Betterment Adds Human Advice To Robo Offering

Comments
Loading...

One of the biggest robo-advisors has turned into a cyborg.

Betterment announced Tuesday that it would add different levels of service plans to its robo-advisor product, the more expensive versions of which give users the option to consult with a human financial advisor.

Betterment service will be divided into three tiers: Betterment Digital, Betterment Plus and Betterment Premium.

What Betterment Provides

Betterment Digital is the company’s main-line robo-advisor, with a fee of 25 basis points. Plus offers investors a yearly consultation call with a team of Betterment staff CFPs who will monitor their accounts, with a fee of 40 basis points. Betterment Premium gives users unlimited access to those financial planners, who will offer them advice throughout the year at a cost of 50 basis points.

“Adding the human element helps further the Betterment mission, because now we can serve any kind of client that comes to us,” said Alex Benke, vice president of financial advice at Betterment.

The Importance Of Relationships And Betterment's Platform

As Betterment customers have gotten older and wealthier in recent years, Benke said that they began to request financial planning advice. Benke said that Betterment’s staff advisors have experience at firms like Vanguard, Merrill Lynch and PNC.

Betterment Plus users won’t always get the same advisors year-over-year, but advisors will be briefed on customer accounts so that they don’t give contradictory advice, said Benke.

“Continuity of the relationship is very important to us,” he said.

Benke built technology products at JPMorgan before jumping to Betterment five years ago.

“Betterment is a place where I can take useful financial advice and help potentially hundreds of thousands of people rather than a hundred,” he said.

Learn more about how Betterment CEO Jon Stein got his start in this profile.

If you’re looking for cool fintech startups and access to top financial institutions, and are sick of attending stuffy corporate conferences, the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards is the event for you. From its first year in 2015, the competition grew to over 250 applicants and over 500 attendees in 2016.

 

Connect with us on social media @BZAwards — use the hashtag #BZAwards and #Fintech to spread the word!

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Posted In:
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!
fintech-banner
Fintech Focus Newsletter
Your update on what's going on in the Fintech space. Keep up-to-date with news, valuations, mergers, funding, and events. Sign up today!