Betterment IRA vs Fidelity Go IRA

Betterment: best if you want

Betterment was one of the first companies to provide fully managed accounts for a low-fee, launching its extremely popular service in 2008. It’s commonly referred to as a “roboadvisor”, and it pioneered the category along with several other players like Wealthfront. Betterment has grown rapidly over the years and now manages almost $30 billion of investment assets.

Despite its growth and a broadening range of services, Betterment has retained its customer-first philosophy. At its core, Betterment offers an easy-to-use service that manages your money for you. This is often referred to as a “set-it-and-forget-it” portfolio and it’s best for those who don’t want to be actively picking investments in their retirement account.

Fidelity: best if you want

A Fidelity Go account is a great choice for investors looking for expert advice from one of the biggest names in retirement savings. The Fidelity Go robo-advisor is a low-cost solution that makes retirement planning easier for beginning investors. Fidelity’s robo advisor invests primarily in Fidelity Flex funds including asset classes like domestic stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, and short-term investments. This helps give investors a well-diversified retirement profile right from the start. With its $0 account minimum balance and $0 advisory fees for accounts under $25,000, a Fidelity Go portfolio is also a solid pick for investors with lower start-up capital for an initial deposit.

Fidelity Go customers still enjoy the benefits of live financial advice once their account reaches a balance of $25,000 or more. Fidelity’s financial advisor team can help investors tackle regular strategizing conversations like annual reviews of retirement account performance and one-off questions about budgeting, managing debt, investment strategy, achieving financial goals, and more.

Fidelity: other features

Fidelity offers key features like its advisory clients access to research and financial planning tools regardless of their level of assets under management. In addition, investing at Fidelity means you may be eligible for other benefits, such as a Fidelity Rewards Signature Visa card. The Signature Visa card comes with a $0 annual fee and can help you earn up to 2% cash back, which can be deposited directly into an eligible Fidelity investment account (including an IRA!).

Fidelity also offers a cash management account that can help you earn higher-than-average interest on your uninvested assets. A cash management account is also available with no management fee or account minimums.

Conclusion

Betterment offers one of the best digitally managed IRAs in the market today. Their commitment to doing right by the customer and providing simple-to-use products make it a very good choice for people looking to have their retirement account handled for a low-fee.

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Fidelity Go is a good option for investors looking for an expertly managed IRA but still want to maintain some autonomy in the mix of investment options chosen. It’s also great for investors looking for a platform that offers the low fees of a robo-advisor who likes the idea of having the account monitored by real people (and eventually working with them one-on-one). Fidelity’s commitment to making investing easy and accessible for everyone is a very good choice for people looking to have their retirement handled at a low cost.

If you’re looking to fund your new Fidelity Go 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.