The Top 3 Robo-Advisors of 2021

Investing in the digital age has never been simpler. There’s an app for just about every type of investment vehicle you can imagine ranging from brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, cryptocurrency, and more. However, there are many robo-advisor (automated online investment advisors) on the market, and it might be challenging to choose the best one. 

Overall, the top three robo-advisors are Betterment, M1 Finance, and SoFi Invest. All three have low fees, great investment options, and fantastic user interfaces. They make it is to invest through automated settings and outstanding features. Among these top three robo-advisors, their specializations and different investment options. 

Choosing the right robo-advisor for you can be a challenging process. You need to understand your investment style, risk level, investments you want to make, and the amount of work you are willing to put in investing. This article will walk you through the great features and differences between the best robo-advisors- Betterment, M1 Finance, and SoFi Invest. So, read on to learn more!

Betterment 

Betterment is leading the charge as arguably the best robo-advisor on the market. It is a simple, low-cost, and intuitive platform. It can be accessed through a web browser or a mobile app, both of which work seamlessly in providing an excellent investing experience. Check out this in-depth Betterment review for a thorough look at all facets of their service. 

Betterment fees are very low too. They are just 0.25% in management fees per year. With their automated tax-loos harvesting feature, Betterment quickly pays for this fee itself with the money it saves you on taxes. 

Fantastic features further set Betterment apart from its robo-advisor competitors:

• • Investment goals– a Betterment tool to plan your long-term financial strategy. 
    • Retirement income and savings
    • Major purchases
    • General investing 
    • Safety net
  • SmartDeposit- You can set automatic deposits to occur when your checking account hits a certain threshold. That way, your money is working for you sooner in an investment, and you can invest with as little work as possible. 
• Tax-Coordinated Portfolio- Betterment auto-allocates assets based on your after-tax and pre-tax accounts. 

Betterment has a variety of individual stocks and bonds to choose from. Investors can also select the stock/bond allocation they are comfortable with and invest in low expense ratio Betterment ETFs (exchange-traded funds). Additionally, they offer various account types- along with the standard brokerage account; you can open an IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, trust, and checking accounts.

M1 Finance 

M1 Finance is perhaps the most unique robo-advisor in the many options of investment firms. It has no minimum balance and no monthly or annual fees; additionally, it has dynamic portfolio rebalancing. Dynamic portfolio rebalancing automatically rebalancing your investments to the allocations you set, which ensures your investments don’t become “unbalanced” over time. 

One of the more unique benefits of M1 Finance is its pie-based investment system. When you make your “investment pie” in M1 Finance, you select various investments and allocation expenses. For example, you can have ten investments, each with a 10% allocation. You choose the investments, the amount of them, and the specific allocation percentage for each (they can all be different percentages as long as they all add up to 100%). 

One benefit of pie investing is that you can buy fractional shares. Fractional shares mean you do not have to pay the price to purchase one stock of a company, which is incredible for expensive stocks like Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway. Instead of spending thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to own one share of these companies, you can buy a fractional share for just $1.00. 

Like most robo-advisors, M1 finance has various bonds, stocks, and ETFs ready for you to invest in. They offer different account types too- brokerage, checking, SEP IRA, IRA, and trusts. If you want more details on M1, pop over to this wonderful M1 Finance review that details everything they have to offer. 

SoFi Invest

SoFi Automated Investing a simple, low-cost investing platform. It is the perfect robo-advisor for novice investors that are just starting out and passive investors who prefer a “set it and forget it” approach to investing. 

SoFi Invest has many fantastic benefits for its customers- there are zero management fees, commission-free trading (for active investing), and access to certified financial planners (CFPs). Being able to talk with CFPs is something that really sets SoFi apart from other robo-advisors. You can get immediate support and review account types while getting assistance with your account.

All these features make SoFi Invest an excellent option for beginners. 

Their quarterly automatic rebalancing, goal planning, $1 minimum to start investing and pre-made auto-invest portfolios round out the top features and benefits of SoFi’s platform.  A $1 minimum investment means you can invest with just a small amount of money. 

SoFi Invest provides ten portfolios with over a dozen different asset classes for you to select. Depending on your risk tolerance, you can choose a balanced portfolio from aggressive to conservative to anything in between. 

Besides their automated investing, where passive investors use SoFi’s premade portfolios, SoFi Active Invest is also available. Active Investing, like its name suggests, is meant for active investors. It allows investors to have complete control over their investments. 

They can invest in individual stocks, bonds, ETFs, and even cryptocurrencies. While Active Investing is not for everyone, it is what some investors prefer. With SoFi, whether you’re an active or passive investor (or in-between), you can rest assured that SoFi’s platform has just what you need. 

SoFi invest offers much more features than what is reviewed here. For full coverage of their entire service and everything they have to offer, jump over to this detailed SoFi Invest review; you won’t be sorry!