But others may want a more personal experience when it comes to their portfolio and rebalancing. You do have 24/7 access to customer service representatives and brokers. These brokers can help you understand investing, make better investing decisions and manage your account. Fidelity Investments is back again with another blowout performance in Bankrate’s reviews. This broker seems to do it all right, from low costs to plenty of research to mutual funds to prompt and courteous customer service.

Merrill Lynch offers a more expensive alternative to Ally Invest and E-Trade Core Portfolios with Merrill Edge Guided Investing. Merrill Edge Guided Investing provides more of a choice than E-Trade does, with products available to different kinds of investors whether hands-on or not. When you choose to trade and invest online yourself, you will see a higher price of $6.95. There is an opportunity to qualify for $0 trades, though, with preferred rewards. If you choose to go with Merrill Edge Guided Investing, you will also see a higher annual fee and minimum balance requirement of 0.45% and $5,000 respectively. This option allows you to invest online and benefit from professional advice and management.

Tax loss harvesting just means selling off losing investments to balance out the winners in your portfolio. Diversification matters for keeping the right balance in your portfolio so you don’t take more risk than you’re comfortable with. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios solely offers stock and bond ETFs, mainly iShares ETFs and Vanguard ETFs. Here it’s also worth pointing out Ally’s “cash-enhanced” portfolio option, which is its standard way of constructing a portfolio. People interested in socially responsible investing try to generate positive returns for their portfolio while using their dollars to support companies that align with their values. There can be other ancillary costs an investor might need to pay, especially when closing your account.

• Merrill offers several positives, including access to human advisors and low-cost investment funds, but premium features such as tax-loss harvesting are missing.
• Bonds always cost $1 per bond, and no-load mutual funds will run you $9.95 per trade.
• Compared to other robo-advisors, Ally scores a win for using some of the lowest-cost ETFs.
• Options trading is different on the different platforms, too, with the Ally Invest website required to use all the tools.
• You cannot, however, combine self-directed and robo investment accounts, and Ally Invest Robo Portfolios’ minimum balance requirements are separate from any other assets held at Ally.

We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios allows you to select from four portfolio options to target your future goals. One option is its Socially Responsible portfolio, which invests in companies with ethical track records and actively focuses on sustainability, energy efficiency or other environmentally friendly practices.

Account Types

If you’ve got at least $2,500 to invest, you can build a professionally managed portfolio automatically. You’ll need at least $100 to use Ally Invest, but you won’t need to worry about advisory fees unless you open a margin-focused portfolio. Personal Capital customers will get an experience that more closely resembles that of a traditional financial advisor than a robo-advisor, but you’ll need at least $100,000 to get started. You’ll also get a comprehensive tax strategy to help minimize what you owe to Uncle Sam. But this higher level of service does come at an above average cost compared to the rest of the robo-advisor industry.

• Investors will have two options to allocate their portfolio funds, the cash-enhanced and market-enhanced portfolios.
• We then developed a quantitative model that scored each company to rate its performance across nine major categories and 57 criteria to find the best robo-advisors.
• It comes with no management fee, but creates a far more conservative investment strategy than some investors need — especially younger investors with long time horizons to ride out the ups and downs of the stock market.
• After making your initial investment, Ally will create recommendations based on the goals you wish to achieve.
• Online brokerages usually offer multiple assets, trading tools, and other educational resources.

Ally calls it a “cash buffer.” It’s handy to have cash in volatile times, but this much in cash is also probably how the company makes money while not charging management fees. The broker offers 24/7 phone support and an online chat function to quickly route you to a representative. There are also more conventional means, such as email, though customers don’t have the option of going to a physical branch for assistance. But this latter point probably shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for most investors.

Our team of researchers gathered 2425 data points and weighted 66 criteria based on data collected during extensive research for each of the 25 companies we reviewed. Ally Invest offers solid options for both active and ally invest review passive investors at industry-low fees. It stands out for its robo-advisor platform that offers four different portfolio types to choose from and an interest-earning cash cushion that balances out potential market risk.

Ally Invest Robo Portfolios Review 2023: Pros, Cons and How It Compares

This is why it’s always important to do your own research in addition to the BBB’s findings. Make sure to do your own research, reach customer reviews, and talk with peers that have used Ally Invest Robo Portfolios. Share your thoughts on how we could improve our resources to simplify your banking decisions.

The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. Matt is a Certified Financial Planner® and investment advisor based in Columbia, South Carolina. He writes personal finance and investment advice for The Ascent and its parent company The Motley Fool, with more than 4,500 published articles and a 2017 SABEW Best in Business award. Matt writes a weekly investment column (“Ask a Fool”) that is syndicated in USA Today, and his work has been regularly featured on CNBC, Fox Business, MSN Money, and many other major outlets.

Ally Invest offers commission-free trading and four different types of managed portfolios.

You would then click on the individual investment account to move to the Ally Invest home web page for that account; you can toggle between managed and self-directed brokerage accounts from the Ally Invest page. Finally, current Ally bank customers can take advantage of full integration with their other Ally accounts. This allows you to access all of your financial information across devices, from checking and savings, even to home and auto loans. You can log onto Ally on your computer, tablet, or phone for a comprehensive experience. One feature that stands out with Ally Invest is that you have the ability to adjust the recommendations you receive. Your suggested allocations typically include stocks, bonds (both U.S. and foreign), and cash.

Notably, Ally frames risk in terms of hypothetical gains and losses you might experience in a given risk level’s portfolio to really bring home the amount of volatility and risk you’re signing up for. Some competitors offer access to human financial planners, which could help you with advice for a variety of situations like retirement strategies, saving for college, and buying a house. Ally Invest Robo Portfolio accounts don’t offer this option — all of the financial advice is automated, so this platform is best for hands-off investors.

Who Owns Ally Invest Robo Portfolios?

Customers can open an interest-bearing checking account, stash cash in a CD, high-yield savings or money market account, apply for mortgage and auto financing, and take out a personal loan — all from the comfort of home. Tax-loss harvesting is when stocks in your portfolio are automatically sold at a loss in order to minimize your capital gains. Fractional shares let you purchase a portion of a share to maximize the invested money in your account, rather than having leftover cash sitting without growing. Users also appreciate Ally Invest’s transparency when it comes to pricing. There’s no annual account fee on top of the management fee as some brokerages charge.

It is, however, pretty standard for brokerage companies offering currency trading to use a dedicated platform specific to that market. Learn more about how Ally Invest works, how much it costs, and who it’s best for. With so many robo-advisors on the market today, it’s more important than ever to weigh your options before making a choice. Clients with larger balances may also find the lack of more sophisticated features, like tax-loss harvesting and financial advisor access, off putting.

Ally Invest Robo Portfolios Pros and Cons

Live brokerage accounts were also obtained for most of the platforms we reviewed, which our team of expert writers and editors used to perform hands-on testing in order to lend their qualitative point of view. Ally Invest allows account owners to transfer free cash from their investment account into a deposit account at Ally Bank so it can earn interest. Ally has made this cash management a seamless process, but it still requires customers to make the transfers into and out of the investment account rather than through an automatic sweep.

This all-in-one app fits that bill well and is simple to navigate and use. You’ll be able to deposit checks, transfer money between accounts, pay bills, check tax forms, access savings tools, find ATMs and perform a number of other banking activities. Unlike many brokers, Ally Invest doesn’t have a dedicated app for its brokerage activities.