Betterment review - does it work for couples?

What is Betterment and what are they known for?

Betterment is a newer-to-the-block robo-advisor that aims to provide users with the perfect balance of hands-off investing, banking services, and financial advice from a human advisor.  Betterment aims to provide tailored financial advice to its users without the steep price that comes with traditional financial advice.

They provide three types of services that fit different stages of a person’s financial journey:

• Hands-off automated investing based on your risk tolerance and goals

• Checking accounts and high-yield savings accounts to maximize the yield of your idle cash

• Both Robo-advisors and Human advisors help you make informed investment decisions

Betterment was founded by Jon Stein in 2008 to help manage people’s financial lives, so they can lead better lives overall.  He thought that if they could tell people how much to invest, and manage the money for them, he could help people live a much better all around life!

Who is Betterment for?

Betterment is designed to work for everyone, with its easy to use interface.  However, the Betterment team has decided to focus mainly on: 

• Gen Z investors

• Investing beginners

• Investors looking for a hands-free approach

• People looking for tax efficient automated investing and automatic rebalancing

The platform is built to be used by yourself or shared with a partner, as you can open both individual and joint accounts through Betterment.

Source: Betterment website as of July 2024

What is Betterment’s Pricing Structure?

Betterment has two types of plans, their Digital Plan and their Premium Plan.  The digital plan comes with a 0.25% (1% for crypto) annual management fee, with a minimum charge of $4/month.  With the Digital plan, you receive all of your advisory services online.

With the Premium Plan, you gain access to over-the-phone and email communications with a team of Certified Financial Planners, who are there to provide you with in-depth advice.  They can also implement changes to your Betterment portfolio based on your conversations with them, and your directions.  The Premium plan comes with a 0.65% (1.40% for crypto) annual management fee and requires a minimum balance of $100,000.

If you have more than $2,000,000 with Betterment, they give you a 0.10% discount on all of their services, so the Digital Plan would cost 0.15% and the Premium Plan would cost 0.55%, with the Crypto fee being a flat 0.90%.  

What investment offerings does Betterment have

• ETFs 

• Crypto

• Account types: 

  • Individual Brokerage

  • Roth IRA

  • Traditional IRA

  • SEP IRA

  • Checking Account

  • Savings Account

Does Betterment work for couples?

Betterment does work for couples, as they allow users to create joint accounts.  This means each partner is able to create a separate login to view their shared account.

How to keep using Betterment if you’re married

If you already have a Betterment account, you’ll need to transfer your assets into a joint account to share visibility, or by using a platform like Plenty to track your accounts. That makes it easy to understand what you and your partner have together, especially when you’re tracking towards goals like buying a house. 

Plenty’s dashboard provides two views of your finances: what’s ours and what’s mine. You can connect all your credit cards, bank accounts, student loans, etc, and flexibly label accounts as shared / visible or private. That then provides one view where you can see all the things you own together and separately. Plenty then takes all the credit card and bank account data to help you track your spending (by category and merchant), and how much you’re both saving / investing. 

If you plan to continue using Betterment or already have an account, Plenty is an easy way to start managing money with your partner while continuing to use Betterment.

What if we want investments to be in joint accounts?

At Plenty, we were built for couples to use Plenty together. You can easily open up a joint investment account for new saving/investing you’d like to do together. You can also connect an existing Betterment account if you’d like to keep the investments where they are; when you connect your Betterment account on Plenty, you’ll be able to choose if you’d like to share visibility of your account balance with your partner (ie. make it shared), or make it private.

Interested in trying Plenty out? Start your 1 month free trial today or book an onboarding call to learn more.

Sources

Betterment, www.betterment.com.

Royal, James. “Betterment review 2024.” Bankrate, 21 May 2024, www.bankrate.com/investing/roboadvisor-reviews/betterment.

Benson, Alana. “Betterment Review 2024: Fees, Service & Features to Know.” Nerdwallet, 2 Jan. 2024, www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/investing/advisors/betterment.

About Plenty

Plenty is an investment platform designed specifically for couples to build wealth, together. We go beyond budgeting, making it simple to invest, save and grow towards your future goals by unlocking access to the financial strategies of the wealthy. Ready to get started? Sign up for your 1 month free trial today.

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The information provided herein is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered individualized recommendations or personalized investment advice. The type of strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor should evaluate an investment strategy based on their unique circumstances before making any investment decisions.

Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.

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