The Best Robo-Advisors Of April 2024

Betterment, a Forbes Advisor partner,  is one of the pioneers of the robo-advisor approach to investing. After more than a decade in the business, we believe that no other platform offers as much value to its customers as Betterment.

Betterment scored highly across all categories. The basic Betterment Digital service tier charges a competitive annual fee equal to 0.25% of your balance, and there’s no minimum balance requirement. Savers with higher balances looking for more advanced services can take advantage of Betterment Premium, which comes with access to live financial advisors.

To access Betterment, create an account, pick your goals and enter a few personal details. Betterment places you in a risk-appropriate portfolio of exchange-traded funds, otehrwise known as ETFs. We would note that your portfolio will include around a dozen ETFs, some of which may charge high fees. This isn’t an optimal approach, in our opinion, as you can get all the diversification you need with just three or four ultra-low-cost ETFs.

One note for those who pick the emergency fund option: You may end up in a portfolio made up of 15% stocks/85% bonds that’s a bit too risky for your blood. Should you need the money after a layoff following an economic downturn, chances are you’ll be selling low.

Betterment offers alternative portfolios to choose from, too, including one focused on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors. The platform provides automatic tax-loss harvesting as well as a tax-coordinated portfolio option that structures your stock and bond allocation to optimize your tax treatment.

In addition to a standard taxable account option, long-term savers should check out Betterment’s retirement accounts, including a traditional individual retirement account, or IRA, choice, a Roth IRA and a SEP IRA option for small business owners.

Once you have $100,000 in your account, you’ll qualify for the Betterment Premium tier of service, which comes with unlimited consultations with Betterment financial planning professionals and a higher annual fee of 0.40%. If you prefer the lower 0.25% fee, you can opt to remain on the Betterment Digital service tier with balances over $100,000.

If you’re primarily focused on limiting the fees you pay while still enjoying a basic robo-advisor service, SoFi Automated Investing is a great choice.

SoFi Automated Investing charges about the lowest fees in our survey for robo-advisor services. There’s no annual advisory fee, your portfolio is stocked with ETFs that generally charge low expense ratios and you get access to real-life professionals should you need to talk over your financial situation. With an account minimum of just $1, there’s nothing holding you back.

SoFi Automated Investing runs pretty much as you might expect from a robo-advisor. You enter your personal information and financial goals, and the platform builds a diversified portfolio of around 10 ETFs—of course, that’s probably about twice as many as needed—that correlate to your financial goals and risk tolerance.

SoFi Automated Investing has one potential downside you should be aware of: the type of ETFs it puts in your portfolio. The platform includes many of SoFi’s own in-house ETFs, much like Vanguard only uses its own funds. But unlike Vanguard, SoFi’s funds are very small in terms of total assets, relatively young and untested and in a few cases overpriced in terms of expense ratios. This may make them riskier propositions for long-term investors.

If you’re just starting out in your career or you’re looking for a simple tool without a ton of bells and whistles, you should consider Vanguard Digital Advisor.

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle ushered in the index fund revolution when he established this Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based mutual fund company almost 50 years ago. By eschewing fancy stock pickers in favor of low-cost diversified funds that tracked broad indexes, like the S&P 500, Bogle built an empire on being the market rather than beating the market.

You can now enjoy Vanguard Digital Advisor’s basic services, such as retirement savings and automatic rebalancing, for a low annual net advisory fee of no more than 0.20% of your managed account balance. That’s better than what you’ll find from most robo-advisors.

Aside from low fees, your portfolio is stocked with ultra-inexpensive Vanguard ETFs, which typically charge among the lowest expense ratios on the market. Vanguard Digital Advisor typically includes just four ETFs in your portfolio, which provides the diversification many people need.

During the enrollment process, Vanguard Digital Advisor asks you a series of standard questions—marital status, income, spending—and assesses how much investing risk you’re comfortable with. This risk assessment employs gain/loss scenarios and a slider bar and is much more intuitive than most we evaluated. Enter saving and spending goals, and the platform provides a robust estimate of how much you may be able to spend once you’re retired and tells you if you’re on track to fund your needs.

Vanguard Digital Advisor’s major downside is the $3,000 minimum balance requirement. If that’s a stretch for your budget, you might not have enough savings to take on the risk of a diversified investment portfolio and should instead focus on building up a robust emergency fund first.

Forbes Advisor receives compensation when a reader provides certain personal information to Vanguard after clicking Learn More.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. For more information about Vanguard funds and ETFs, visit vanguard.com to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information about a fund are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

Vanguard Digital Advisor® services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc. (“VAI”), a federally registered investment advisor. VAI is a subsidiary of VGI and an affiliate of VMC. Neither VAI nor its affiliates guarantee profits or protection from losses.

Vanguard Digital Advisor is an all-digital service that targets an annual net advisory fee of 0.15% across your enrolled accounts, although your actual fee will vary depending on the specific holdings in each enrolled account. To reach this target, Vanguard Digital Advisor starts with a 0.20% annual gross advisory fee to manage Vanguard Brokerage Accounts. However, we’ll credit you for the revenues that The Vanguard Group, Inc. (“VGI”), or its affiliates receive from the securities in your managed portfolio by Digital Advisor (i.e., at least that portion of the expense ratios of the Vanguard funds held in your portfolio that VGI or its affiliates receive).

Your net advisory fee can also vary by enrolled account type. The combined annual cost of Vanguard Digital Advisor’s annual net advisory fee plus the expense ratios charged by the Vanguard funds in your managed portfolio will be 0.20% for Vanguard Brokerage Accounts. For more information, please review Form CRS and the Vanguard Digital Advisor brochure.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor of the Vanguard Funds.

If you need a robo-advisor to manage a relatively sizable chunk of cash and receive access to human financial advisors, look no further than Vanguard Personal Advisor Services. This platform’s minimum balance threshold of $50,000 is half the amount required for Empower or Betterment Premium, yet it charges lower fees—0.30% versus 0.89% and 0.40%, respectively.

Vanguard Personal Advisor Services offers access to real-life Vanguard professionals, many of whom are certified financial planners, or CFPs, and all of whom are fiduciaries, whenever you need help with your financial needs or answers to questions. That means you’ll have access to a wide range of services, including estate planning and charitable giving, that become more important with the more assets you’ve accumulated.

Like with Vanguard Digital Advisor, your portfolio will be made up of low-cost Vanguard funds that track broad indexes and mirror your risk tolerance.

Forbes Advisor receives compensation when a reader provides certain personal information to Vanguard after clicking Learn More.

Financial planning features are where Wealthfront¹ really shines. Once you tell the platform your risk tolerance and goals and then link your outside financial accounts, Wealthfront offers two tools to help you easily manage your financial life: Path and Autopilot.

Path creates a birds-eye view of your current financial situation, based on your income and expenses, and then helps you meet your savings goals. Notably, you can even use Path to see what the impact of different choices, like taking time off to travel, might have on your ability to reach long-term goals like retirement.

While Path helps you plan for your future, Autopilot aids in the management of your money in the present. This tool automatically distributes your paycheck to different financial accounts, from your checking account to an emergency fund and your investment accounts, to meet all your different needs and goals.

Wealthfront offers a sophisticated saving and investing platform with relatively low fees and powerful financial planning tools.

With a $500 account minimum, it’s relatively easy to get started with Wealthfront. Once you do, you’ll swiftly be placed into a diversified portfolio of ETFs, ranging through several asset classes from large-cap companies to municipal bonds. The number of funds in your portfolio can be upward of 15, which in our opinion is excessive when you can get similar diversification with about a third of that number.