Betterment vs. Guideline

Compare 401(k) providers by investments, fees, employee experience, service and support.

Investments	Betterment	Guideline
Funds	Betterment Indexed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)	Guideline Indexed Mutual Funds
Portfolios	Betterment 307	Guideline 6
Automatic allocation adjustments	Betterment	Guideline
Flexibility	Betterment Participants may choose their own allocation	Guideline Participants may choose their own allocation
Additional investment strategies	Betterment Socially Responsible, Goldman Sachs Smart Beta, BlackRock Income	Guideline None
Number of individuals involved in investment advisory services¹	Betterment 16	Guideline 2

Employee Experience	Betterment	Guideline
Platform scope	Betterment Holistic advice across all saving and investing goals	Guideline 401(k) only
External account syncing	Betterment	Guideline
Personalized retirement planning tools	Betterment	Guideline
Tax coordination strategies to help maximize returns	Betterment	Guideline
Access to human advisors²	Betterment	Guideline

Service and support	Betterment	Guideline
3(38) Investment Fiduciary	Betterment Standard	Guideline Additional cost³
3(16) Administrative Fiduciary	Betterment Standard	Guideline Additional cost³
Online signup process	Betterment	Guideline
Automated compliance support	Betterment	Guideline

Fees	Betterment	Guideline
Administrative (Employer pays)	Betterment $125/month + $6/participant/month⁴	Guideline $39/month + $8/participant/month (Startup) $99/month + $8/participant/month (Prime)
Lower administrative costs with increasing participant count⁴	Betterment	Guideline
Estimated fund fees (Employees pay)	Betterment 0.06%⁵	Guideline 0.06%
Investment management (Employees pay)	Betterment 0.25% on assets annually ($2.50 for every $1,000)	Guideline None
COVID-19 related fee waivers	Betterment	Guideline

Ready for a better 401(k) plan?

Get started

¹ From Betterment and Guideline forms ADV

² Additional fee may apply

³ Feature available only as part of Prime package

⁴ At Betterment, per-participant cost decreases to $5 per month for every participant over 100 and to $4 per month for every participant over 500

⁵ Based on weighted average fund fees of most commonly used portfolio with 90% equity and 10% fixed income

Guideline information from guideline.com.