Playbook Review

Playbook Ratings at a Glance

Playbook was designed to help people earning more than $100,000 annually to keep as much of their money as possible by helping them identify areas where they can save on taxes. By dividing your investments between multiple tax advantaged accounts, you can maximize the amount of money that you can save when tax season rolls around. Playbook uses its own unique online app to learn more about your retirement accounts through artificial intelligence and make recommendations where and how you should invest to pay as little in taxes as possible. This way, you get to save more money towards your future financial goals and retirement plan by keeping a larger percentage of your income.

Playbook helps you strategically invest your money through multiple accounts, helping you save on your tax liabilities and keep a higher percentage of your income. 

When you sign up with an account from Playbook, you’ll start by completing a short series of questions relating to your current accounts and how you presently save and invest. You’ll be asked to link your retirement accounts, IRAs, checking or savings accounts, your 401(k) and your personal brokerage account if you have one. Playbook uses the accounts that you link to calculate your total net worth, so it’s beneficial to link all of your accounts, even if you are only actively contributing to a few select options.

After linking your accounts, you’ll be asked some additional questions about your employer’s 401(k) match program; this data helps Playbook better illustrate just how much you might be able to take advantage of when you invest through your employer-sponsored account. The application uses this data to alert you when you aren’t taking full advantage of your matching percentage. You’ll fill out how much your employer matches based on your income or your contributions and receive messages that help you stay on track towards making the most of this program. If your employer doesn’t offer a 401(k)-match program or if you don’t have a 401(k) account, you can still use Playbook.

From here, Playbook will analyze your accounts and any contributions that your employers make to your retirement accounts to locate missed opportunities to save using tax-advantaged strategies. The application takes a holistic approach to financial planning, helping you reach multiple financial goals over time. With Playbook, your plan is fully customizable, and you can adjust your goals at any point in time. After submitting your information and getting started on your plan, you can see a trendline that represents just how much you’ll be saving through the strategies put into place by Playbook. Straightforward, easy-to-understand and with a single flat-rate monthly fee, Playbook users get recommendations on saving and investing based on their unique income streams and goals. 

Playbook currently offers two separate methods that you can use to get in touch with its customer service team, including the following.

• By email: To get in contact with Playbook’s customer service team by email, send a message to hello@helloplaybook.com.
• Via phone: To get in touch with Playbook’s customer service team via phone, call 415-805-2040. No specific customer service hours are currently listed on the company’s website.

In the future, it would be great to see Playbook expand its customer service options to include an enhanced FAQ section to empower users to learn more about the platform and how they can save on taxes on their own time. For example, some competing platforms offer educational centers that users can take advantage of to better understand how the platform uses investment contributions to lower tax liabilities. 

Playbook employs the same level of security over its accounts holders as some of the top banking institutions in the world. Playbook users have their data encrypted with 256-bit SSL encryption. This is the highest level of encryption currently possible for banking information. This type of encryption uses a 256-bit key to scramble information, meaning that a hacker would need to test trillions of potential keys in order to hack your account. This is virtually impossible, even when using some of the fastest computers in the world — meaning that when you enter your login information with Playbook, only you have access to your personal info.  

Playbook charges a single monthly fee of $29 in exchange for its services and no additional or hidden fees collected on Playbook accounts, and you’ll be charged on a monthly basis. You are free to cancel your subscription at any time with no charges. There are currently no available discounts for enrolling in Playbook annually, which is a feature offered by many other wealth management platforms.

Unlike some other wealth management software providers, Playbook does not bill you based on assets under management (AUM) held in your account. For example, imagine that you have $200,000 in retirement savings spread across multiple investing accounts. With most financial planning and wealth management apps, you’d expect to pay between 0.25% and 0.5% of your AUM annually in exchange for using the platform. With a balance of $200,000 in assets, this means that you might expect to pay between $500 and $1,000 each year on your account. However, no matter what type of assets you have under management on your Playbook account, you’ll pay a flat-rate fee of $19 per month.

This setup and structure can be beneficial for high-net-worth users, as the $228 annual fee paid to Playbook is not based on the total value of your combined accounts. However, if you have a lower net worth, the fee that you’ll pay to use Playbook may be comparable to competing platforms. 

Playbook offers a range of benefits over competing financial planning platforms, including the following.

• Flat-rate pricing: Unlike other financial planning applications, Playbook does not charge a percentage of your assets under management in exchange for its services. Instead, you’ll pay a single flat-rate $19 monthly to use Playbook. This feature can be especially beneficial for investors who earn more than $100,000 a year, as these investors are less likely to benefit from percentage-based pricing.
• No contracts or cancellation fees: With Playbook, you can cancel your account at any time if you’re unsatisfied with the service. It also offers a free trial, which you can use to get a full picture of its functionality before you commit to a paid month of the service.
• Allows you to set multiple financial goals: The users at Playbook often have multiple financial goals that they’re saving towards, including everything from international vacations to retirement planning. You can input and adjust your goals as you achieve them, allowing Playbook to help optimize your investments to accommodate multiple achievements on both short-term and long-term horizons. 

Getting started using Playbook is exceptionally simple and easy. Just enter a bit of personal information, link your accounts and get started managing your financial path. You can link as many or as few financial accounts as you wish — though you’ll get a more complete and accurate picture of your financial health when you link multiple accounts. Playbook even helps keep you motivated to make progress towards your financial goals by showing you a trendline that lays out your investing journey. These features make it easy enough for anyone to get started with Playbook and see exactly where and how they’re saving money. 

Playbook vs. Competitors

Playbook isn’t the only financial planning tool available on the market. Depending on your investing and saving goals, you might be able to find tax advantages and opportunities to save with platforms like Betterment, Wealthfront, Acorns, Everydollar and Ellevest. Benzinga has reviewed some of the top competing Playbook platforms to help you make the most educated decision possible when choosing how you want to track your financial goals. You may want to consider beginning your search with the table below. 

If you’re unfamiliar with just how much you might be able to save on taxes or you’re interested in learning how to maximize investments and returns through strategic contributions, Playbook could be a strong platform for you. No matter how much money you have in your account, you’ll be charged a flat-rate fee of $19 per month, and you don’t need to pay any percentage of your assets held under management to the platform. This feature can be a unique advantage for investors who have a higher net worth, as the majority of competing platforms charge a sliding scale percentage-based fee depending on the assets in your account.

While Playbook is easy and straightforward to use, it does have areas where it can be improved. Information on the inner workings of Playbook is scarce, and the platform does not offer online educational tools for its users to educate themselves on tax investments. Playbook also doesn’t offer a mobile app, which can be inconvenient for investors who are always on the go. 

Frequently Asked Questions