Our Score: 8
Minimum Deposit: $5,000 or $25,000 depending on plan
Annual Fees: None
Human Advisor Access: Yes
Best For: Charles Schwab is a popular broker that also offers a robo-advisor Schwab Intelligent Portfolio. With portfolio rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting, it’s a comprehensive robo-advisor that helps optimize your portfolio automatically. Just note tax-loss harvesting is for accounts with $50,000 or more in assets.
Schwab Intelligent Portfolio provides a range of ETF investments to match your goals and risk tolerance. You can also invest in other asset classes like real estate, precious metals, and bank loans.
Furthermore, you don’t pay advisory fees or commissions. But if you want unlimited access to a financial planner, you need Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium. This charges a $300 signup fee and $30 per month fee. Premium also requires a minimum balance of $25,000.
Potential Drawbacks: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios has a high minimum account requirement, and this is the main drawback.
Fees: You don’t pay annual fees with Schwab Intelligent Portfolio. However, Schwab Intelligent Portfolio invests in Schwab ETFs, which have fees like other ETFs. Expect to pay 0.05% to 0.25% depending on the ETF.
Pros:
- No annual fees
- Variety of investment options
- Access to human advisors with Premium
Cons:
- High minimum account requirements, especially for Premium
- High balance requirement for tax-loss harvesting