Betterment Investing is best for hands-off investors who want to take advantage of professionally built, personalized ETF and cryptocurrency portfolios. One downside is that you'll need at least $100,000 for ongoing CFP guidance.
Betterment is merging with Ellevest, a woman-led financial planning platform, and will acquire its automated investing accounts in April.
Business Insider's personal finance team compared Betterment Investing to the best IRA accounts and the best robo-advisors. We found it an industry leader and named it to both lists.
Pros and Cons
Betterment Pros
- Transparent fee structure
- No minimum deposit requirement
- Expert-built curated portfolios
- Offers goal-based financial planning, tax-loss harvesting, and ESG portfolios
- Access to CFPs
Betterment Cons
- Annual fees between 0.25% and 0.40%, depending on the plan option
- Must have a premium plan to access human advisors
Open an Account
$0 to open, $10 to start investing ($100,000 for premium plan)
$4 per month (or 0.25%/year) for digital plan; 0.40%/ year for premium plan; 1%/year for crypto portfolios and 0.15% per crypto trade
- No minimum for standard investing account
- Goal-based planning, tax-loss harvesting, charitable giving, and socially responsible investing available
- Access to certified financial planners
- Mobile app with external account syncing options
- You'll have to pay to consult a human advisor, unless you have the premium plan
- $4 monthly fee (or 0.25% annual fee)
Betterment is best for hands-off investors who want to take advantage of professionally built, personalized ETF and cryptocurrency portfolios. The platform offers CFP access, so it could suit those in search of additional guidance from human advisors.
- Promotion: None at this time.
- App store rating: 4.8 iOS/4.7 Android
- Consider it if: You want access to robo-advice with multiple service levels.
Compare Betterment
Overview
Betterment is a comprehensive robo-advisor and user-friendly investment platform offering low-cost ETF-themed portfolio options and retirement accounts. With more than $55 billion in assets managed, Betterment is an affordable brokerage option for all kinds of investors to save toward long-term goals.
You can invest in any of Betterment's pre-built portfolios that consist of low-cost stock, bond, and crypto ETFs. You can even select a pre-built diversified portfolio to align with your goals, like paying for a wedding or buying a home. Betterment is also a proponent of socially responsible investing with various ESG portfolio options and strategies.
If you are an experienced investor, Betterment's Flexible portfolio option allows you to tweak your asset class weights, unlocking greater control.
Betterment isn't the best investment app for human advisor access unless you can afford the Betterment premium plan. To unlock premium benefits, you need a $100,000 minimum account.
Betterment teamed up with charitable-givings platform Daffy to expand its donation options. Investors can maximize charitable tax savings by donating low-cost ETFs through the Betterment platform.
Betterment has a rating of 4.8/5 on the Apple Store and 4.7/5 on Google Play.
Ways to Invest
Let's unpack how Betterment works.
Betterment Automated Portfolio Management
Similar to other robo-advisors like Streetbeat, Betterment brokerage accounts use computer algorithms to build and manage personalized portfolios. Its pricing plans are simple to follow. It offers two options:
- Betterment Digital: With a $0 minimum deposit requirement, unlock tax-loss harvesting, asset location, portfolio rebalancing, and dividend reinvesting. Plus, to maintain a healthy level of risk, Betterment automatically adjusts your portfolio allocation as you get closer to meeting your goals. This level also offers a range of portfolio options but doesn't include complimentary advisor access.
- Betterment Premium: You'll need at least $100,000 for the premium account, but you'll get access to all of the features the digital plan offers, in addition to unlimited one-on-one CFP guidance. Its CFPs also offer advice on other investments you hold outside of Betterment.
You can additionally invest toward specific goals with Betterment, such as paying for a wedding, saving toward future education, buying a home, or building general wealth.
Betterment automated portfolio management is also available for traditional, Roth, Rollover, and SEP IRAs.
In addition, Betterment provides simplified trust fund management to track your returns, diversify investable assets in your trust, automatically rebalance your portfolio, reinvest your dividends, and even automate cash transfers for beneficiaries.
Betterment Crypto-Trading
Betterment offers personalized, diverse cryptocurrency investing for a separate annual fee of 1%. This fee is quite competitive, given that some crypto exchanges charge spread fees of up to 1% per transaction.
Betterment has a weekly newsletter for up-to-date market news. Crypto accounts also come with automated portfolio rebalancing.
Betterment previously offered multiple crypto portfolios but now only offers the Crypto ETF. This investment gets you exposure to bitcoin and ether.
Betterment Portfolio Types
Here are some of the personalized portfolios by Betterment available to investors:
- Core portfolio: Focuses on long-term investing by allocating money across a global selection of international stock and bond ETFs.
- Innovative technology portfolio: Targets companies with a lot of growth potential. These include semiconductors, blockchain businesses, clean energy companies, and more.
- Goldman Sachs Smart Beta portfolio: This low-cost, high-risk portfolio aims to invest in companies with the potential to outperform the market.
- BlackRock Target Income portfolio: Works to protect your assets against loss by investing 100% in bonds with different income yields for protection against stock market risk and volatility.
- Socially responsible portfolios: Three socially responsible stock and bond ESG funds are available. You can choose to invest in the Broad Impact portfolio, Climate Impact portfolio, or Social Impact portfolio. These options are ideal for those who want to make a positive difference with their investments.
- Value Tilt: Asset allocation of globally diverse stocks and bonds "tilted" toward undervalued US companies.
- Flexible portfolio: Experienced investors can opt for a flexible portfolio to tweak their Core portfolio's asset class weights. Investors can also access additional asset classes like high-yield bonds, REITs, and commodities. Remember that this may expose your portfolio to a higher level of risk.
Betterment Trust Account
Betterment can help manage an existing revocable and irrevocable trust created online or with an estate attorney. If you don't already have trust, you can create one with many of the best online willmakers.
Premium members get 20% off estate planning with Trust & Will, which is our top pick for creating an online if you can't afford to hire an attorney.
A Betterment trust account allows you to customize automated cash transfers to beneficiaries, manage multiple trust accounts within one login, establish savings goals, reinvest dividends, and track your returns using visualization tools and performance graphing.
One of the main advantages of a Betterment trust account is that you can earn interest on the funds in your account with a Betterment high-yield cash account. Money held in this account is FDIC-insured.
Fees
Betterment charges a $4 monthly fee as the base price for investing accounts. This monthly fee automatically switches to a 0.25% annual fee if your total Betterment account balance exceeds $20,000 or if you set up recurring deposits/transfers of $250 per month.
Crypto portfolios charge a 1% annual fee and a 0.15% fee per crypto trade. Betterment Premium requires a $100,000 minimum deposit and a 0.40% annual fee.
You may have to pay fund fees when you trade ETFs. Betterment also charges a flat $75 when you transfer your investment account out of Betterment. There are no withdrawal fund fees or additional trading and deposit fees.
Trustworthiness
Betterment implements two-factor authentication and other security measures to keep your accounts safe. These include identity verification, transaction review, automatic logout, account ownership verification, and system outage protection.
The Better Business Bureau gives Betterment an A- rating. Ratings range from A+ to F and reflect the bureau's opinion of how well a company interacts with its clients. The BBB says Betterment's rating stems from its many unresolved complaints, including three.
Bureau ratings don't guarantee a company will be reliable or perform well. However, they consider several other factors, including type of business, time in business, customer complaint history, licensing and government actions, and advertising issues.
On April 18, 2023, the SEC charged Betterment LLC for failing to notify account holders of contract changes using tax-loss harvesting services. Betterment also allegedly failed to maintain certain required books and records. Betterment has agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to settle the case.
Alternatives
Let's compare Betterment to other top online brokerages.
Wealthfront
$1 ($500 for automated investing)
$0 for stock trades. 0.25% for automated investing (0.06% to 0.13% for fund fees)
- Low annual fee for investment accounts; crypto trust investments available
- Tax-loss harvesting, portfolio lines of credit, 529 college savings plans available
- Cash account
- Mobile app and investing and retirement tools
- You need at least $100,000 to utilize additional investment strategies
- No human advisor access
Wealthfront is one of the best robo-advisor options if you're in search of low-cost automated portfolio management, and one of the best socially responsible investing apps for features like tax-loss harvesting, US direct indexing, and crypto trusts.
Wealthfront- Consider it if: You're balancing several goals and want to streamline your finances.
- Promotion: Fund your first taxable investment account with at least $500 in the first 30 days of account opening and earn a $50 bonus.
Betterment and Wealthfront Investing are two of the oldest platforms in the robo-advisor space. Both offer automated portfolio management, with access to perks like cash accounts, tax-loss harvesting, socially responsible investing, and more.
Betterment offers financial advisor guidance, but Wealthfront doesn't. Betterment also has a lower account minimum requirement than Wealthfront. You don't need anything to get started with the Betterment digital plan. Wealthfront, however, has a $500 minimum.
Wealthfront is a better option for users who want access to a wider range of investment choices. Plus, it's great for those who want to automate custodial accounts like 529 plans. Wealthfront also offers DIY investing for stocks — you'll just need to open a separate stock investment account, which only requires $1 to get started.
Vanguard
$0 ($3,000 for Vanguard Digital Advisor; $50,000 for Vanguard Personal Advisor)
0% (0.20% to 0.30% for professionally managed portfolios)
- Commission-free stocks, ETFs, and options
- Brokerage, automated, and advisor-managed accounts available
- Thousands of low-cost mutual funds
- Multiple resources with expert analysis and market insights
- Several retirement accounts and services for retirement plan participants
- Higher options contract fee than other discount brokerages (Vanguard charges $1 per options contract)
- No separate trading platforms for advanced traders; no fractional shares
- No cryptocurrencies
Vanguard is a reasonable low-cost option for all types of investors. Whether you're an active trader, passive investor, or retirement-focused individual, you should be able to find what you're looking for.
Vanguard- Promotion: None at this time.
- App store rating: 4.7 iOS/ 1.8 Android
- Consider it if: You're a long-term focused investor looking for access to a variety of account types and investment choices.
- Awards: Morningstar gave Vanguard a 'High' assessment in its 2022 Robo-advisor Landscape report, listing it as the #1 platform out of 16 robo-advisors
Betterment and Vanguard both have automated investing, but Vanguard is the stronger choice for more types of investments. With Vanguard, you get access to both self-directed accounts and automated accounts. But you'll be limited to automated investing at Betterment, so it's not a great choice for those who want access to DIY trading strategies.
Betterment is a more affordable option for beginners although it charges a 0.25% annual fee (or $4 monthly fee) when Vanguard Digital Advisor only charges a 0.20% fee. However, Vanguard's robo-advisor requires a $3,000 minimum deposit.
Why You Should Trust Us
Betterment was reviewed using Business Insider's rating methodology for investing platforms. Betterment online brokerage and robo-advisory services were compared to other investment apps based on their account types, pricing, investment options, and overall customer experience when reviewing investing platforms. Platforms are given a rating between 1 and 5.
Business Insider's Overall Betterment Rating
| Feature | Our rating (out of 5) |
| Fees | 4.50 |
| Investment selection | 4.50 |
| Access | 4.50 |
| Ethics | 4.00 |
| Customer service | 4.00 |
| Overall score | 4.32 |
FAQs
What is Betterment investing, and what services does it offer?
Betterment is a low-cost robo-advisor that offers a wide range of automated ETF portfolios, socially responsible investment funds, crypto-exposure, and goal-based investment strategies. Unlock tax-advantaged investing, auto-rebalancing, retirement planning resources, and more.
How does Betterment create personalized investment portfolios?
Betterment creates a personalized investment portfolio based on your risk tolerance, time horizon, and investment goals. When signing up, you will fill out a questionnaire that Betterment takes into consideration to tailor your custom portfolio to your needs. Portfolios are then continuously automatically rebalanced to keep you on track.
What are the fees associated with using Betterment investing?
Betterment charges a $4 per month or a 0.25% annual fee. You'll unlock the 0.25% annual fee option automatically if your total Betterment account balance exceeds $20,000 or if you set up recurring deposits/transfers of $250 per month. Cryptocurrency portfolios require a 1% annual fee and a 0.15% fee per trade.
Is Betterment investing suitable for retirement planning?
Yes, Betterment is suitable for retirement planning. The brokerage not only has multiple IRA options, but retirement planning services offered by Betterment also include perks like automated rebalancing, dividend reinvesting, and access to other retirement-related tools. However, only Betterment Premium account holders can access unlimited CFP one-on-one guidance.
How does Betterment investing address tax efficiency?
Betterment addresses tax efficiency through tax-loss harvesting strategies and tax-advantaged accounts like IRAs. Investors can also offset gains tax to maximize after-tax returns by distributing investments and asset locations.
Sofi Active Invest: Investments are not FDIC-insured - Are not bank-guaranteed - May lose value - Automated investing is offered through SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser.
