled by a robo advisor. Currently, Smart Saver only invests in short-term bonds, including U.S. Short-Term Treasury Bonds (SHV) and U.S. Short-Term Investment Grade Corporate Bonds (NEAR).

Smart Saver doesn’t have a minimum deposit amount, so you can start your account with any amount of money.

You can withdraw money from your Smart Saver account at any time. You can also transfer money from your Smart Saver account to other Betterment investment products.

Is Betterment Smart Saver FDIC Insured?

After the Great Depression, the government realized that it had to give consumers more protections. Otherwise, few people would put their money into checking or savings accounts.

Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to provide that protection. Currently, FDIC insurance covers $250,000 of the money you keep in your bank account. If the economy tanks, the government ensures that you still have access to the money in your banking account, up to $250,000.

Unfortunately, Betterment Smart Saver does not have the same guarantee. Since it doesn’t have FDIC coverage, it’s possible that you could lose the money in your account. If Betterment makes bad investment decisions on your behalf, then your money could be at risk.

With that said, Smart Saver does carry SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) insurance. SIPC insurance protects you from fraud and bankruptcy. If Betterment went bankrupt or committed fraud, then you would get your money back. If it lost your money without committing fraud, then your money would disappear.

Is Betterment Smart Saver Safe?

You can’t expect to earn a higher interest rate without accepting a little more risk. What could go wrong?

One possibility is that the Federal Reserve could lower interest rates. If that happened, short-term bond yields would probably fall.

The Fed did lower interest rates in 2008 to help combat the Great Recession. The rates increased in 2015, after many experts agreed that the economy had recovered. Since 2015, rates have grown slowly. If indeed the Fed does continue this trend, you can expect Smart Saver to give you a strong return on your investment.

But it’s smart not to feel 100% certain about an investment. If economic conditions change, the Fed may do an about turn. For example, if unemployment increased or inflation started to change faster than expected, then the Fed could cut rates.

Without FDIC protection, an ailing economy could mean that you lose money in your Smart Saver account.

Betterment Smart Saver Review

Despite a few reservations, it makes sense for you to put money into a Betterment Smart Saver account. There is a possibility that you will lose some money. That’s true of all investments. On the other hand, you know that you will lose money by putting it into a traditional savings account.

How could you lose money? Because most savings accounts don’t have interest rates that match inflation. When you earn 0.10% interest in an economy with a 2% inflation rate, you always lose. Over the years, the value of the money you keep in a traditional savings account will fall. With a Smart Saver account, you have an opportunity to grow your wealth.

The bottom line is that you should probably use a traditional savings account in coordination with a Smart Saver account. Keep enough money in your savings account to pay for emergency expenses.

Most banks can transfer money from savings to checking within seconds. It will, however, take some time to transfer money from Betterment to your checking account.

Once you feel comfortable with the amount in your savings account, start adding money to a Betterment Smart Saver account. Ideally, the money will grow instead of losing value like the cash in your savings account.

We believe that Smart Saver has advantages worth using, but you have to decide what to do with your money.

Beyond Smart Saver, Is Betterment Worth It?

Betterment doesn’t just offer a high yield savings account. It’s best known as a robo-advisor that can manage your money using computer algorithms.

As one of the first and best robo-advisors, Betterment has among the lowest fees in the industry, relies on Nobel-prize winning research to invest your money, and has a host of features that separates it from the pack, including:

• Tax-loss harvesting
• Tax coordinated portfolios
• Socially responsible portfolios
• Performance track record
• Human advice from financial experts

Betterment Promo

If you make a deposit within 45 days, you can get up to one year of automated investment management free.

BETTERMENT SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 5 out of 5 stars	Promo: Up to 1 Year Free Management Management Fee: 0.25% - 0.40% Account Minimum (Betterment Digital): $0 Account Minimum (Betterment Premium): $100,000 Get Started via Betterment secure site

>> How To Invest $20,000 

>> How To Retire In 5 Simple Steps

>> 7 Retirement Investing Tips

The article Betterment Smart Saver Review was originally posted on Investormint

Wealthsimple Review: When Michael Katchen and Brett Huneycutt founded Wealthsimple, they had the goal to make it easy to invest on auto-pilot.

Fast forward a few years and the company has succeeded marvelously by delivering a world-class robo-advisor to U.S. and Canadian clients with over $3 billion in assets under management.

Like other robo-advisors, Wealthsimple automates the investing process, so you can be hands-off. The usual bells and whistles you might expect from a top notch robo-advisor are provided: tax-loss harvesting, tax-advantaged investing, automatic rebalancing, and even socially responsible investing options.

Included in the annual fee of 0.50%, you can also get unlimited access to human advice. With deposits over $100,000, the fee drops to 0.40% annually as part of the higher tier service, Wealthsimple Black.

A bonus for new Investormint customers is your first $10,000 is managed free for the first year.

Wealthsimple Spotlight

Wealthsimple Fees

Wealthsimple has two tiers of service, Wealthsimple Basic and Wealthsimple Black, depending on how much you deposit.

For account balances under $100,000, investment management fees are 0.50% annually while above that threshold, fees are 0.40% annually.

In addition to slightly lower annual fees, Wealthsimple Black clients also receive access to VIP airline lounge access.

Anyone can schedule an appointment with a human financial expert.

Open a Wealthsimple Account

Wealthsimple Investment Method

Wealthsimple uses a mathematical investment model to minimize risks to investors when they put their hard-earned cash into the stock market. It is one of many robo-advisors to use this Nobel Prize-winning method.

Diversification of Investments is Key

The key to understanding the Wealthsimple method is to understand the idea of diversification of investments.

You might think diversification simply means buying a lot of different stocks, but this isn’t quite accurate.

Obviously, you don’t want to put all your eggs into one basket because if that one stock falls, you’ll lose a lot of money. But similarly, you don’t want to put all your eggs into similar baskets.

Some stocks are in correlated industries – that is, industries that impact one another. For example, the automobile and energy industries are correlated.

Vehicle performance depends on the availability of gas. So if there’s a crisis in the energy industry, such as a shortage of oil, that’ll negatively impact the auto industry.

If you own stock in both an oil company and an automobile company when a crisis hits, BOTH stocks will go down in value.

That is an example of putting all your eggs into similar baskets.

Conversely, if you invest in industries that have little or nothing to do with each other, then even if one industry suffers a crisis, the other will remain stable or even grow!

The Wealthsimple investment method encourages this type of diversification to protect you against needless losses.

Focus on Your Portfolio

The Wealthsimple method looks at your portfolio as a whole, not just on individual stocks.

Any one stock you could invest in is a gamble. Stocks go up and down all the time for reasons that are sometimes hard to predict.

But if you have a balanced portfolio, then the performance of any one stock ceases to be as important. Instead, Wealthsimple focuses on how the portfolio as a whole is doing and attempts to keep your portfolio balanced. Its interest is in making sure your total investment grows, not merely in the growth of the individual stocks in the portfolio.

A balanced portfolio, such as the one above, has exposure to a range of asset classes, including U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, emerging markets, municipal bonds, inflation-protected securities, government bonds and high-yield bonds.

Wealthsimple Tax Strategy

Wealthsimple offers tax-loss harvesting and tax-advantaged investing to all clients in order to boost after-tax returns.

To lower your tax bill, Wealthsimple practices tax loss harvesting. The way it works is losing investments are sold to count against winning positions, and those losers are replaced by similar securities.

If you were to sell a loser just for tax reasons to lower your capital gains tax rate and buy it back right away or within 30 days, the tax benefit would be disqualified by the IRS based on the wash-sale rule.

On the other hand, you can sell an ETF that tracks U.S. stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and purchase a similar one on another exchange, say the NASDAQ, without violating any rules.

As you can imagine, tax loss harvesting can get a little tricky and it would be time consuming to make changes manually which is why the automated approach Wealthsimple provides is so valuable.

Tax-loss harvesting doesn’t exempt you from paying taxes to Uncle Sam but it is a way to defer taxes. You can think about it as an interest-free government loan.

When markets fall, tax loss harvesting can build up a nice tax credit that you can use in the future.

Wealthsimple Smart Investing

Wealthsimple reinvests dividends, automatically rebalances portfolios and allocates assets to socially responsible investments if clients wish.

Beyond tax loss harvesting, Wealthsimple uses other investment strategies to boost your returns over time.

REINVESTED DIVIDENDS

Some estimates from Professor Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania are that as much as 95% of wealth over most of the 20th century is attributable to dividends.

Reinvesting dividends may not seem like they make much of a difference in the short-term but over time they can really add up.

The way it works is when a stock issues a dividend, you can elect to take the dividend payment in the form of more stock instead of cash.

It’s a cheaper way to buy stock because you don’t pay the higher brokerage commissions costs to purchase more shares.

And over time, “small” dividends compound and can ultimately produce large gains.

PORTFOLIO REBALANCING

When you start investing, you will typically have a target allocation that matches your financial goals and risk profile.

If you are young, you probably have more stock exposure and if retirement is nearby you will typically have a greater composition of bonds.

The problem with allocating your assets and sitting back to watch them grow over time is that investments grow at different rates causing your allocation to skew in favor of some securities.

Automatic portfolio rebalancing is practiced by Wealthsimple to make sure investments that drift are modified to bring the overall asset composition back in line with your target allocation.

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT OPTIONS

If you care about how your dollars are invested and want to make sure they are aligned with your values, socially responsible investing is an innovative option and rare among robo-advisors.

The challenge historically with SRI portfolios is expense ratios run at a higher cost than standard ETFs – typically because more due diligence has to be conducted to gauge how well the securities are performing when compared using social impact metrics.

These costs run a little higher at Wealthsimple too, though it should be noted that they are set by the funds, not by Wealthsimple.

Six socially responsible exchange-traded funds are used at Wealthsimple:

Wealthsimple Pros and Cons

Wealthsimple is great for beginners and millennials, as well as investors who prioritize after-tax returns and don’t want to be nickeled and dimed with hidden fees.

The annual cost is higher than some other robo-advisors charge but the personal touch and support add a good deal of value, especially to Wealthsimple Black clients, who enjoy a fee break.

Wealthsimple takes social impact investing seriously by featuring socially responsible investing ETFs, including a Halal portfolio approved by Shariah scholars.

Wealthsimple Fees, Minimums, & Features

Fees start at 0.50% annually and reduce to 0.40% for deposits over $100,000. Plus, new clients enjoy free managed service up to the first $10,000 for the first year.

Wealthsimple Accounts

Alongside standard accounts, Wealthsimple supports retirement accounts, including Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs and traditional IRAs as well as Trusts.

Wealthsimple Tax & Rebalancing Strategy

Automatic tax loss harvesting, tax-advantaged investing, and portfolio rebalancing are included in basic service.

Wealthsimple Review Summary

If you want to try out Wealthsimple, the barrier is low: FREE managed service for a full year on the first $10,000 deposited for Investormint readers!

After that, fees are 0.50% annually up to the first $100,000 and reduce to 0.40% thereafter.

Beginners who are getting started will find Wealthsimple has enough bells and whistles to beat most traditional advisors. Where traditional advisors may charge north of 1%, Wealthsimple charges about 50% less or better. Plus, you get free tax-loss harvesting, tax-advantaged investing and portfolio rebalancing thrown in as a bonus.

Wealthsimple supports a wide variety of accounts, including standard taxable accounts and retirement accounts, such as traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, and Roth IRAs.

Plus, you get access to socially responsible investing options so if you care about how your dollars are invested and want to make sure they align with your values, Wealthsimple is one of very few robo-advisors along with Betterment who support SRI portfolios.

Open a Wealthsimple Account

The article Wealthsimple Review – $10,000 Managed Free for 1 Year! was originally posted on Investormint

If you struggle to save, Acorns and Betterment make it easy to contribute to your nest-egg and invest passively without having to lift a finger.

The Acorns mobile app rounds up your everyday purchases to the nearest dollar, moves the loose change into an Acorns investment portfolio account and automatically manages the money for you.

Betterment has a feature called Smart Deposit, which sweeps unused cash into your Betterment account and invests it on your behalf.

So, with both robo-advisors offering an automated way to invest your savings, which one is better for you? We compared Acorns vs Betterment on a range of features, including fees, account types, human advice, tax-loss harvesting, account minimums and asset classes.

Acorns vs Betterment

What Does Acorns Do?

Acorns takes a unique approach to getting people to save and invest more money.

Each time you make a purchase with your credit card, Acorns rounds the price up to the next dollar and invests the change for you. For example, if you buy a coffee for $3.27, Acorns will wound up to $4 and invest the $0.73.

You can also use Acorns as a digital money manager. The app doesn’t require a minimum deposit, and you can invest as much as you want.

You get to choose how aggressively you want Acorns to invest your money, but you can only select between five default options instead customizing your approach.

Is Acorns Right For You?

Acorns tends to work well for people who don’t have strong saving and investing habits. Because the app works automatically, you don’t have to make many decisions after setting up your account.

Acorns is also a good option for people who don’t want to pay high fees.

If you have a portfolio worth $5,000 or less, then you only pay Acorns $1 per month.

With a portfolio size of $5,000+, you pay 0.25% of the balance per year, which is low compared to most traditional money managers.

What Does Betterment Do?

Betterment manages a portfolio worth about $15 billion, making it one of the world’s largest robo-advisors. It has established a reputation as a leader in the automated investment management industry.

When you sign up for Betterment, you get to choose between two plans:

• Betterment Digital
• Betterment Premium

Betterment Digital doesn’t have an account minimum, so you can start investing with as little as $1. The plan also has a low fee of 0.25% per year, the same as Acorns.

Betterment Premium gives you phone access to certified financial planners. That may matter quite a bit to serious investors. The plan has a $100,000 minimum, though, so it’s not for beginners. Betterment Premium charges a 0.40% annual fee.

Is Betterment Right For You?

Betterment is aimed at investors who want to place their nest-egg in the hands of a trusted money manager with a proven track record.

Entry-level investors that don’t want to get too involved with their portfolios should choose Betterment Digital. Those that want to invest larger amounts and get advice from professionals should choose Betterment Premium.

>> Compare Betterment Vs DIY Portfolio

Fees

Acorns Fees vs Betterment Fees

Betterment and Acorns charge 0.25% of AUM for computer-managed investment management services. Human advice is accessible at Betterment at a higher fee schedule. Under $5,000, Acorns charges a monthly flat rate of $1 and provides college students free service.

Fees at Betterment and Acorns are identical for amounts over $5,000. Both charge 0.25% of managed assets. Above $2,000,000, Betterment waives fees for its high net worth clients.

Up to $5,000, Acorns charges a fixed fee of $1 per month. College students also get a bonus of 4 years of free automated portfolio management services when signing up to Acorns with a valid .edu email address.

These fees reflect basic service levels, which at Betterment means purely automated investment management powered by computer algorithms.

For investors who want a little extra hand-holding, Betterment also offers a high tier service, Betterment Premium. This service comes with access to human advice, and costs 0.40% of managed assets respectively.

Betterment Premium clients enjoy account monitoring by human advisors, an annual phone call and unlimited email access to human financial experts, CFP professionals.

Robo-Advisor	$5,000	$10,000	$50,000	$100,000	Open Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account

Account Minimum

Betterment vs Acorns

For basic service, Betterment and Acorns have no account minimums. 

While no account minimums are imposed by either robo-advisor on basic service, Betterment mandates a $100,000 minimum for Betterment Premium.

Robo-advisor	$1,000	$10,000	$50,000	$100,000	Open an Account
DIGITAL MANAGEMENT FEES 1 2 3 4 5	$2.50	$25	$125	$250	Open an Account
MANAGEMENT FEES 1 2 3 4 5	$12	$25	$125	$250	Open an Account

Compare Betterment Vs Acorns Account Minimums: Betterment has a $100,000 minimum for its Premium service but you can get started with both services at their basic level at no cost.

Tax Loss Harvesting

Betterment vs Acorns

Tax loss harvesting is designed to reduce capital gains taxes by offsetting losses from losing investments with gains from winning investments. Betterment offers free automatic tax-loss harvesting assistance to clients. Acorns does not provide tax-loss harvesting services at this time.

When stock markets fall, it is easy to succumb to fear and sell your investments. Betterment realizes this and its user interface emphasizes that such declines are opportunities to harvest tax losses.

These tax losses can boost annual average returns and have a positive effect on portfolio value over time.

For example, if you have a portfolio with $200,000 that has accumulated tax losses of say $20,000 over a few years, the tax deduction you enjoy might ultimately result in say $6,000 of investable assets.

Invest that $6,000 at a rate of 8% annually and it has the potential to produce on average $480 of additional earnings that would otherwise have been lost had you not harvested any tax losses.

When you compare the potential $480 of additional annual earnings with the fees of 0.25% on the Betterment Digital service, which amount to $500 on a $200,000 portfolio, you can see that tax-loss harvesting can go a long way towards covering your annual fees.

Over the long-term the savings from tax-loss harvesting have the potential to pay the fees entirely!

TAX-COORDINATED STRATEGY

Tax loss harvesting is one way to create a tax-efficient portfolio.

If you have taxable and retirement accounts, a tax-coordinated strategy that allocates assets optimally to minimize overall taxes is another smart way to build a tax-advantaged investing strategy.

Betterment automatically builds a tax-coordinated strategy for clients.

Acorns does not offer tax-loss harvesting services at this time like other robo-advisors.

Acorns vs Betterment: Tax Loss Harvesting? Betterment wins easily in this category by providing tax-loss harvesting assistance to reduce capital gains taxes by harvesting losing investments to offset profits from winning investments. It also provides a tax-coordinated strategy to optimally allocate assets between tax-advantaged retirement accounts and taxable accounts.

Human Financial Advisors

Acorns vs Betterment

Betterment offers a hybrid robo-advisor service that combines automated investment management with human advice. Acorns has no equivalent human dimension to its service at this time.

Neither Acorns nor Betterment makes human advice available to clients for basic service offerings. However, Betterment does cater to clients who want access to CFP professionals via its higher tier service, Betterment Premium.

You will need at least $100,000 to get access to human financial advisors at Betterment, a high hurdle compared to the minimum thresholds of some other robo-advisors, such as Vanguard Personal Advisory Services, which has a $50,000 minimum.

Acorns does not provide a human component to its technology-powered investment management services at this time.

Acorns Vs Betterment: Which is Better for Human Financial Advisors? Betterment comes out ahead on providing human assistance to clients via higher tier services. Acorns has no equivalent human financial advice services.

Automated Retirement Planning

Acorns vs Betterment

Betterment makes it easy to set financial goals, sweep unused cash from checking accounts into investment accounts and target retirement goals. Acorns helps you build a nice investment account, but because the amounts invested from each transaction are small, the overall nest-egg size you can build is unlikely to be sufficient to reach the level needed to sustain retirement spending.

Acorns Retirement Planning

If you find it hard to squirrel away those nuts you know you will need for winter time or retirement, Acorns and Betterment make it easy for you, albeit in slightly different ways.

After you link your credit and debit cards, the Acorns app can help you effortlessly save a little each time you buy something by rounding up your loose change to the nearest dollar and investing it.

You don’t have to think about putting away a little extra each month, Acorns does it automatically for you. This is a very nice feature for people who struggle to save.

Plus, college students and beginner investors without much spare change to invest will hardly notice the extra pennies, dimes and quarters swept into their investment accounts one transaction at a time.

Betterment Retirement Planning

Betterment has a feature called Smart Deposit, which does something similar.

Instead of investing the rounded-up loose change from each transaction, Betterment invites you to set a monthly amount to cover standard expenses.

Above that threshold, unused cash in your checking account is swept into an investment account designed to target financial goals you have targeted.

For example, if your financial goals include saving for a car, a new home, or a vacation, Betterment lets you sweep cash into those bucket accounts easily.

The amounts you can invest at Betterment tend to be larger so while Acorns helps you to build a nest-egg, it may not be large enough over time to meet your retirement needs.

It’s certainly beneficial and so an Acorns account can be used in conjunction with a Betterment account, which is better structured to help you achieve your financial goals and retirement objectives.

Automated Retirement Planning: Should You Choose Acorns Or Betterment? Betterment helps you save unused cash with its Smart Deposit feature that sweeps unused cash into dedicated investment accounts. Acorns automatically invests loose change that is rounded-up with each purchase transaction you make. Because the amounts invested at Acorns are smaller, Betterment is more likely to help you reach your financial goals.

>> Compare Betterment Vs M1 Finance

Account Types

Betterment vs Acorns

Betterment supports an extensive range of taxable and retirement account types, including Trusts, IRAs, Rollover IRAs, SEP IRAs, and Roth IRAs.

Betterment features an extensive range of account types, including:

• Individual and joint non-retirement
• Traditional IRA
• Roth IRA
• SEP IRA
• Rollover IRA
• Trusts

By contrast, Acorns will only cater to clients with taxable accounts.

These are fine for beginner investors and college students. More sophisticated investors with more complex financial situations who have multiple accounts will find Betterment superior.

Account Type
Individual Non-retirement	YES	YES
Joint Non-retirement	YES	NO
Roth IRA	YES	NO
Traditional IRA	YES	NO
Rollover IRA	YES	NO
Trusts	YES	NO
Custodial Accounts	YES	NO
SEP IRA	YES	NO
529 Plans	NO	NO
401(k)	NO (but, will advise)	NO

Asset Classes

Betterment vs Acorns

Betterment supports up to 12 asset classes, which compares favorably to Acorns, which supports ETFs from 6 asset classes.

Betterment also offers a highly transparent guide on how it invests your money, called Our Investment Selection Methodology. This guide has interactive charts that make it easy to understand precisely how your funds are allocated by asset class, geography, and weighting.

Acorns investment methodology was supported by Dr. Harry Markowitz, who is the Nobel-prize winning father of Modern Portfolio Theory, which virtually every robo-advisor relies on to invest client funds.

Betterment Vs Acorns: Asset Class: Overall, Betterment wins this category with a broader asset class selection, though Acorns gets plaudits for having Dr. Harry Markowitz as an ally.

Overall Winner

Betterment vs Acorns

Overall, Betterment is the better solution if you had to choose just one robo-advisor. However, Acorns and Betterment can be used together.

Which Robo-Advisor Is Best For You: Acorns or Betterment?

Acorns and Betterment have their own pros and cons. For the most part, young people and new investors should check out Acorns. Experienced investors with more money should take a close look at Betterment to decide whether it has the services they want.

Both offer low-fee automated investing solutions that cater to slightly different financial goals and audiences. Beginner investors, college students and individuals who struggle to save should carefully consider Acorns, which makes it easy to round-up each debit and credit card purchase to the nearest dollar and invest the loose change.

Betterment is a more comprehensive robo-advisor service that caters to the taxable accounts Acorns supports, as well as retirement accounts and trusts. Tax-loss harvesting and tax-coordinated strategies are available at Betterment, though not at Acorns. And Betterment has a broader range of asset class to support diversified client portfolios.

It is unlikely that Acorns nest-eggs will grow sufficiently large based on the low dollar amounts invested be able to sustain retirement spending, but together with Betterment the two services offer a nice complement to each other.

Unlike some other robo-advisors where the decision is binary, Acorns vs Betterment, is more like Acorns + Betterment. You can use both, but if you had to only pick one, Betterment has more bells and whistles.

Open a Betterment Account Open an Acorns Account

The article Acorns vs Betterment Review 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

Robo-advisors have become popular in recent years by offering a compelling value proposition when compared to traditional financial advisors.

Most traditional financial advisors charge advisory fees of over 1% for managing assets. But what most clients don’t realize is those advisory fees are just one of the many fees they pay.

Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, which feature in many client portfolios, also charge fees. Plus, many advisors pass on brokerage fees to clients when transactions are made to buy and sell.

When clients add up management fees, mutual fund expense ratios, brokerage fees and any other fees, such as hourly consulting fees, the total frequently exceeds 1.5% of assets managed each year.

Over time, this high fee hinders account growth. And that’s where robo-advisors can add value, by delivering a similar service at much lower cost.

Which Robo-Advisors Have Low Fees?

In addition to having low-fee services, Wealthfront offers automated tax-loss harvesting which it claims can boost annual returns by as much as 2%. Betterment rivals Wealthfront as an industry leader, and has a low-fee service plus offers access to human advice – Wealthfront does not.

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Tax-loss harvesting expertise
• Management fee
  $0 for first $10,000 0.25% thereafter
• Account Minimum
  $500
• Get Started Now

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Best Overall
• Management fee
  0.25% – 0.40%
• Account Minimum
  Starting at $0
• Open an Account

Betterment

In addition to low fees, Betterment stands out from other robo-advisors with an overall roboadvisor platform that is hard to match because it includes:

1. Tax loss harvesting
2. Access to human advice
3. Tax-coordinated portfolios
4. Retirement calculators
5. Socially responsible portfolios

Wealthfront

Wealthfront offers free account management up to $10,000 and charges a management fee of 0.25% thereafter.
It has a slightly low account balance minimum of just $500 though Betterment eclipses it by allowing clients sign up without imposing an account minimum.
Wealthfront shines brightest when it comes to tax-loss harvesting.

This free service automatically seeks to create more tax-efficient portfolios, which enhance returns by as much as 2% annually according to Wealthfront.

Wealthfront creates tax-optimized portfolios using a method called Direct Indexing on accounts over $100,000 by purchasing up to 1,001 individual securities and taking advantage of individual tax-loss harvesting opportunities.

Which Robo-Advisors
Charge No Fees?

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and WiseBanyan have pioneered a no-management fee model. Schwab provides account management free but primarily selects its own proprietary Schwab funds for client portfolios and makes money from their expense ratios. WiseBanyan is truly free with no account management, custodial, trading or hidden fees but add-on optional services, such as tax-loss harvesting, are premium services which do incur charges.

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Free Portfolio Management
• Management Fee
  $0
• Account Minimum
  $5,000
• Open an Account

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Free Portfolio Management
• Management Fee
  0.0%
• Account Minimum
  $0
• Open an Account

SoFi

SoFi is best known as a student lender but you may not know that it also has a free wealth management division.

If you’ve paid down most of your student or graduate loans and already saved with SoFi, investing in your future via its free robo-advisor is the next obvious step.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

For cost-conscious investors looking for a low-cost automated portfolio management solution, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and WiseBanyan stand out among robo-advisor firms.

Schwab is the runaway leader among robo-advisors when it comes to assets under management; they were the first robo-advisor to manage over $10 billion.

Users flocked to Schwab because it figured out how to offer portfolio management without charging account management fees.

Instead, Schwab selects its own proprietary Schwab funds for client portfolios and makes money from their expense ratios, which range from 0.08% to 0.24%.

WiseBanyan

WiseBanyan claims to be “the world’s first free financial advisor” and delivers on its claim by charging no management fees, no custodial fees, no trading fees and no hidden fees for its basic, automated portfolio management service.

Clients are billed up to 0.25% of assets under management, capped at $20 monthly, for optional products and services, such as tax-loss harvesting.

Best Robo-Advisors For Fee Transparency

Management fees are just one of the fees incurred by clients of portfolio management companies. The funds which make up your portfolio also have fees which are called investment expenses. These fees need to be added to management fees to arrive at the total fees charged, assuming custodial and brokerage or transaction fees are negligible.

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Investment expenses included in management fee
• Management fee
  0.35%
• Account Minimum
  $10
• Get Started Now

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Standout Feature
  Low Expense Ratios for their ETFs and funds
• Commissions
  $2 to $20 per trade
• Account Minimum
  $0
• Open an Account

FidelityGo

Fidelity Go offers a more attractive fee schedule than meets the eye at first glance.

While most casual observers will compare Fidelity Go’s fee of 0.35% for retirement accounts and 0.45% for taxable accounts with what appears to be lower fees at other robo-advisors, the eagle-eyed observer will spot that Fidelity Go includes investment expenses in its overall % figure.

So while other robo-advisors may quote a management fee of 0.25%, the total fees clients pay may be quite a bit higher when investment expenses are included, making Fidelity Go better value overall.

Vanguard Personal Advisor Services

Vanguard Personal Advisor Services is almost as hard to beat on overall fees as Fidelity Go. Vanguard charges just 0.30% but only investors with at least $50,000 can sign up to Vanguard’s robo-advisory service.

What makes Vanguard even more attractive is that it connects clients with more than $500,000 to live financial advisors too.

Robo-Advisors With Add-On Fees

Some robo-advisors have added fees in addition to the service fees charged for portfolio management.

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Add-on Fees
  Commissions starting at $7.95
• Management fee
  0.50%
• Account Minimum
  $10,000
• Open an Account

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
• Add-on Fees
  Trade fees > $50 per portfolio rebalance
• Management fee
  0.50%
• Account Minimum
  $100,000
• Open an Account

Future Advisor

A few robo-advisors charge additional service fees in addition to portfolio management fees. Among robo-advisors, FutureAdvisor has one of the higher fee schedules of 0.50% annually.

In addition to those fees, FutureAdvisor passes on transaction fees of between $7.95 – $24 per trade to clients. Most funds used in its portfolios are commission-free but those that aren’t are pricey to enter and exit.

Rebalance IRA

Rebalance IRA has perhaps the highest account balance hurdle of all robo-advisors. To open an account requires a minimum $100,000.

Once or twice a year Rebalance IRA rebalances client portfolios and trade fees, which can range from $50 to $70, to enter and exit positions are passed on to clients.

Robo-Advisors Fee Comparison By Account Balance

Robo-Advisor	$5,000	$10,000	$50,000	$100,000	Open Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.0%	0.0%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.35%	0.35%	0.35%	0.35%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	0.25%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	NA	NA	0.30%	0.30%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	NA	0.50%	0.50%	0.50%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	NA	NA	NA	0.50%	Open an Account
REVIEW 1 2 3 4 5	NA	NA	NA	0.89%	Open an Account

Discover the Best Robo Advisors

The article Best Robo Advisors For Fees 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

Acorns is a mobile app that combines automatic saving with investment management. It links to your credit cards and debit cards so that each time you buy something the “loose change” is rounded up to the nearest dollar and invested on your behalf.

The investment account is managed by a computer algorithm similar to a robo-advisor. And the whole process from start to finish requires no effort on the part of users (after signing up!).

It is free for college students for up to 4 years, and costs just $1 per month for standard accounts or $2 per month for retirement accounts – unless you have a balance of $5,000 or more in which case an annual 0.25% management fee applies.

Acorns App

ACORNS SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 4.5 out of 5 stars	Management Fee (up to first $5,000): $1 monthly Management Fee (above $5,000): 0.25% Acorns Deal: Free to college students for up to 4 years Get Started via Acorns secure site

Is Acorns Right For You?

College Students

As long as you have a .edu email address, Acorns is 100% free to use for up to 4 years.

It is an ideal way to squirrel away a few nuts without having to think about where to invest or how to invest, especially at a time when money may already be tight.

Fee-Savvy Investors

It’s hard to argue that $1 per month is particularly expensive when you factor in all the Acorns app can do: save and invest automatically on your behalf.

Nevertheless, if you have just $20 invested and $12 disappears over the course of the year to management fees, it’s obviously a bad deal!

But once you have a few thousand dollars invested the fees become very reasonable, and especially so when you have $5,000 or more at which time the flat monthly fee transitions to an annual percentage fee on assets.

Hands-Off Investors

Investors who want to take control over their money and how it is invested would do better a brokerage firm like thinkorswim or tastyworks, which hands responsibility for investment selection to clients.

But for hands-off investors who prefer to avoid the hassle of picking stocks or ETFs, Acorns is a match.

Every time you buy something, whether at a grocery store or gas station, the spare change is swept into an investment account and allocated to a diverse portfolio of low cost exchange-traded funds.

Acorns Features

Acorns Fees

Acorns pricing is rock bottom. For taxable accounts, a buck monthly is hard to beat. And for retirement accounts, called Acorns Later, two bucks a month is charged up to the first $5,000.

Account balances of $5,000 and above are subject to a 0.25% fee, which is very much line with the management fees applied by Betterment, Ellevest, and other top robo-advisors.

And Acorns earns high marks for providing its service free to college students who have a .edu email address.

Acorns Vs Stash: Fees

With respect to fees, Acorns is more attractive than its competitor Stash, which also charges $1 monthly but doesn’t automate and manage investments.

If you compare Acorns vs Robinhood, which charges no commissions then Acorns loses out on price. But Robinhood won’t automate saving money and requires clients to pick stocks so it’s more of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Open an Acorns Account

Acorns Investment Strategy

Acorns investment strategy is rooted in Nobel-prize winning academic research, called Modern Portfolio Theory.

Dr. Harry Markowitz, the father of Modern Portfolio Theory, and Nobel prize winner is on the Acorns board.

What Is Modern Portfolio Theory?

The big idea behind Modern Portfolio Theory is to diversify an investment portfolio across asset classes in order to maximize returns for a given level of risk.

Although everyone would love to “beat the market”, few have the skill, luck or timing needed to do so consistently. Investing in a diverse group of exchange-traded funds is widely accepted as a smart way to invest for non-professional investors.

Low-cost iShares and Vanguard exchange-traded funds up to seven asset classes are available, including:

• Corporate bonds
• Government bonds
• Real estate
• Large-cap stocks
• Small-cap stocks
• Emerging markets
• International Large-cap stocks

How Acorns Works

Acorns links to your bank account and sweeps ‘rounded-up’ cash amounts from transactions into an investment account, which is invested in a diversified portfolio aligned with your risk tolerance and financial goals.

Sophisticated investors can invest a lump-sum amount as well as set up recurring deposits on a regular schedule.

Step-by-Step

First begin by connecting your bank checking account to what’s called your Round-up account.

Next, you’ll be prompted to set up an investment account that has one of the following financial goals:

• General
• Long-term investment
• Short-term investment
• Children
• Major purchase

Your investment account will be invested according to the most appropriate risk level for your objectives. It will fall into the following categories:

• Aggressive
• Moderately aggressive
• Moderate
• Moderately conservative
• Conservative

Once you’re setup is complete, you can start using Acorns.

Acorns Example

Let’s say you pay for a coffee that costs $3.24, the rounded-up amount, $0.76, is added to what’s called your Round-Up balance.

Once your Round-Up balance has at least $5 in it, the money will be swept from your bank account into your Acorns investment account.

You can customize which transactions you want selected for your Round-Up account or choose the automatic setting which counts all eligible transactions.

It’s also possible to set up recurring deposits on a regular schedule each day, week or month.

And if you prefer, you can invest a lump sum amount of $20,000 or $30,000 too.

Acorns Pros and Cons

Acorns Fees & Investment Minimums

Acorns has low expense ratios, low management fees on amounts over $5,000 and hidden fees are not a concern when transferring or closing an account.

Acorns Account Types

A drawback of Acorns is that only taxable accounts are supported at this time. No IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts are supported.

Acorns Tax Strategy

While free rebalancing is supported, tax-loss harvesting is not a feature Acorns provides. Investors who care about automated tax-loss harvesting should consider other alternatives, such as Wealthfront.

Is Acorns Safe?

Data transfers are encrypted to ensure your money is protected using the highest security protocols.

Acorns Review Summary

Acorns makes it easy to save and invest automatically. Spare change from ordinary transactions can add up to produce a handsome nest-egg.

The low management fees, especially on large account balances, low investment minimums, top notch education in-app, and free account balancing combine to make Acorns one of the best investment apps period.

If you struggle to save, Acorns offers a way to build an investment portfolio effortlessly and almost invisibly.

Get Excited By Acorns!

The article Acorns Review 2020 – Invest Spare Change Automatically! was originally posted on Investormint

The Stash Invest app is aimed at investors who want control over their portfolio holdings and beginners who are eager to learn more about the nuts and bolts of investing.

As you will see in this Stash review, the investment app does not actually manage your money automatically as robo-advisors do. Instead, it simplifies the process of picking investments by bundling them into themes, such as Clean and Green, so it’s intuitive to know where your money is allocated.

Whether you are investing after-tax money in a standard account or retirement funds for the future, Stash can take care of you for a flat monthly rate until your account balance grows.

Stash Review Spotlight

STASH SPOTLIGHT
InvestorMint Rating 1 2 3 4 5 3.5 out of 5 stars	Fee: $1 per month for accounts up to $5,000 Fee: 0.25% annually for accounts of $5,000 and above Investment Minimum: $5 Get Started via Stash secure site

Is The Stash App Right For You?

Stash simplifies investment selection by renaming exchange-traded funds and mutual funds to be more intuitive.

Thematic Investing

Normally, stock market beginners would need to learn financial jargon and figure out which ETFs and fund families match their financial goals.

However, investment app Stash shortcuts the learning curve by bundling funds under easy-to-understand headings, like Internet Titans, Blue Chips, and Social Media Mania.

This “thematic” approach makes it much easier for stock market beginners to know where money is invested.

Education Galore

The Stash mobile app includes a wealth of educational resources for beginners to get up to speed. So, while it won’t manage your money for you, it will empower you to take control of your investment picks.

Fee-Free For Under-25s

A nice perk for users under 25 years old is Stash’s no-fee policy. You will still pay expense ratios, which are charged at the fund level.

The Stash app is best for:

• Stock market beginners
• Investors who wish to align their investment dollars with their values
• Users under the age of 25 who wish to set up retirement accounts
• Investors who want feedback on optimizing portfolio composition
• Investors wishing to learn how to build diversified portfolios

Stash App Features

How Much Are Stash Fees?

Stash fees are tiered based on assets invested with $5,000 as the cutoff level which triggers a change from a flat monthly fee to a % charge of assets invested.

• $1-$2 per month for assets up to $5,000 (taxable/retirement)
• 0.25% annually for assets of $5,000 or more

Although $1 per month might seem small at first glance, it translates to a 0.60% annual charge on a $2,000 account size. Compared to Ellevest and other leading robo-advisors this figure is high!

Once your account balance climbs to $5,000 or more, the fees are in line with the charges applied by leading robo-advisors to manage assets. However, Stash does not actually manage your money so arguably robo-advisors provide more value for the same expense.

The Stash Invest team might argue that robo-advisors don’t provide nearly as much educational content and Stash users prefer control over their portfolios whereas robo-advisor clients prefer a hands-off user experience.

Open a Stash Account

Stash Investment Themes

Stash makes it simple for investors to know where they are investing their by labeling exchange-traded funds descriptively.

American Innovators includes tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Cisco.

Clean and Green allows investors exposure to renewable energy companies via the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF.

Equality Works features the Workplace Equity Portfolio ETF that comprises companies supporting equal rights for members of the LGBT community.

Other thematic investments include Park My Cash, Blue Chips, Conservative Mix, Aggressive Mix, and All That Glitters, which provides exposure to gold, silver, palladium and platinum.

The thematic approach to investing is similar to Motif, which also provides users exposure to baskets of stocks and ETFs that are part of a single theme.

Unlike Motif, which requires greater user involvement, Stash simply renames ETFs to make it intuitive to know where your money is invested.

Stash Tools

Stash is both an educational and social investing tool that allows users learn how to build portfolios and share investment selections with their networks, including those on Facebook.

The Stash app is essentially a tool that makes it easy for investors to learn as they go. Stash defines financial terms and provides descriptive content to easily explain concepts in an easy-to-user interface.

Stash also allows users to engage their social networks by linking to contacts and sharing investment selections while maintaining privacy of unique data, such as portfolio value and amounts invested.

Users are encouraged to invest more money by simply moving sliders within the app that manages monthly deposit levels, projected investment gains and growth opportunities.

You can easily view how depositing money each month as well as changes in monthly performance can affect the long-term value of your account after 1, 5 and 10 years.

Is Stash Safe?

Stash makes it easy to connect to a bank account using the highest level security protocols.

Keep in mind that fees are withdrawn from that linked bank account not the invested portfolio.

This is less of an issue for those with account sizes under $5,000 (who are charged $1 per month) but more so for those with account sizes of $5,000 and above, who are charged 0.25% of assets.

On a $100,000 portfolio, fees of 0.25% annually amount to $250 so bank account balances will experience consistent fee drawdowns which poses a risk of overdraft to accounts with low balances.

Stash Pros and Cons

Stash is ideal for beginner investors as well as those wanting to learn how to build a portfolio that is suitable for their risk and reward goals. 

Stash Fees & Minimums

Stash has a low account minimum of $5 but high expense ratios compared to many robo-advisors. 

Stash Account Types

Stash is limited in the accounts it supports, currently no retirement accounts and only taxable brokerage accounts.

Stash App Review Summary

Stash is an excellent choice for beginner investors keen to take control of their nest-eggs over time and wanting a helping hand at the start to learn how to build a diversified portfolio, assess expense ratios, and don’t mind paying a premium to accelerate their learning journey.

For hands-off investors who are less keen on the proactive or self-directed approach, robo-advisor firms may be a better choice.

Open a Stash Account

The article Stash Review 2020 – Start Investing With Just $5! was originally posted on Investormint