Betterment Review 2026: A Top-Tier Robo-Advisor Worth Considering
Betterment is one of the top robo-advisors, with goal-oriented tools and helpful tax strategies that will appeal to investors of all types. Access to human advisors is available with the Premium plan.The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.
Our take: Betterment is a clear leader among robo-advisors, offering two service options: Betterment Digital provides automated portfolio management at $10 to start an account; Betterment Premium provides unlimited phone access to certified financial planners for a $100,000 account minimum.
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Betterment offers a powerful combination of goal-based tools, affordable management fees and no account minimum.
Where Betterment shines
Low fees: Betterment offers multiple portfolio options, has a low minimum investment requirement, and charges a very reasonable annual management fee of just 0.25% for those who meet balance or recurring deposit requirements. Otherwise, it's $5 per month.
Fractional shares: Fractional shares allow you to purchase investments by the dollar amount rather than a full share. In this case, it means all the cash you invest with Betterment is put to work.
Where Betterment falls short
No direct indexing: While Betterment does offer tax-loss harvesting, the firm does not offer direct indexing, a more advanced tax optimization strategy that can be beneficial on taxable accounts.
Flat fee on smaller balances: Betterment's flat fee on accounts below $20,000, or that don't opt into recurring investments of $250, can be high as a percentage of assets under management.
If you're after direct indexing or lower-cost management on smaller balances, consider these alternatives:
Best Robo-Advisor for Portfolio Options  Wealthfront |  Vanguard Digital Advisor |
Is Betterment safe?
Yes, investing in Betterment is as safe as investing at any other brokerage. Betterment is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA. Money kept in Betterment's Cash Reserve is FDIC-insured up to $2 million. According to Betterment, the company currently manages more than $65 billion for over 1 million clients. (Customer count is accurate as of August 19, 2025 and includes checking and investing clients. Betterment's assets under management [AUM] are accurate as of October 21, 2025.)
That said, investing through a safe platform like Betterment still comes with the risk of investment loss. No brokerage, Betterment included, can guarantee that you will make money with your investments.
Betterment was involved in a lawsuit over its tax-loss harvesting service and agreed to pay $9 million to clients affected between 2016 and 2019.
What type of investor should choose Betterment?
Hands-off investors.
Retirement investors.
Socially responsible investors.
Users who like goal-based tools.
Investors who may eventually want to work with a financial advisor.
What the Nerds think
"Betterment provides options for investors of all net worths and financial priorities. The core service's low expense ratios and account management fees are particularly notable, allowing investors to keep growing their money instead of diverting it to service fees. Users who want more personalized financial guidance can graduate to Betterment Premium for access to a team of certified financial planners. It requires a higher minimum investment and charges a higher fee."
Betterment at a glance
Account minimum | $0 ($10 to start investing). |
Account management fee | 0.25% annual fee on balances over $24,000 or if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $250 or more. Otherwise, $5 per month. |
Investment expense ratios | Expense ratios of 0.04% to 0.11% for Betterment Core Portfolio. |
Account fees (annual, transfer, closing) | $75 fee to transfer investments out of Betterment. No fee for cash withdrawals. |
Portfolio mix |
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Socially responsible portfolio options | Three socially responsible investing portfolio options: Broad Impact, Climate Impact, and Social Impact. |
Accounts supported | Individual and joint taxable brokerage accounts. Roth, traditional, inherited, rollover and SEP IRAs. Trusts. Ability to link external accounts for better-informed advice (but not direct management). |
Tax strategy |
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Human advisor option | Betterment Digital doesn't offer access to financial advisors and no longer offers an advice package for purchase. Betterment Premium includes access to a team of financial advisors. |
Savings account/cash management option | Cash Account** with no fees or minimum balance requirements, unlimited transfers and FDIC coverage of up to $2 million in individual accounts or up to $4 million in joint accounts at program banks. |
Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Phone support Monday-Friday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern time. Email support and questions also answered through social media. |
IRA match | No IRA match offered. |
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Reviewed in: Oct. 2025.
Period Considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025.
How to sign up for a Betterment account
You can create a Betterment account through its website or mobile app. After you do, Betterment’s sign-up process takes you through a goal-setting exercise, asking for your age and current annual income. Then it suggests a series of goals based on your answers, estimating a safety net of three to six months of expenses, a retirement savings target and a general investing goal. Each goal comes with a recommended target and asset allocation, which you can adjust. You can also add other personalized goals that will dictate the account types used and the way your money is invested. And you can set up auto-deposits into each goal.
Betterment doesn’t require any minimum investment to open an account, but there is a $10 minimum to start investing.
What do investors say about their experience with Betterment?
NerdWallet's evaluations focus on data we collect, like account fees, portfolio diversification, features and account minimums, as well as our own experiences with the products we review. We include two factors that directly address customer service: Support availability and contact methods, and website transparency, which our team assesses by looking for key information on the provider's website, just as a potential customer would. But customer satisfaction is harder for us to directly assess. To offer a more complete evaluation, we've used an AI tool to comb Betterment reviews for iOS and Android. We then evaluate that data for consistent themes, both positive and negative. Due to the anonymous nature, we're unable to confirm these customer experiences as we normally would. The summary below is based on a year's worth of Betterment reviews, ending March 2025.
Betterment's app scores well with iOS and Android users for its user-friendly interface and ease of use. Users frequently mention its high-yield savings and how the app is good for beginners looking for a "set it and forget it" method. For its iOS app, the reviews are mixed, with more positive than negative.
The Android experience has more negative reviews than positive. Users of both operating systems mention poor customer service response and technical issues with the app, including some difficulty closing accounts and slow transfer times. Users were also not thrilled with the fee structure and management costs.
How much does Betterment cost?
Account management fee
Betterment’s digital investing tier charges a 0.25% annual fee on balances over $24,000 or if you set up recurring monthly deposits totaling $250 or more. If you don't meet those criteria, you'll be charged $5 per month.
Most robo-advisors charge a fee of around 0.25% across all account balances. But if you have a $10,000 balance invested with Betterment and you're paying $5 per month, you're essentially paying a 0.6% fee.
If you have a high account balance, for the portion of your eligible household balance above $1 million, you'll receive progressive fee discounts. This means that on the Digital plan, you'll pay just 0.15% for the portion of your eligible balances between $1 million and $2 million, and 0.10% on eligible balances over $2 million.
Investment expense ratio
The average expense ratio for the Betterment Core Portfolio is relatively low, ranging from 0.04% to 0.17%. This expense ratio is paid in addition to Betterment's management fee, but since it is deducted from your account, you won't see it as a separate fee.
An expense ratio is an annual fee charged by mutual funds, index funds and ETFs, as a percentage of your investment in the fund. If you invest in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio, for example, you’ll pay the fund $10 per year for every $1,000 invested. If high, these fees can significantly drag down your portfolio returns. Nearly all robo-advisors use funds that carry expense ratios, but it's worth comparing them when deciding on the best advisor for you.
Account fees
In addition to its account management fee and expense ratios, Betterment charges a $75 outbound transfer fee.
Betterment portfolio selection
Like many robo-advisors, Betterment bases its investment philosophy on modern portfolio theory, which highlights the benefits of diversification. In the Betterment Core Portfolio, the company uses exchange-traded funds that represent about 12 asset classes for different levels of risk tolerance and your goals. Customers who want a bit more control over their investment portfolio can utilize Betterment’s Flexible Portfolio to adjust the weights of their asset classes. With the Flexible Portfolio, clients can also choose exposure to non-market-correlated assets such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) and commodities.
Investors can choose from several other portfolio options, including a smart beta portfolio that seeks higher-than-average returns, a technology portfolio that focuses on industries such as semiconductors, virtual reality and artificial intelligence and its Target Income portfolio built with BlackRock. Betterment also offers a crypto ETF portfolio that is comprised of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, as well as three socially responsible portfolios:
Broad Impact doesn’t focus on any one particular issue, but is intended for those who are interested in Environmental, Social and Governance investing at large.
Climate Impact invests in companies with lower carbon emissions, the funding of green projects and divestment from fossil fuels.
Social Impact focuses on supporting minority empowerment and gender diversity.
Betterment clients can also now buy and sell individual stocks and ETFs in the Betterment app.
Other key Betterment features
Accounts supported
Betterment supports individual and joint taxable brokerage accounts, Roth, traditional, inherited, rollover and SEP IRAs, and trusts. Betterment will allow you to link external accounts for personalized advice (but it will not manage those accounts directly).
For its IRAs, Betterment does not offer an IRA match. However, if you are rolling over $20,000 or more, you may be able to do it for free.
Automatic rebalancing
Automatic rebalancing is the regular rebalancing of your portfolio in response to market fluctuations or other factors that shift your portfolio out of its intended investment allocation. The market moves, and over time, your allocation will move, too. So if your target was having 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds and your stocks are doing well, you could end up having 70% in stocks, which may be more risk than you are comfortable with. With automatic rebalancing, the computer monitors your allocation and will automatically adjust your investment if it gets out of line. Betterment’s algorithms automatically check your portfolio and rebalance it when cash flows in or out — in the form of dividends, contributions or withdrawals — or when the allocation to a particular asset class drifts 3% or more from its target level.
In the new Betterment Crypto ETF portfolio, free automatic balancing is included.
Savings account/cash management options
Betterment offers both checking and cash accounts*. The cash account is called Cash Reserve, and it comes with an interest rate of 3.25%***. Cash Reserve offers up to $2 million in FDIC insurance coverage for individual accounts, and up to $4 million in coverage for joint accounts at program banks. There's no minimum balance requirement, and you won't pay a fee on your balance. The Cash Reserve account allows you to create separate buckets of cash for specific goals and set up auto-deposits for each.
Betterment’s checking account has no minimum balance, no foreign transaction fees and no overdraft fees. The company reimburses ATM fees worldwide. There is also a joint checking account option.
Customer support options
Betterment offers phone support Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. The company also has email support and will address questions through social media.
Retirement planning options
Betterment’s retirement planning tool lets you link your non-Betterment accounts, including 401(k)s, giving a full picture of all your savings and investment accounts.
With this information, the tool can offer comprehensive retirement planning advice, including comparing current savings levels with your desired spending levels in retirement, answering questions about whether you’re saving enough money, when you’ll be able to retire, and if you’re using the correct savings vehicles and investments. It updates and syncs to outside accounts daily and allows for Social Security data uploads.
Good to know about Betterment
Tax strategy
Betterment offers tax-loss harvesting on taxable accounts*. The platform reviews your investments to reduce tax exposure, and if certain conditions are met, takes action in your account. But it doesn’t have direct indexing like Wealthfront, which provides this service on taxable accounts with balances of $100,000 or more. Direct indexing buys the single securities held by an index, rather than the ETF tracking that index. That can help single out tax-loss harvesting opportunities.
Betterment's Tax-Coordinated Portfolio is a solid attempt to bridge this gap. This is an "asset location" strategy that automatically puts tax-efficient investments into taxable accounts and investments that have a heavy tax burden into tax-advantaged accounts that will shelter them. (You need to have both taxable and tax-advantaged retirement accounts at Betterment for the strategy to work.)
Betterment offers a Tax Impact Preview tool that lets you see the potential tax hit of any portfolio moves before you make them. Betterment also has a charitable giving tool that gives customers a tax-efficient way to donate appreciated securities to charities directly on the Betterment platform.
No access to human advisors
Betterment no longer offers access to financial advisors through a la carte advice packages available for purchase. Instead, investors who want a human advisor can look into Betterment Premium.
» Want to compare options? Check out our roundup of the best wealth advisors
Betterment Premium at a glance
Betterment Premium is Betterment’s upper-tier service. Betterment Premium charges a 0.65% annual fee and requires a minimum balance of $100,000 across eligible investments in exchange for unlimited phone access to a team of certified financial planners.
Account minimum | $100,000 across eligible investments. |
Account management, planning or subscription fee | 0.65%. |
Advisor access and credentials | Clients have unlimited access to a team of CFP professionals and can schedule appointments from inside their client portal. Advisors can be reached Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern. They are available via video call, phone and email. |
Financial planning services | Premium includes all the features of Betterment's lower-tier offering, including investing portfolios, socially responsible investing options, automatic features, such as portfolio rebalancing, dividend reinvestment, and auto-adjust. Premium CFPs will be able to help you with some financial planning, such as retirement planning, education planning, home affordability, prioritizing your goals, and basic estate planning. Betterment does not provide tax preparation or business planning. |
Brokerage options | Only manages accounts held within Betterment. |
Reviewed: Oct. 2025
Period considered: Aug. - Oct. 2025
Good to know about Betterment Premium
Higher cash reserve rate
Betterment Premium clients receive an additional 0.25% APY on top of the variable rate of 3.25%***.
Progressive fee discounts
Betterment Premium's fee is 0.65%, consisting of Betterment Digital's base fee of 0.25% and an additional premium fee of 0.40%. As with Betterment Digital, there are discounts for larger balances. For the portion of your account that is between $1 million and $2 million, the discounted rate is 0.15%. For amounts of $2 million or more, the discounted rate is 0.10%.
Financial planning services
Betterment Premium offers clients unlimited access to a team of CFPs. These CFPs offer comprehensive financial planning to clients, including consultation on assets held outside Betterment. Consulting services could include backdoor Roth IRA conversions, tax-efficient asset transfers, retirement planning, and more.
Limited brokerage options
While CFPs can consider accounts held outside of Betterment for planning purposes, Betterment Premium does not manage outside accounts.
Is Betterment worth it?
Betterment is a clear leader among robo-advisors, offering two service options: Betterment's digital offering provides automated portfolio management for a low fee depending on account balance; Betterment Premium provides unlimited access to certified financial planners for a $100,000 account minimum across eligible investments.
» Want to check out other providers? Here are our top picks for best robo-advisors.
Betterment’s goal-oriented tools and features should appeal to retirement investors, and the human advice offering through Betterment Premium is inexpensive compared with other independent hybrid advisors, such as Empower. Betterment’s variety of socially responsible portfolios are also a great option for socially conscious investors. But Betterment’s CFPs won’t be able to help you with everything a typical financial advisor can, such as business planning.
*Account is FDIC insured up to $250K through nbkc Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC insurance only covers the failure of an insured bank. Betterment is not a bank. All ATM fees and the Visa 1% foreign transaction fee are reimbursed.
*** Annual percentage yield (variable) is 3.25% as of 12/12/25, plus a 0.25% boost (“APY Boost”); clients must maintain the Premium $100k account threshold across eligible investments; other terms apply. $10 min deposit for base APY. If the base APY changes, the Boosted APY will change.
More robo-advisor reviews:
NerdWallet writers are subject matter authorities who use primary, trustworthy sources to inform their work, including peer-reviewed studies, government websites, academic research and interviews with industry experts. All content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. You can learn more about NerdWallet's high standards for journalism by reading our editorial guidelines.
- 1.U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investment Adviser Firm Summary: Betterment. Accessed .
- 2.BrokerCheck. Betterment. Accessed .
- 3.U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Charges Investment Adviser Betterment for Misstatements Concerning Tax Loss Harvesting Service. Accessed .
Methodology
How do we review robo-advisors?
All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team's comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent, balanced assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. Our highest priority is maintaining editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across 16 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating robo-advisors and our process, read our full methodology.