Fidelity Go Review 2023: Pros, Cons and How It Compares
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Our Take
4.6
Reviewed in: Dec. 2022
Period considered: Aug. - Dec. 2022
The bottom line:
Unpaid non-advisory client promotion
Pros & Cons
Pros
Free management on balances under $25,000.
No investment-expense ratios.
Human portfolio oversight.
Integration with other Fidelity accounts.
Cons
No tax-optimization assistance.
Compare to Other Advisors
Fees 0% management fee | Fees 0.25% management fee | Fees 0.25% with a balance over $20K or qualifying recurring deposit. Otherwise, $4/month. |
Account minimum $0 | Account minimum $500 | Account minimum $0 $10 to start |
Promotion Free career counseling plus loan discounts with qualifying deposit | Promotion Get $50 customer bonus when you fund your first taxable Investment Account | Promotion Up to 1 year of free management for new clients. Terms apply. |
AD Paid non-client promotion | AD Paid non-client promotion | AD Paid non-client promotion |
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Full Review
Where Fidelity Go shines
Low cost: Fidelity Go charges no fees for accounts below $25,000, and 0.35% annually for account balances higher than $25,000.
Fidelity integration: Customers who already have an IRA or taxable account with Fidelity can easily take advantage of the company's robo offering.
Human portfolio oversight: The day-to-day investment and trading decisions for portfolios are handled by a team of humans from Strategic Advisors, a registered investment advisor and Fidelity company.
Where Fidelity Go falls short
Tax strategy: The company does not offer tax-loss harvesting, one of the features that makes robo-advisors stand out for taxable accounts.
No Speciality portfolio or SRI option: Although Fidelity Go's portfolios are well diversified, they don't offer socially responsible investing options, which can be limiting for some investors.
Fidelity Go is best for
Current Fidelity customers.
Hands-off investors.
Low-cost investment management.
Human portfolio oversight.
Fidelity Go at a glance
Reviewed: Dec. 2022
Period considered: Aug. - Dec. 2022
Account minimum | $0 to open, $10 to start investing. |
Account management fee | Fidelity Go offers a tiered system based on account balance:
|
Investment expense ratios | Fidelity Go uses Fidelity Flex funds, which have 0 expense ratios. |
Account fees (annual, transfer, closing) | None. |
Portfolio mix |
|
Socially responsible portfolio options | Supports Rule 3A4, which allows customers to request reasonable restrictions within a portfolio, but no specialty portfolios or socially responsible investments. |
Accounts supported |
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Tax strategy | No tax-loss harvesting available. Municipal bonds are used in taxable brokerage accounts. |
Automatic rebalancing | Free on all accounts. Accounts monitored daily and rebalanced by investment managers as needed rather than automatically. |
Human advisor option | Clients with a balance over $25,000 get unlimited access to Fidelity Go's advisors. |
Bank account/cash management account option | Fidelity Investments offers a cash management account. Also, Fidelity automatically directs investors' cash in brokerage and retirement accounts into the highest earning cash sweep choice, typically a government money market fund, so customers can benefit from higher rates. |
Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Customer support is available 24/7 by phone. Live chat is available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. |
More details about Fidelity Go's ratings
Account minimum: 5 out of 5 stars
Fidelity requires no minimum deposit to open an account, although you must have at least $10 in your account to begin investing.
Account management fee: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Fidelity Go, the robo-advisor from online broker Fidelity Investments, brings a different pricing model to the market. As noted above, Fidelity Go charges no fees for accounts below $25,000, and an annual fee of 0.35% for account balances above $25,000.
Investment expense ratios: 5 out of 5 stars
Expense ratios are charged annually on mutual funds, index funds and ETFs to cover the cost of managing your investments. This fee is represented as a percentage of your entire investment. Fidelity Go customers have access to Fidelity Flex Funds, Fidelity mutual funds that have zero investment expense ratios.
Account fees: 5 out of 5 stars
Fidelity Go doesn't charge annual or inactivity fees, and does not charge for transferring money, trades, account maintenance or setup.
Portfolio mix: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Customers can choose from 14 portfolios. There are seven taxable, and seven retirement portfolios available. Portfolios are built from Fidelity Flex mutual funds.
The mutual funds cover four asset classes — domestic, foreign, bonds and short term. The mutual funds in each portfolio vary based on your financial goals. This means you know exactly what you’re paying when you sign up for this service — and in many cases, the cost is lower than you'd pay at other robo-advisors when you consider both management fees and fund expenses. Fidelity Go also has an annual review to ensure the chosen investment strategy still works for its customers.
Although Fidelity Go has a somewhat well-diversified portfolio, it lacks exposure to international bonds and non-market-correlated assets such as real estate investment trusts and commodities.
Socially responsible portfolio options: 3 out of 5 stars
Socially responsible investments make it possible for people to invest in companies that align with their values. Fidelity Go doesn’t provide access to specialty portfolios or socially responsible investments. It does support Rule 3A4, which allows customers to request reasonable restrictions within a portfolio.
Accounts supported: 4.5 out of 5 stars
You can open individual and joint nonretirement accounts, as well as Roth, traditional, and rollover IRAs.
Another plus is Fidelity integration. Fidelity Go customers are integrated in the company’s existing retail managed business. Customers who have an IRA or taxable account with Fidelity can easily take advantage of the company's robo offering. Fidelity Go is not available for 401(k)s held at the company, but you can roll over your old 401(k) into a Fidelity Go account.
The robo-advisor also offers Fidelity Go health savings accounts (HSAs) to accounts supported. There are no account fees or minimums to open an HSA with Fidelity Go and anything under $10,000 is managed for free.
Tax strategy: 1 out of 5 stars
The company does not offer tax-loss harvesting, offered by some other robos for free. Tax-loss harvesting involves selling losing investments to offset capital gains taxes from the winners. Fidelity does use tax-advantaged municipal bond funds in taxable accounts, which can help minimize your taxes.
Automatic rebalancing: 5 out of 5 stars
Automatic rebalancing ensures market fluctuations don’t create an imbalance in your asset allocation. The advisors at Fidelity Go rebalance customer portfolios when they move outside of the asset allocation or risk tolerance preferences customers have specified.
Human advisor option: 3 out of 5 stars
Fidelity Go has live chat and phone support staffed by customer service representatives, but they are there to answer account questions, not offer financial planning guidance.
Customers who have a balance of $25,000 or more get access to Fidelity Go's advisors. Advisors coach customers by creating financial plans and outlining steps to reach goals.
Bank account/cash management options: 2 out of 5 stars
Fidelity Investments offers a cash management account, and idle cash in Fidelity Go portfolios is automatically swept into the Fidelity Government Cash Reserves fund, so customers can benefit from higher rates since many competitors sweep into bank deposits instead.
Fidelity Go investors also can fund their accounts with the 2% cash-back rewards earned from the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card.
Customer support options: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Fidelity Go has 24/7 phone support, as well as live chat during extended business hours. It also offers 24/7 virtual assistants, email and social media support, and a Fidelity Investments subreddit where you can get answers to your questions.
Other features you should know
It’s common among broker-launched online advisors to pair computer algorithms with dedicated financial advisors. Fidelity Go takes a different approach, with humans handling investment and trading decisions for portfolios.
That oversight makes Fidelity Go a good choice for those who are reluctant to hand off all of the control to a robot — though those advisors aren’t there to answer your phone calls.
Like other advisors, Fidelity Go uses a questionnaire — designed to gauge your risk tolerance and financial goals — and computer algorithms to match investors to a portfolio. We especially like that without signing up or sharing any personal information, users can take that questionnaire and view a portfolio recommendation and sample investments.
Fidelity Go’s Target Tracking lets customers set goals while Fidelity monitors their progress. Customers also have access to the robo-advisor’s other financial planning tools and apps, as well as the company’s educational resources, which are strong.
Is Fidelity Go right for you?
If you’ve been wanting to test the robo-advisor waters but you feel more comfortable with an established broker, Fidelity Go has a lot to offer. The fees are competitive, and the portfolios are well-diversified and closely monitored by real live humans. There’s also a low account minimum to help you get in the door, especially compared with other broker-owned online advisors.
Investors with taxable accounts, however, will miss the tax-loss harvesting offered by other robo-advisors. Although use of municipal bonds in taxable accounts can help reduce your tax burden.
How do we review robo-advisors?
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for 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.
Anna-Louise Jackson and Tiffany Lam-Balfour contributed to this review.
