Flexible portfolios

You still have access to the core of Betterment’s advice if you use Flexible Portfolios. We will still provide recommendations about the level of risk you should take in your portfolio, as well as how much to save in order to reach your goal. Review the Advice Tab in your Betterment account to see our advice. While adjusting your portfolio, you will also receive a risk and diversification assessment of your changes. Please note that Betterment will not automatically adjust a Flexible ...

For customers on Betterment’s Digital plan: As always, Betterment provides customers with a recommended portfolio. However, sometimes customers have investing preferences that differ from our advice. Flexible Portfolios provide these customers with additional flexibility to express their preferences. However, we’re unable to provide specific advice on alterations to our recommended core portfolio strategy. For customers on Betterment’s Premium plan: As part of your Premium plan, you can set up ...

As always, Betterment provides customers with a recommended portfolio that is personalized to your goal. However, there may be specific, reasonable scenarios where making adjustments to our recommended portfolio makes sense.

A Flexible Portfolio is constructed from the same individual asset classes (and thus ETFs) included in the Betterment Portfolio Strategy. While you can adjust any of the recommended individual asset class weights to your liking, you cannot choose specific ETFs.

A Flexible Portfolio gives you more control over your investments, and allows you to modify the individual asset class weights in the Betterment portfolio strategy to best fit your preferences. We’ll provide a risk and diversification assessment of your changes. Learn more about when using a Flexible Portfolio might make sense.

You can adjust your existing portfolio strategy by first selecting a goal from the menu. Once you reach your goal's Overview, navigate to Holdings, and click the “Edit” button below “Portfolio Strategy.” If you are creating a new goal, you will be given the option to view “Other portfolio strategies” on the Recommended Portfolio Strategy page as part of the goal creation process.

The diversification rating tells you how concentrated the custom portfolio is relative to an optimized portfolio. An optimal 100% bond portfolio is able to maintain a low level of risk without diversifying across asset classes, and it is possible to diversify across funds within the bond asset class, so it is possible for a 100% bond portfolio be well diversified. It is important to note that all investing has risk regardless of portfolio allocation.

Adjusting an investment portfolio requires careful consideration and experience. The allocation you choose is your responsibility, and your performance may be better or worse than the performance of one of Betterment’s own portfolio strategies with a comparable level of risk. Additionally, although Tax Loss Harvesting+ and Tax Coordination will still work, altering or removing asset classes may impact the effectiveness of these strategies relative to their effectiveness when used with the ...

If you change an existing taxable goal’s portfolio to a Flexible Portfolio you may see an impact on your taxes. Betterment’s Tax Impact Preview will display the estimated impact.

Tax Coordination still works with Flexible Portfolios. If you elect a Flexible Portfolio for your Retirement Goal, all Betterment investment accounts within your Retirement Goal will share the same Flexible Portfolio, with individual asset classes distributed using our asset location strategies. However, altering or removing asset classes may impact the effectiveness of Tax Coordination relative to its effectiveness when used with the Betterment Portfolio Strategy.

Flexible Portfolios are compatible with our tax-smart features, such as Tax Loss Harvesting+, Tax Coordination, and Tax Impact Preview, but altering or removing individual asset classes may impact the effectiveness of these strategies relative to their effectiveness when used with the Betterment Portfolio Strategy.