Fidelity Go Review 2022: Pros, Cons and How It Compares

Where Fidelity Go shines

Where Fidelity Go falls short

What Fidelity Go is best for

Fidelity Go at a glance

Full details about Fidelity Go

Is Fidelity Go right for you? 

How we review robo-advisors: our methodology

Where Fidelity Go shines

Low cost: Fidelity Go charges no fees for accounts below $10,000, and a flat monthly fee of $3 for account balances between $10,000 and $49,999.

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 human advisor guidance: Although Fidelity Go has investment advisors managing and rebalancing portfolios, these advisors do not give financial planning guidance or answer other investment questions.

Fidelity Go is best for

• Current Fidelity customers.

• Hands-off investors.

• Low-cost investment management.

• Human portfolio oversight.

Fidelity Go at a glance

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 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 $10,000, and a flat monthly fee of $3 for account balances between $10,000 and $49,999. Fidelity charges a 0.35% management fee, with no additional investment expenses, for accounts $50,000 and higher.

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 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: 2 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.

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: 1 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.

For customers who want additional human advice, consider Fidelity's Personalized Planning & Advice (PPA) platform, which has a $25,000 account minimum and 0.5% management fee. With PPA, trained advisors coach customers by creating financial plans and outlining steps to reach goals.

Savings 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 more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Ratings are rounded to the nearest half-star.

For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.