Betterment.com Gets Even Better: Introducing IRAs and Lower Fees

Betterment.com Gets Even Better: Introducing IRAs and Lower Fees February 22, 2012

Just when you thought that investing couldn’t get any simpler, Betterment is announcing some changes that make it even better.  Two new changes are happening with Betterment, and they’re definitely good things!

If you’re not familiar with Betterment, take a look at our Betterment Review.

First, Betterment IRAs (click to read our review) are available for everyone.  In the past, you had to have an after tax brokerage account in order to have an IRA, but now anyone can join Betterment and open an IRA.  You can even roll your old 401(k) or other IRAs into your Betterment IRA.  With both a Roth and Traditional IRA option, Betterment has you covered.  And since automatic contributions are a cinch, you’ll watch your account grow each month like it’s on autopilot.

The second change to Betterment involves their fees – they’re getting lower!  You’ll find fees at any place you invest your money, so the lower they are, the better it is for you.

Current Betterment customers have the option to stay with the same fee structure of 0.3% – 0.9% of their balance if they want.  However, they may want to look at the new options and lower their fee.

There are three categories:

Builder, Better, and Best

Builder: You’ll lower your annual fee to 0.35% when you set up automatic deposits of $100 a month.  There’s no minimum balance required and you still have access to the Betterment portfolio of funds.

Better: If your balance is $10,000 you’ll qualify for the 0.25% annual fee.  You also have the ability to make next day transfers into and out of your accounts.

Best:  For those with account balances of $100,000 or more, your annual fee is only 0.15%.  You’ll also have the option to make next day transfers as well as have the ability to customize your portfolio.

Making Your Investing Experience Better

If you don’t qualify for the Better or Best categories, you can still take advantage of the added features (like next day transfers, etc.) by paying a small annual fee.  See the betterment site for a breakdown of the added features that you can pay for a la carte.

For new customers, you’ll have 30 days to experience all the features of Betterment before you are required to choose to a specific category.  In other words, you can experience the full version of Betterment for free during the first 30 days, then you can choose which category and features suit you best.

Of course, for existing customers, you can choose to stay with the same plan that you started with and choose to add these new features down the road.

Betterment $25 Bonus Still Here

Open an account with Betterment and get $25 sign up bonus! Click Here!

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Are you invested with Betterment? What do you think of the changes?


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