3 Best Robo-Advisors For Socially Aware Investors

By Thomas Rogers

Robo-advisors make investing and money management more accessible at a fraction of the cost previously available in traditional models, allowing more people to save and grow their money toward financial freedom. Socially responsible investing, or SRI, has gained popularity in recent years and works particularly well with Robo-advisors. Here are some of the best Robo advisors for socially conscious investors.

Betterment

Betterment is the industry’s largest and, arguably, most popular independent Robo-advisor. They not only provide SRI investment management, but they also have no minimum initial investment. As a result, investors with any size portfolio can use the platform. Betterment employs the same investment methodology for SRI as other portfolio models. They do, however, give more weight to stocks of companies that meet specific social, environmental, and governance criteria. Betterment’s SRI investing strategy reduces exposure to companies with a negative social impact. They increase exposure to companies having a positive social impact. Betterment focuses its SRI investments on two asset classes: US large-cap stocks and emerging market stocks. Because Betterment only invests in low-cost index-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), they use SRI-based ETFs for those two asset classes.

Betterment investment specifics:

  • No minimum investment is required.
  • Individual and joint taxable accounts; traditional, Roth, rollover, and SEP IRAs; trust accounts are the different accounts available.
  • Fees are 0.25 percent of the account balance per year for the Digital plan; 0.40 percent of the account balance for the Premium plan. SRI investing has no additional costs.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a hybrid platform that offers assistance from Robo-advisors and human professionals. With a high account minimum and management fee, this Robo-advisor service is not suitable for beginners or those on a tight budget. The best part is that you will continue to receive assistance from a human advisor. As the industry’s expert, a professional human advisor, can assist you with your complex financial needs, such as managing your portfolio for stock option ownership.

Personal Capital investment details: 

  • $100,000 minimum investment. 
  • Fees are 0.89 percent annual management fee for balances between $100,000 and $200,000. 0.49 percent for portfolios worth more than $1 million. There is no additional charge for SRI.
  • Account types available are Taxable Brokerage Accounts and Retirement Accounts.

Ellevest

Ellevest is a woman-owned online investment platform that aims to close the gender gap in investing. This SRI and ESG Robo-advisor is the best choice for investors who want to start investing and saving for retirement or other goals. Ellevest membership is divided into three tiers: Ellevest Essential, Ellevest Plus, and Ellevest Executive. This tiered structure offers varying perks at each level. One significant feature of Ellevest is that Essential members cannot open retirement accounts, such as IRAs, with this Robo-advisor. To gain access to this service, one must upgrade to a Plus or Executive plan.

Ellevest investment specifics: 

  • $0 minimum investment.
  • Management fees for Essential are $1 per month. For Plus, there’s a $5 monthly fee. $9 per month is the fee for an executive membership.
  • Account types available are Individual Taxable Accounts for Essential members; Individual Taxable Accounts and Roth, Traditional, and SEP IRAs for Plus & Executive members.

Recent Posts