Betterment offers several fee plans for our investing services. Below we’ve listed a pricing breakdown according to account type and additional fee information.
Stocks and Bonds Investing Accounts
Betterment’s investment advice is available for 0.25% (25 bps) per year or $4 per month. While it will impact our fees, Betterment does not require you to maintain a minimum balance for your account. We call this our Digital plan because you receive our advice online. The Digital pricing plan for our stocks and bonds investing accounts is determined by your total Betterment investing balance (based on your combined balance across any stocks and bonds investing accounts, Cash Reserve, and cash goals you hold at Betterment) and your recurring deposit setup.
- If your household balance is below $20,000, and you do not have at least $250/mo in recurring deposits enabled across your household’s Betterment account(s), you will be charged $4 per month.
- If your household balance is equal to or above $20,000, or if you have $250/mo or greater in recurring deposits enabled across your household’s Betterment account(s), you will be charged an annual fee of 0.25% (25 bps).
For 0.65% (65 bps) per year, you can also gain over-the-phone and/or email access to our team of CFP® professionals who can provide in-depth advice on all your investments as well as help you manage your Betterment account by making changes for you, based on your directions. This Premium plan requires a minimum investing balance of $100,000 (based on your combined balance across any taxable stock and bond investing accounts, IRA, HSA accounts you hold at Betterment). Learn more about additional Premium and our pricing.
Balances in excess of $2M
If the balance of your stocks and bonds investing account(s) is in excess of $2 million (excluding cash balances held in Cash Reserve, cash goals, Betterment Checking, HSA balances, and 401(k) balances through Betterment at Work), you will receive a 10bps discount on the portion of your balance above $2 million:
Stocks and Bonds Investing Accounts
Digital: 0.15% (15 bps) per year
Premium: 0.55% (55 bps) per year
Balances are calculated based on household. If you qualify for part of your balance to be managed free and have a balance above $2 million, the dollars managed free will be those with the higher fee.
Calculating Fees
Betterment’s pricing plan fee calculation varies depending on your plan. To read in-depth about this topic, please visit this resource.
Your total fees can be found on “Activity“, filtered by “Fees”, for a customizable time frame. You can then download a CSV statement to quickly total your fees.
What does the fee get you?
For traditional securities investing accounts, Betterment’s fee covers the investment advice you receive, your portfolio management, all trading and custody fees associated with your account, transfers, and all other account administration.
Are there any transaction fees?
We do not charge you additional transaction fees to buy and sell securities within your stocks and bonds portfolios. Any fund held in this type of portfolio at Betterment will assess fund-level fees, called expense ratios, but Betterment aims to keep these costs low, and we receive no part of these fees. Learn more about each fund fee here.
Fees on Cash Accounts
Finally, Betterment does not charge any account fees for Betterment Checking or Cash Reserve. In regards to Cash Reserve, Betterment LLC only receives compensation from our program banks.
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