With automated tax-loss harvesting, a robo-advisor will sell money-losing investments and “harvest” those losses, which can be used to offset gains elsewhere. It’s a useful feature that minimizes your tax bill today and can even save you on future taxes, too. So current customers of Ally may find its robo portfolios option a bit more appealing.
If you want to take it up a notch, you can pay an additional fee and receive a host of upgraded features, including one of the best cash management accounts out there. In addition to fees paid for account management, most mutual funds and exchange-traded funds have embedded investment costs called expense ratios. Expense ratios are expressed as a percentage of your investment and indicate the portion of your investment that goes to the manager of that particular fund. It’s important to compare the expense ratios from one robo-advisor platform with another because combining these fees with the account management fee and other account fees, provides your overall investment cost.
- Ally Invest Robo Portfolios is also a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), covering customer claims up to $500,000, which includes a maximum of $250,000 for cash claims.
- It was very easy to bring up trading windows, news, charts, etc. for securities listed on a watch list or a result from one of the screeners.
- Ally Invest also has a slightly higher management fee compared to some other robo-advisors.
- Finally, current Ally bank customers can take advantage of full integration with their other Ally accounts.
We believe by providing tools and education we can help people optimize their finances to regain control of their future. While our articles may include or feature select companies, vendors, and products, our approach to compiling such is equitable and unbiased. The content that we create is free and independently-sourced, devoid of any paid-for promotion. When you log in to your mobile account, all you can see is a summary of your portfolio showing your balance and holdings. Unfortunately, tax loss harvesting isn’t available with Ally Managed Portfolios. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios solely offers stock and bond ETFs, mainly iShares ETFs and Vanguard ETFs.
Account Types
Ally Invest Robo Portfolios is a streamlined platform that gives clients the option to pick their investments directly or utilize a robo-advisor and take a more hands-off approach. While Ally does offer both types of investing platforms, self-driven trading and robo-advising cannot be combined in the same account. E-Trade is likely to be a suitable broker choice for many investors who will appreciate its low trading costs, high-quality research and education, and 24/7 access to customer service.
This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. We then developed a quantitative model that scored each company to rate its performance across nine major categories and 57 criteria to find the best robo-advisors. The score for each company’s overall star rating is a weighted average of the criteria.
- But if you are comfortable managing your holistic wealth picture on your own and don’t necessarily need additional touchpoints with a human advisor, you may prefer the Ally Invest model.
- But the investment apps have a few differences when it comes to fees and investment choices.
- No OTCs, no bond desk, no crypto, no extended hours trading, access is shit.
- That way you can put your investments and savings into the hands of experts.
These different types of charts allow you to study and analyze how certain investments are performing. You can even customize this tool so you can better see what you’re most directly interested in. A profit/loss calculator can help you calculate the loss or profit you could see from a trade before you make it. You can also create your own watchlists to keep an eye on groups of securities.
No-transaction-fee mutual funds
This includes a nice drop-down for choosing common comparisons, such as equity indexes, currencies, or individual commodities, in addition to typing in a specific symbol. That said, during our testing we were unable to extend trendlines as far as we wanted to, and the drawn trendlines did not follow the chart when resized–it just floated in space in the same spot where it was drawn. The top of the Ally Invest homepage also has a link to launch the Ally Invest Live platform, which has streaming quotes and more modern website functionality.
Investment Focus
There is no minimum balance requirement to open a self-directed trading account with Ally Invest. Ally Invest is a great choice for those interested in online banking with Ally and existing Ally Bank customers because they can easily see their full financial picture on one platform. Ally Invest has options for investors of all experience levels, including self-directed and managed accounts. We’ve also reviewed the Ally Managed Portfolios robo-advisor service and will take a deeper look at Ally Invest to help you decide whether it is the right fit for your investing needs. Merrill Guided Investing offers a credible investing service for Bank of America customers, but its high management fee makes it less attractive among a competitive field of robo-advisors.
On the other hand, those who are new to investing, or don’t have the time to design and build their own portfolio, can also open a Cash-Enhanced Managed Portfolios account. Covering basic and sophisticated topics, these can help new and experienced investors. Let’s take a look at a few of the best features you can use with Ally’s mobile app. Ally Invest’s mobile platform is streamlined, with a mobile-optimized design that also maintains full compatibility with the desktop platform. Make trades, do research and create watchlists from the app using the same basic mechanisms as the desktop platform. Matt is a Certified Financial Planner® and investment advisor based in Columbia, South Carolina.
Ally Invest Mobile App
If managing your own investments isn’t your thing, you can go for a Managed Portfolio. This places your portfolio in the hands of Ally Invest and its investing technology. Once Ally has assessed your time horizon, risk tolerance and investing goals, you’ll receive asset allocation recommendations, generally various ETFs, for your portfolio. Should one sector outperform or another underperform, the company’s program rebalances your portfolio regularly. Ally Invest is a comprehensive broker offering easy access to domestic markets.
Merrill Edge Guided Investing provides more of a choice than E-Trade does, with products available to different kinds of investors whether hands-on or not. When you choose to trade and invest online yourself, you will see a higher price of $6.95. There is an opportunity to qualify for $0 trades, though, with preferred rewards. If you choose to go with Merrill Edge Guided Investing, you will also see a higher annual fee and minimum balance requirement of 0.45% and $5,000 respectively. This option allows you to invest online and benefit from professional advice and management.
Customer Service
The brokerage puts 70% of your funds into a diversified cash-enhanced investment portfolio based on your goals and risk tolerance. Within a self-direct account at Ally Invest Robo Portfolios, clients enjoy no commission fees on U.S.-listed stocks, ETFs, or options, ally invest review and there are no account minimums to get started. Clients also can choose to invest in bonds, mutual funds, and even margin accounts. Ally Invest has proven to be a useful tool for all types of advisors, whether you want to be hands-on with your investments or not.
