Pros
• No annual account management fee and a low account minimum
• Customizable portfolio options based on your goals and priorities
• Earn interest on cash
• 24/7 customer support availability
Cons
• No tax-loss harvesting offered
• Access to a human advisor comes with a $100,000 account minimum
• Market-focused portfolios will incur a fee
Ally Invest offers an automated individual retirement account through their Robo Portfolio IRA that features a low account minimum and no annual account management fee with plenty of customizable portfolio options to tailor your investment strategy around. If you like the idea of having a higher allocation towards interest-earning cash, then the cash-enhanced portfolio type may be what you’re looking for.
An Ally Invest Robo Portfolio comes with two different portfolio types. A cash-enhanced portfolio doesn’t charge an annual management fee, rebalancing fee, or any other annual charges, but requires 30% of your investment to be reserved for an interest-earning cash buffer. The other portfolio type is a market-focused portfolio which reduces the cash allocation to 2% but comes with a 0.3% annual management fee.
Outside of the portfolio types offered, you can choose between four main portfolio options. A socially responsible portfolio prioritizes investments in sustainable and environmentally friendly companies. A tax-optimized portfolio optimizes your earnings for tax benefits with more asset allocation towards municipal bonds. A core portfolio choice offers a more traditional asset allocation, with the option to customize based on risk tolerance. Finally, an income portfolio prioritizes dividends with a lower risk tolerance to minimize the impact of market volatility. All portfolios include a mix of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
When selecting your portfolio choice, it can be wise to discuss investment strategy and retirement planning with a qualified financial advisor. This should help you feel more confident in your financial planning, and your financial advisor can also help you consider additional strategies around wealth management, passive investing, diversification, and optimizing for further tax benefits.
Start your 401(k) rollover to an Ally Invest IRA in minutes.
An Ally Invest Robo Portfolio IRA comes with solid customer service. You can reach customer support 24/7 through phone, live chat, and email. If you wish to speak to a portfolio specialist, they are available Monday through Friday between 8 am and 5:30 pm Eastern.
It’s important to note that Ally requires a $100,000 account minimum to get dedicated advice from a human advisor.
Phone Number: 1-855-880-2559
Phone Hours: Phone support 24/7
Fax: 1-866-699-0563
Email Address: support@invest.ally.com
Support Center: https://www.ally.com/help/invest/self-directed/
Ally offers a range of individual retirement account types to choose from—alongside other types of investment accounts like brokerage accounts. For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with the various iterations of the Ally IRA that investors might choose from.
Traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are funded with pre-tax dollars, which offer the account holder a tax break in the year contributions are made. The funds are then allowed to grow tax-free, though they are taxed as regular income in retirement. They also carry no income limitations for direct contributions.
Like all Roth IRAs, Ally’s Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars—so although you won’t get a tax break in the short term, the long-term tax benefits are many. For one thing, Roth accounts mean account holders can take out tax-free funds once they reach retirement age (so long as the Roth five-year rule has been followed). Furthermore, Roth IRAs don’t carry required minimum distributions (RMDs) as do most other types of retirement plans, making them an attractive option for those looking to pass down a tax-free asset to their heirs.
A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA allows self-employed people and small business owners to maximize retirement funds by contributing on both the employer and employee side. If you qualify for this kind of retirement fund, you can open one at Ally.
If you’ve got an old retirement account hiding somewhere, rolling it over can help ensure you know where all of your retirement money is — and that you’re actively managing it so it can go to work for you. Once you’ve found your old 401(k), the process to roll over that 401(k) to an IRA can be daunting. Ally’s rollover IRA simplifies the process, and Capitalize’s specialists can manage the entire process step by step.
Ally Bank customers can move up to $250,000 per day from their bank account into their Ally Invest account, making investing for current banking customers a seamless process that takes just a couple of minutes. Ally also offers retirement planning tools in the form of educational articles and quizzes.
Current Ally Financial customers, along with beginner and hands-off investors, may appreciate the seamless and customizable features of an Ally Invest Robo Portfolio IRA. The no annual management fee and low account minimum also stand out, along with solid customer support availability and a socially responsible portfolio option.
If you’re looking to fund your new Ally Invest Automated IRA with a 401(k) rollover, Capitalize can help. We’ve made it our mission to make this process easier for everyone. We can handle the entire process for you. Most of the process can be done online and our rollover experts will guide you through any of the manual parts. Get started with your 401(k) to IRA rollover in just a few minutes.
