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.

https://youtu.be/A-9II-zBq1k

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.

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Free Retirement Guide: Grow Your Wealth Automatically

The article Betterment Review 2021 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

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

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• 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
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• 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

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• Standout Feature
  Free Portfolio Management
• Management Fee
  $0
• Account Minimum
  $5,000
• Open an Account

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
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• 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
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• Standout Feature
  Investment expenses included in management fee
• Management fee
  0.35%
• Account Minimum
  $10
• Get Started Now

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
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• 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

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• Add-on Fees
  Commissions starting at $7.95
• Management fee
  0.50%
• Account Minimum
  $10,000
• Open an Account

• InvestorMint Rating

  • 1
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• 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

The top tier robo-advisor firms, Personal Capital, Betterment, and Wealthfront, did so well pioneering diversified, tax-efficient portfolios regularly rebalanced by technology-powered algorithms at low cost that a slew of copycats quickly emerged. Renowned firms like Schwab and Vanguard launched their own robo-advisory spinoffs, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, respectively.

Even firms that traditionally focused elsewhere have joined the fray. SoFi, for example, established its reputation as a top tier lender, and launched a wealth management division to compete with robo-advisor firms. WiseBanyan innovated with a business model that provide automated portfolio management at no cost. Among the many robo-advisors, which offer the most competitive fees, best service, and best access to human advisors? We conducted independent research and share our findings below.

Best Robo-Advisors For Fees

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and SoFi offer free and very low management fees, respectively, because their core businesses allow them make money in ways that pure robo-advisory firms cannot; SoFi is primarily a lender and so can offer low-cost, high-touch wealth management because its core business generates the bulk of revenues while Schwab makes money from the investment expenses charged by Schwab funds that make up client portfolios.

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• Standout Feature
  Free Portfolio Management
• Management Fee
  $0
• Account Minimum
  $5,000
• Open an Account

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• Standout Feature
  High Value Service at Low Cost
• Management fee
  0.0%
• Account Minimum
  $100
• Get Started Now

Although Betterment and Wealthfront pioneered the robo-advisory business model and offer compelling value propositions with low fees, tax-loss harvesting, and automatic rebalancing, Schwab has run away as the leader among consumers when it comes to assets under management; it was the first robo-advisor to manage over $10 billion. Schwab charges no management fees, offers the most extensive range of asset classes resulting in perhaps the most diversified portfolios among robo-advisory firms, and has a mobile app that is about as good as it gets.

SoFi may not yet be a household name when it comes to robo-advisory firms but if it applies its community-oriented, customer-focused model as well to wealth management as it has to lending, it soon will be. SoFi has a low $500 account minimum, and charges just 0.25% for a high level of service that includes more than just technology-powered portfolio management but access to live advisors too.

Schwab and SoFi both make money in innovative ways that allow them to compete fiercely on price with rivals, creating a win for consumers. Unlike pure robo-advisors that make money exclusively from managing portfolios, Schwab makes money from investment expenses charged to clients on funds held, a feature few robo-advisory firms can offer, other than perhaps Vanguard. And SoFi makes money from lending to borrowers, so it can offer wealth management with a highly personalized service with access to human financial advisors at low cost.

Best Robo-Advisors For Live Financial Advisors

Investors looking for a more personal touch beyond pure robo-advisory solutions may consider Personal Capital and Vanguard Personal Advisory Services, both of whom connect clients to human financial advisors.

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• Standout Feature
  Dedicated financial advisor assigned to each client
• Management fee
  0.49% - 0.89%
• Account Minimum
  $100,000
• Get Started Now

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• Standout Feature
  Live advisors accessible
• Management fee
  0.30%
• Account Minimum
  $50,000
• Open an Account

Personal Capital offers the best combination of robo-advisory services with dedicated financial advisors in our view because unlike most robo-advisors who provide clients no access to financial advisors, Personal Capital assigns a dedicated human financial advisor to each client. Clients investing over $100,000 are assigned two dedicated financial advisors.</p?

Although the minimum account balance of $100,000 at Personal Capital is higher than many robo-advisory firms, it’s low relative to the $500,000 account balance needed to get access to a dedicated financial advisor at Vanguard.

Vanguard does provide clients access to a team of financial advisors for amounts invested over $50,000, which is its account minimum.

Best Robo-Advisors For IRA Retirement Accounts

Fidelity Go and Betterment earn top marks for servicing IRA account holders. Fidelity makes it easy to rollover 401(k) accounts into IRA accounts and Betterment facilitates linking to third-party accounts to provide a holistic view of all financial accounts, which allows for more informed decision-making on IRA portfolio composition.

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• Standout Feature
  Investment expenses included in management fee
• Management fee
  0.35%
• Account Minimum
  $10
• Get Started Now

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• Standout Feature
  Best Overall
• Management fee
  0.25% – 0.40%
• Account Minimum
  Starting at $0
• Open an Account

Fidelity brokerage arm oversees more than $2 Trillion. Fidelity’s deep expertise overseeing retirement plans translates to Fidelity Go where rolling over assets from a 401(k) to an IRA is made simple.

Betterment serves IRA retirement account investors by providing them a holistic view of their entire financial situation. Rather than analyzing an isolated IRA portfolio independent of other assets, Betterment allows users to link third-party financial accounts as part of its RetireGuide service; this nudges clients to save more and provides a holistic view of all accounts together which allows for more insightful and informed investment decision-making.

Best Robo-Advisors For Tax-Loss Harvesting

Tax-loss harvesting is a feature offered by many robo-advisors that identifies assets that are in the red and can be sold to offset assets that are in the black, which if otherwise sold alone could increase tax liabilities.

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• Standout Feature
  Tax-loss harvesting expertise
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  $0 for first $10,000 0.25% thereafter
• Account Minimum
  $500
• Get Started Now

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• Standout Feature
  Dedicated financial advisor assigned to each client
• Management fee
  0.49% - 0.89%
• Account Minimum
  $100,000
• Get Started Now

Many investors hire a financial advisor to invest savings and hire a tax preparer for year-end tax filings and tax optimization. Financial advisors will often focus on maximizing portfolio returns without due consideration to tax consequences of buy and sell transactions, so investors often discover too late that their portfolios are not optimized for tax-efficient growth and returns.

Wealthfront strives to maximize not simply returns but the all-important after-tax returns. Wealthfront distinguishes itself many other robo-advisors by offering a tax-loss harvesting service called Direct Indexing whereby individual securities as opposed to exchange-traded funds are purchased. By purchasing up to 1,001 individual securities versus a single ETF or an index fund, Wealthfront can deliver tax-optimized portfolios better than many rivals.

Personal Capital has a best-in-class mobile app that allows users, even those who have not signed up for its financial advisory service, to connect non-Personal Capital bank, credit card and investment accounts to view budgeting, spending, cash flow and net worth. For advisory clients, Personal Capital’s robo-advisory service automatically optimizes for tax considerations via a tax-loss harvesting strategy.

Best Overall Best Robo-Advisors

Robo-Advisor	Management Fee	Account Minimum	Rating	Best for	Open Account
	0.25%-0.40%	$0	1 2 3 4 5	IRAs & Retirement Goals Tracking	Get Started
	0.49%-0.89%	$100,000	1 2 3 4 5	Dedicated Financial Advisors	Get Started
	0.25%	$500	1 2 3 4 5	Tax-optimized Investing	Get Started
	Free	$5,000	1 2 3 4 5	No Management Fee	Get Started
	0.35% (incl. Investment expenses)	$5,000	1 2 3 4 5	Retirement Focused Investors	Get Started
	0.30%	$50,000	1 2 3 4 5	Access to Live Advisors	Get Started
	0.50%	$10,000	1 2 3 4 5	401(k)s	Get Started
	0.25%	$500	1 2 3 4 5	Low Cost & Live Advisors	Get Started

The article Best Robo Advisors 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

As a new trader or investor, low transaction costs and fast execution speeds are two of the most important criteria to screen for when evaluating online stock brokers. A strong emphasis on customer support, an intuitive easy-to-use platform and extensive educational resources are especially valuable.

Overall Best Online Stock Brokers For New Traders

Stocks Brokers offering comprehensive educational resources and relatively low commissions are Charles Schwab.

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  Easy-to-Use, Powerful Trading Platform
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  Stocks: $6.95 per trade
• Account Balance Minimum
  $1,000
• Open an Account

Choosing among the best online stock brokers means ranking brokers among the most important characteristics for new traders or investors:

• Knowledge Bank or Educational Content and Resources
• Customer Support to assist in order execution and general queries
• Affordable transaction costs
• Broad range of investments, including Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, Options, Futures & Forex

Both Charles Schwab offer a diverse range of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Exchange-traded funds are index funds that offer exposure to various sectors, such as healthcare, finance, technology, currencies, and much more. Some ETFs are commission-free and some mutual funds have no transaction fees. If you are unsure, customer support can assist you in finding out.

Schwab provides an ETF Portfolio Builder tool which examines risk tolerance and creates a diversified ETF portfolio that is customized to each individual’s reward and risk preferences.

Schwab encourages investors to grow their portfolios steadily over time by waiving account minimums for monthly automatic deposits over $100.

Overall Best Online Stock Brokers When Opening An Account

Many brokers require a minimum amount before an account may be opened. These online stock brokers have no minimum balance requirement to open an account.

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  Low Account Balance Minimum
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  Stocks: $6.95 per trade
• Account Balance Minimum
  $0
• Open an Account

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  Excellent Customer Support
• Commissions
  Stocks: $6.95 per trade
• Account Balance Minimum
  $500
• Open an Account

MerrillEdge offers a compelling value proposition to mutual fund investors, providing over 5,000 no-transaction fee funds. E*Trade offers approximately 1,300 no-transaction fee mutual funds by comparison.

For beginners, Merrill Edge and E*Trade come top of the list. Merrill is also more attractive due to it being cheaper by $3 per trade relative to ETrade. Plus, Merrill charges $49.95 to close accounts versus $60 at E*Trade.

Merrill also stands out for its heightened customer service focus with more than 2,000 offline outlets for customers to visit and meet face-to-face with Merrill Edge Financial Solutions Advisors.

For a taxable, non-qualified, account, ETrade does have a minimum $500 balance requirement, but for a qualified account, such as an IRA, the requirement is $0.

Other online stock brokers with no minimum deposit requirements, include:

• OptionsHouse
• Firstrade
• TradeKing
• Capital One Investing

Best Online Stock Brokers for Customer Service

Brokers offering phone, online chat, and in-person customer support are vital to new traders and investors. Below is a list of online stock brokers who excel at customer support.

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  Scottrade ELITE desktop-based platform
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  Stocks: $6.95 per trade; Options: $6.95 + $0.70 per contract
• Account Minimum
  $2,500 for brokerage; $0 for IRAs
• Get Started Now

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  Research & Tools
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  $7.95 per trade
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  $2,500 brokerage; $0 IRA
• Open an Account

ScottTrade and Fidelity stand out from their online stock broker peers by having an offline presence too. Each of their websites has information on where you can find the nearest local branch where you can speak to someone in person.

With increased customer service comes increased cost, and both ScottTrade and Fidelity have relatively high minimum account requirements for non-qualified accounts.

Their heightened focus on customer service extends to education, live webinars, virtual online chat features, and phone support.

Best Online Stock Brokers for Transaction Costs

Inactivity fees are one of the hidden expenses at many brokers. To avoid such hidden expenses and keep trading expenses low overall, consider the low-transaction cost brokers below.

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  Closing trades for Stocks & ETFs and Options are commission-free
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  $0 flat rate for stocks
• Account Balance Minimum
  $0
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  Zero Commission Trading
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  Stocks, ETFs, Crypto: $0
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  $0
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Robinhood has limited educational tools, screening analytics and research but the transaction costs cannot be beaten: $0 trade commissions, $0 account minimum and access to over 5,000 stocks and ETFs. Robinhood supports non-qualified, taxable accounts only.

TastyWorks is almost as compelling with just $5 stock opening trade. For more seasoned investors who wish to trade options, TastyWorks offers a compelling $0 commission on all closing trades. The charge for opening an options trade is just $1 per contract and for a futures opening trade it is $2.50 per contract.

Best Online Stock Brokers for Mutual Funds and ETFs

Brokers offering $0 transaction fees for mutual funds and low-cost ETFs are below.

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  Easy-to-Use, Powerful Trading Platform
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  Stocks: $6.95 per trade
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  $1,000
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  Low Expense Ratios for their ETFs and funds
• Commissions
  $2 to $20 per trade
• Account Minimum
  $0
• Open an Account

Vanguard made its reputation as a provider of low-cost mutual funds while Schwab pioneered affordable online investing. Vanguard is the default choice for many beginner investors but both Schwab and Vanguard have their merits. Both Vanguard and Schwab offer zero commission ETFs and zero commission mutual funds.

Typically, only mutual funds on a stock brokers list are available for trading with that broker. If you find a mutual fund that is not on the list, some brokers will not add it, and others like Schwab may charge a hefty fee, as high as $76.

Schwab offers its Mutual Fund OneSource Platform to investors with capital  amounts as low as $100. Schwab also offers a choice of about 200 commission-free ETFs. The per trade rate at Schwab is $4.95.

Vanguard has a high hurdle of $1,000 to invest in many of its funds. Commission-based ETFs will cost money at the rate of $7 per first 25 trades and $20 thereafter for balances under $50k. Vanguard has no minimum requirement to open an account and offers over 50 commission-free ETFs, fewer than Schwab.

The article Best Online Stock Brokers For New Traders 2020 was originally posted on Investormint

Options trading can vary from simple strategies, such as Covered Calls to complex strategies, such as Ratio Put Backspreads, Iron Butterflies, and Combination Spreads. Some brokers offer platforms that facilitate order executions of options strategies but fail to understand the nuances and true risks of options trading strategies. For experienced options traders, the lack of understanding among brokers can translate to restrictive risk policies. We’ve narrowed the universe of brokers in this section to the shortlist who stand above their peers when it comes to options trading.

While it’s usually in the interests of the trader and the broker to lean towards more conservative than aggressive risk management, it’s best to select an options broker who fully understands the wide gamut of options strategies available. Beyond transaction costs, fast and accurate order execution and a deep understanding of options strategies are pivotal to selecting an options broker.

Overall Best Options Trading Brokers

These options brokers combine powerful platforms, tools, education, and order execution with competitive transaction costs.

For fast order execution, highly knowledgeable staff who can answer a broad range of options trading questions, extensive learning resources, highly flexible platforms customizable to specific options trading strategies and competitive costs, both thinkorswim® and tastyworks feature as the best overall options trading brokers.

For real-time quotes, accurate options chains that have been adjusted for splits and dividends, free options strategy tools, risk graphs and customizable screeners, thinkorswim® and tastyworks rate highly. Where thinkorswim® stands out is the broader range of tools; for advanced options traders, it’s hard to beat thinkorswim®.

The pricing at thinkorswim® is $6.95 + $0.75 per contract fee for internet transactions and $19.99 for options assignments and options exercises. tastyworks charges active traders $5 flat rate for stocks + $1.00 to buy options (all closing trades are commissions free).

Another important consideration for options traders is the cost of margin.

Best Low-Cost Options Brokers

These options brokers compete on price while still offering powerful trading platforms.

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  Closing trades for Stocks & ETFs and Options are commission-free
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  $0 flat rate for stocks
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  Flat Rate Pricing
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  Options: $3 plus $0.15 per contract
• Account Balance Minimum
  $500
• Open an Account

Base rates and confusing tiers are a thing of the past with TastyWorks. The fee to open an options trade is $1 per contract. All options trades incur a clearing fee of $0.10 per contract, but other than that TastyWorks has a $0 per contract commission cost on all closing trades.

If you prefer flat rate pricing, eOption is the best choice for an options broker. EOption charges a fixed base rate of $3 plus $0.15 per contract. Keep in mind that eOption does have an inactivity fee of $50 unless an account has been traded at least twice over the prior 12 month period or if the balance falls below $10,000. Platform and data fees can also add up, and at EOption they can rise above $200 monthly. The margin rates at eOptions are among the most competitive in the industry with a base rate of 5.50% up to $49,000 and as low as 3.00% for amounts over $1,000,000.

Best Options Trading Platforms & Tools

These brokers offer options traders powerful trading platforms at competitive prices.

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  Professional-grade Platform
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  Stocks: $5 per trade
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  $5,000
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TradeStation provides an award-winning trading platform with a plethora of tools for experienced options traders to design, test and analyze customized options trading strategies. The tools are powerful and not targeted to the somewhat inactive options trader. Instead, they target experienced, active and advanced options traders. TradeStation has an expensive monthly fee of $99.95, though it is waived for account balances north of $100,000 or for active traders who execute orders of at least 5,000 shares or 50 options contracts.

Best Options Trading Platforms for Research

These brokers offer options traders advanced research capabilities.

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  Easy-to-Use, Powerful Trading Platform
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  $1,000
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  Research & Tools
• Commissions
  $7.95 per trade
• Account Balance Minimum
  $2,500 brokerage; $0 IRA
• Open an Account

For options traders who don’t need the professional grade suite of tools and trading platform offered by competitors such as thinkorswim® yet are keen to perform in depth research prior to executing trades, Charles Schwab and Fidelity offer attractive solutions.

The options trading platform, owned by Schwab, has extensive research capabilities, particularly in its Toolbox, which includes its trademarked IdeaHub, Strategy Scan, Dragon, Trading Patterns and Pricer tools among other features. Schwab also provides beginners a platform called StreetSmart.com and StreetSmart Edge for advanced traders, as well as live and recorded webinars, and regular options market commentary.

Fidelity stands above its peers when it comes to research capability with world class offerings from providers such as S&P Capital IQ. The full suite of research at Fidelity is available to customers. Fidelity, along with Schwab, has physical locations too, which allow them host educational seminars and visit one-on-one with company representatives to better understand options trading.

The article Best Online Options Trading Brokers 2020 was originally posted on Investormint