FinTech News
Robo-Advisor Platform Betterment Adds Self-Directed Investing
A company known for its robo-advisory tools is mixing it up by bringing self-directed investment options to the service.
About Betterment’s Self-Directed Investment Platform:
Betterment is bringing self-directed investing to its platform. Now, customers can trade thousands of stocks and ETFs without paying commission fees. This comes as the company says three-quarters of its customers have self-directed brokerage accounts elsewhere.
One feature included in the self-directed trading platform is Tax Impact Preview. With this too, traders can gain insight into how selling an asset could impact their taxes. Elsewhere, the platform allows for fractional share trading, allowing customers to buy a certain dollar amount of an asset rather than a full share.
According to Betterment, the expansion into self-directed trading is a prelude to more features that will arrive next year. Upcoming additions include support for direct indexing, investor personalization tools, and more. These particular features are expected to arrive in the first half of 2026.
Notably, Betterment’s new self-directed investing platform is exempt from the service’s management fee. Currently, its automated investment tool (AKA a robo-advisor) costs $4 a month for those with balances under $20,000 or 0.25% annually for those with balances between $20,000 and $1 million or who have recurring deposits of at least $250.
What They’re Saying:
Discussing why Betterment is adding self-directed trading support, the company’s CEO Sarah Levy explained, “Investing isn’t binary, it’s a spectrum. Our customers want the ability to pick stocks and ETFs alongside their managed accounts. By bringing these capabilities to Betterment, we’re delivering a more holistic investing and savings solution on one trusted platform.”
Commenting specifically on of the platform’s star features, Levy added, “Tools like our Tax Impact Preview are game-changers. They empower customers to make informed, confident decisions at the moment of trade, something that’s never been done before in self-directed investing.”
My Thoughts:
There is something kind of funny about self-directed investing being added as though it were some groundbreaking idea. Of course, to their credit, Betterment isn’t acting as though this is a disruptive development. Instead, they point out that the potential to integrate something a vast majority of their customers are already doing could be beneficial for them.
I’m also interested in Betterment’s Tax Impact Preview, which sounds pretty useful. Considering tax loss harvesting is often highlighted as a robo-advisor advantage, it’s smart that the company brought a piece of that to this new product.
With Betterment teasing further expansion in 2026, I look forward to seeing what the FinTech has up its sleeve.
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