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Because of my previous success with FutureAdvisor, I rank it among the best automated financial advisors. One of its primary benefits over rivals is the fact that many of its services are provided at no cost to users. One of my favorite elements of it is the thorough research it provides about retiring. This application allows you to connect accounts and obtain recommendations based on your portfolio and financial goals. As a result, I am able to better plan for my retirement using the information provided by the application.
If you are ready to invest a little more money, there is an option that is of a higher quality. Your account is required to have a minimum balance of $5,000 and a 0.50% maintenance fee at all times. My experiences lead me to believe that the all-encompassing portfolio management offered by this premium service ought to be given some thought. It rebalances itself automatically, which saves time.
You have access to financial consultants who can provide you with individualized guidance, and tax-loss harvesting is a strategy that could help improve your tax status. When it came to the management of my money, these aspects meshed together quite nicely. Your accounts will either be held with Fidelity or TD Ameritrade, both of which are reputable brokerage businesses, which is a reassuring aspect of the FutureAdvisor platform. I am grateful for the increased sense of safety and trust that it provides for my financial interests.
FutureAdvisor Specifications
The creation of an account is completely free. You will also be able to get free analyses and recommendations on how to improve your savings for retirement if you have an account. Creating a link between your other investment accounts and your FutureAdvisor account is all that is required of you.
Feature | FutureAdvisor |
---|---|
Account management fee | 0.50% |
Minimum account balance | $10,000 |
Account types | Individual, joint, trust, custodial, SEP IRA, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SIMPLE IRA, 529 plan |
Investment options | ETFs, mutual funds |
Tax-loss harvesting | Yes |
Automatic portfolio rebalancing | Yes |
Access to financial advisors | Yes, by phone, online chat, or email |
Other features | Portfolio analysis, retirement planning tools |
What is FutureAdvisor?

It is run by a group of finance experts, data scientists, and software engineers, and it has the same startup capitalists that backed PayPal and Google. There are both individual and joint taxed investment accounts that can be managed directly by the service. IRAs, such as standard, Roth, rollover, and SEP IRAs, can also be managed directly by the company.
You let the service trade in your accounts on your behalf when you choose direct control. FutureAdvisor has changed some of their services since the last update. They now have new features and services that can help you meet your personal, retirement, and other life goals.
FutureAdvisor review: Key Features
Signing up gets you free portfolio analysis and coaching. Accounts and mobile apps are free. DIY investors seeking strategy advice would appreciate this free research. Link your other investing accounts to FutureAdvisor or manually report your holdings. FutureAdvisor Premium offers daily tax-loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing. Tax-loss harvesting is frequent in portfolio management.
ETFs in your portfolio that lose money are sold and replaced with identical ones. Selling for a loss offsets gains taxes and lowers your tax burden. Performing tax-loss harvesting daily would be onerous, but the corporation has software that handles all the details. (Only taxable accounts can harvest tax losses.
Retirement accounts don’t profit from tax-loss harvesting. Also, the company automatically rebalances your portfolio. You can quickly lose your optimal asset balance if you trade everyday for tax-loss harvesting since stocks grow at various rates. Portfolio equities are balanced through automatic rebalancing.
FutureAdvisor review: Fees
Management costs 0.50% annually at Future Advisor. The value of your investment portfolio determines this quarterly charge. Not too competitive either. Compared to Betterment and Wealthfront, which charge 0.25% per account, no. FutureAdvisor’s 0.50% fee seems unappealing compared to M1 Finance, Schwab, and SoFi, which have no management fees. Another consideration: trading fees.
When rebalancing your portfolio, FutureAdvisor may charge trading fees depending on your asset allocation strategy. Fidelity Investments and TD Ameritrade hold FutureAdvisor accounts and charge $24 to $50 each mutual fund transaction, depending on the fund.
FutureAdvisor review: Using
The cost of FutureAdvisor’s managed portfolio services is.50% of the assets under management (AUM). These services include converting your existing portfolio to one that minimizes your tax liability as well as trading so that your new portfolio can be built in a tax-conscious manner.
If you are just starting out in the world of investing and have all of your money stored in IRAs, then tax-efficient and tax-aware strategies won’t add much value to your portfolio in general. The company can easily liquidate some of its holdings and reinvest the proceeds in the strategies it has advocated.
FutureAdvisor review: Investing Library

Visit the Investing Library on FutureAdvisor to browse through a multitude of guides and articles. Begin with an introductory topic such as “How to Get Started Investing.” Because there are suggestions on how to invest $10,000 as well as advise on how to invest $500,000, you get comprehensive guidance on how to manage your savings. There are also specific topics, and as a result, you might find an investment how-to guide here.
You can get step-by-step instructions on how to open an individual retirement account (IRA) or how to diversify your portfolio. Setting goals is another topic that can be found on FutureAdvisor. In addition to offering advice on investments, they discuss other topics relevant to retirement planning, such as the costs of housing and healthcare. In addition to that, they offer assistance with 401(k) and 529 savings programs for education.
Final Words
Simply giving FutureAdvisor a shot to make use of its free services proved to be a very good investment in my opinion. The account analysis that they supplied, together with the reminders to rebalance it, helped me gain useful insights into the management of my own investment portfolio. This platform is especially useful for people in my situation, who already have accounts with Fidelity or TD Ameritrade and would like not move their money in order to use the services of a robo-advisor like Betterment or Wealthfront.
On the other hand, I’ve learned that there are other advisory services out there that provide a comparable level of support with account management. These services may, however, charge lower management fees and have lower restrictions for the minimum amount of money in an account. It is therefore in your best interest to investigate the many possibilities available to you so that you can select the solution that corresponds most closely to the preferences you have for your individual finances.
The Good and Bad
Users who already have investment accounts with Fidelity or TD Ameritrade and are interested in automated portfolio management with a focus on the long term are the best candidates for FutureAdvisor.
The Good
- Free portfolio analysis and recommendations
- Tax-loss harvesting
The Bad
- Higher management fee than some robo-advisors
Questions and Answers
The robo-advisor FutureAdvisor provides clients with automated administration of their investment portfolios. When it comes to individual retail investors, the platform only handles assets for customers who have accounts with either Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade is the only other broker that is supported.
The creation of an account is completely free. You will also be able to get free analyses and recommendations on how to improve your savings for retirement if you have an account. Creating a link between your other investment accounts and your FutureAdvisor account is all that is required of you.