Investments

Why we're here

To help make the most of your money.

Betterment takes proven investment strategies that have been around for decades and uses technology to make them more efficient.

Save more on taxes

Automated trading and tax-saving strategies, including asset location and tax loss harvesting, can help reduce tax impact.

  We can help determine which combination of traditional, Roth, and taxable accounts - all taxed differently - may be appropriate for your specific situation.

  Betterment uses ETFs which are generally more tax-efficient and lower-cost than mutual funds, which is why they have all-ETF portfolios.

  Assets are organized based on taxes. High-tax assets belong in IRAs and low-tax assets belong in taxable accounts. We can help you decide if turning on the automated asset location feature is right for your situation.

When you make a deposit or receive dividends...

  Your portfolio is rebalanced.

Rebalancing can help protect your portfolio from market volatility, but doing it by selling securities can cost you in taxes. To help avoid this, rebalancing uses deposits and dividends.

When you make a withdrawal or change your allocation...

  The tool works to minimize transaction taxes.

To help lower transaction taxes, your assets are sold in a specific order - the ones with the lowest tax burden go first.

If a fund loses value...

  The tool harvests tax losses.

When investments lose value, you can sell them to help offset the taxes that come with income and capital gains. When enabled, the Tax Loss Harvesting+ feature automates this process to help keep taxes low.

Invest in low-cost, tax-efficient portfolios.

Betterment's investment philosophy is backed by decades of research that comes to an important conclusion: Over the long term, a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds is likely to outperform a high-cost, actively managed portfolio. There are multiple portfolio options, and we can help you choose which is right for you.