The Best Robo-Advisors For Your Financial Future

The Best Robo-Advisors For 2019

The robo-advisor has officially gone mainstream, with financial giants such as Charles Schwab and Vanguard launching their own robo-advisory service. Even ETF giant BlackRock ended up buying FutureAdvisor for ~$150 million back in 2015. Here's a look at the best robo-advisors for your financial future.

There's something different about a large institution trying to offer a new technological service innovated by smaller, private firms such as Betterment and Personal Capital. These are the best robo-advisors for your financial future after I spent since 2012 researching them all.

It just doesn't feel the same because the smaller firms have built their robo-advisory business from the ground up. It's part of their DNA. Private firms are much more nimble to provide better value-added services than their large rivals.

Summary Of The Best Robo-Advisors

1) Personal Capital (hybrid with a great free app)

2) Betterment (hybrid as of 2020 after introducing new human advisory services in Feb)

3) Wealthfront, a pure robo-advisor

What Is A Robo-Advisor?

A robo-advisor (robo-adviser) is an online wealth management service that provides automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice without the use of human financial planners.

Robo-advisors (or robo-advisers) use the same software as traditional advisors, but usually only offer portfolio management and do not get involved in more personal aspects of wealth management, such as taxes and retirement or estate planning.

Robo-advisors are typically low-cost, have low account minimums, and attract younger investors who are more comfortable doing things online.

The biggest difference is the distribution channel: previously, investors would have to go through a human financial advisor to get the kind of portfolio management services robo-advisors now offer, and those services would be bundled with additional services.

A hybrid robo-advisor users both human advisors and algorithms to help manage your money.

Best Robo-Advisors Overall

Wealthfront and Betterment offer low management fees, reasonable minimums and innovative tools.

Information About Wealthfront
  • Management Fee: 025%
  • Account Minimum$500
  • Promotion: $5,000 amount of assets managed with no fee
  • Open A Wealthfront Account
Betterment Review: Investing Made Better
  • Management fee: 0.15% – 0.35%
  • Account Minimum: $0

Wealthfront and Betterment pioneered the robo-advisor industry with their foundings in 2008. They've got the lowest cost fees, the most innovative technology, fantastic user interfaces, and the longest robo-advisor track record. Both robo-advisors offer automatic rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting and diversified portfolios.

Betterment uses a three-tier pricing system that reduces fees at higher account balances, charging as little as 0.15% on $100,000 or more. Wealthfront charges a flat 0.25% but manages the first $15,000 invested for free with my special link.

Adding things up, Wealthfront costs less for accounts with balances below $100,000. Once an investor crosses that threshold, Betterment becomes a better value, with one caveat: That fee gap may close on taxable accounts that are eligible for Wealthfront’s direct indexing service.

Best Hybrid Robo-Advisor (Human + Digital)

Personal Capital free financial app
  • Management Fee: 0.49% – 0.89%
  • Account Minimum: $100,000

Headquarters: Redwood City, California with offices in Denver and San Francisco

Description: Personal Capital is the leading digital wealth management firm.

Founders: Bill Harris, Louie Gasparini, Rob Foregger

Categories: Financial Services, Wealth Management, Finance, FinTech

Personal Capital Management

Personal Capital current team

Personal Capital Funding History

Personal Capital Funding History

Acquired in 2020 by Empower for $850 million. Now Personal Capital has even more capital to provide better products and solutions.

Personal Capital Latest News

I had lunch with the Chief Marketing Officer, Eric Weiss and the Vice-Chairman, Mark Goines. Here is some key information.

* Performing better than expected. They currently have over 3 million registered users tracking over $900 billion in assets under management.

* Surge in assets under management. Their assets under management for paying clients doubled to $13 billion.

* Key personnel hires. Personal Capital hired Mike Armbsy, ex CFO of Yodlee to be their new CFO. Mike was responsible for helping Yodlee go IPO in 2014. In addition to Mike, Personal Capital welcomed Paul Desmarais of Power Financial Corporation to their Board of Directors. Paul is intimately familiar with Personal Capital as he helped lead Power Financial’s $75 million investment in their Series E financing last year.

Sign up for Personal Capital's free financial tools here.

Five Free Personal Capital Features

1) Retirement Planner. This tool helps you to know if you’re on track to retire, and even allows you to make adjustments for major life changes, such as job/career/income changes, illness, childbirth or saving for college.

Personal Capital Retirement Planner Tool - Best Robo-Advisors For Your Financial Future

2) 401(k) Fund Allocation. Even though Personal Capital can’t manage your employer sponsored retirement plan, they can analyze the plan and make asset allocation suggestions based on all of the investment options available in the plan.

401k Fee Analyzer To Reduce Portfolio Fees

3) Net Worth Calculator. Track your assets and liabilities so that you can quickly find your net worth at any time. This tool will help you to really know if you’re on track to reach your long-term financial goals.

Personal Capital Net Worth Tracking - Best Robo-Advisors For Your Financial Future

4) Cash Flow Analyzer. Use this tool to create a budget, where you can track your income and expenses whatever the sources. This will help you see where you’re spending money, so that you can free up income for savings, investing, and debt payoff.

Personal Capital Cash Flow Tracker

5) Investment Checkup tool. This can provide a risk assessment of your portfolio, including your retirement plan. It will make suggestions to help you improve your asset allocation plan to make it consistent with your goals and personal preferences.

Personal Capital Investment Checkup - Best Robo-Advisors For Your Financial Future

Personal Capital is the most comprehensive hybrid robo-advisor today. I've used them to manage my finances since 2012 and have seen my net worth grow to all time highs as a result. I highly recommend you sign up to at least use their fantastic free financial tools.

Sign Up For Personal Capital For Free

About the Author: Sam began investing his own money ever since he opened an online brokerage account online in 1995. Sam loved investing so much that he decided to make a career out of investing by spending the next 13 years after college working at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse Group. During this time, Sam received his MBA from UC Berkeley with a focus on finance and real estate. He also became Series 7 and Series 63 registered.

In 2012, Sam was able to retire at the age of 34 largely due to his investments that now generate roughly $200,000 a year in passive income. He spends time playing tennis, hanging out with family, consulting for leading fintech companies, and writing online to help others achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.