The best wealth management firms are rated help you manage your money, optimize your returns, and ultimately help you achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.
Picking stocks is a losing proposition in the long term because most people are not professional investors and most professional investors UNDERPERFORM the S&P 500 index.
Therefore, it's best for individual investors to stick to low cost index funds and ETFs instead. The following are the wealth management firms for investors to leverage today.
It is very expensive to pay 1% – 3% of your assets each year to a traditional wealth management firm like Merrill Lynch, Raymond James, and Edward Jones, because they are using the same fundamental investment strategies for retirement as all the digital wealth management firms today.
Here are some of the best digital wealth management firms today.
Best Wealth Management Firms Today
#1 Wealthfront
Wealthfront – Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wealthfront is the original robo-advisor and launched in 2011. Its board includes Dr. Burton Malkiel, professor of economics, emeritus and senior economist at Princeton University. He is most known for authoring the classic finance book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, now in its 12th edition. Wealthfront charges just 0.25% to manage your money, with the first $5,000 free using my link.
Sign up for Wealthfront for free and have them construct a model portfolio for you.
Read the full Wealthfront review here.
Personal Capital: Best Free Financial Software
Personal Capital – Personal Capital has the best free financial tools for investors and people who are most serious about planning for a healthy retirement.
You can easily x-ray your portfolio for excessive fees, get a snapshot of your asset allocation by portfolio, track your net worth and plan for your retirement. Personal Capital is free and was founded in 2009 by the ex-CEO of Paypal and Intuit.
Read the full Personal Capital review here.
#3 Betterment
Betterment was founded in 2008 and is the largest online-investment advisor with over $10 billion in assets under management (AUM). With over $200 million in total funding since inception, it’s clear Betterment is here to stay for the long term. Clients pay as little as 0.15% for Betterment to manage their money.
Read the full Betterment review here.
There are plenty of other wealth management firms today, but all of them carry fees of over 1% of AUM. Paying such high fees in this day and age is a waste of money, especially since the 10-year bond yield is only about 2%.
Your #1 goal as an investor is to save aggressively and invest consistently. Your #2 goal as an investor is to keep investment fees to a minimum.
About the Author: Sam began investing his own money ever since he opened an online brokerage account 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. 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.
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