Advisor Resources

The financial advisor’s guide to offering retirement plans [with planning checklist] Jan 26, 2026 2:20:58 PM Offering 401(k)s is no longer a niche service for financial advisors—it’s a powerful strategy for practice growth and retention. See how to get started. In this guide, we introduce topics such as: How large is the retirement plan market opportunity for advisors? What are the benefits for financial advisors who offer retirement plans? What are common roadblocks for financial advisors looking to offer retirement plans? What are the steps to set up a retirement plan for your firm? (with planning checklist) What are the 5 key attributes to look for in a 401(k) platform partner? How large is the retirement plan market opportunity for advisors? Retirement plans have become a critical, expected part of modern financial planning. As business owners face state mandates and look for competitive benefits, clients increasingly expect their advisor to have a comprehensive solution for workplace retirement. If you don't currently offer 401(k) plans, you may be missing a significant opportunity: wealth clients could look elsewhere, and potential business-owner clients may go to competitors who can provide integrated retirement solutions. The market growth for this service is undeniable. Cerulli Associates expects there will be more than one million 401(k) plans by the end of the decade—an increase of 36% from 2025 to 2029. And advisors are giving business away if they don’t offer a retirement plan. 57% of defined contribution recordkeepers report that the majority of their plans are sold through advisors, according to the Cerulli report. Now is the time to ensure you have a retirement solution and a partner that can help you capture this growth. What are the benefits for financial advisors who offer retirement plans? Offering 401(k)s is no longer a niche service—it’s a powerful strategy for practice growth and retention. New revenue and retention: Retirement plans create a stable, recurring revenue stream. They also help retain wealth clients by ensuring they don’t look to competitors who offer a complete suite of services. Cross-selling opportunities: Plan participants are a natural source of future wealth clients. By managing both the plan and individuals’ portfolios, you create deeper, stickier, and more valuable relationships. Meeting client demand and state mandates: The adoption of 401(k)s, especially by small businesses, is rising (driven partly by the SECURE Act and state mandates). Offering these solutions solidifies your position as a holistic financial partner. Better client service: High-net-worth business owners often prefer consolidating all their finances under one trusted advisor. Referring these plans out to other providers limits your growth and can erode the overall trust in your relationship. Down-market growth: Small and mid-sized businesses are often underserved. Advisors who enter this space with an efficient 401(k) plan partner are poised for scalable growth. What are common roadblocks for financial advisors looking to offer retirement plans? Many advisors hesitate to enter the retirement space due to past challenges or intimidation. The good news? Modern, technology-forward platforms like Betterment have solved most significant pain points. What are the steps to set up a retirement plan for your firm? Starting can be intimidating, but we’re here to help. Use the checklists below for each of the three steps to launch a 401(k) offering at your firm. Step 1: Get familiar with plan basics Before you offer a retirement plan, take the time to learn about plan types, how they work, and your role. Checklist: Plan components: Learn the key components of a 401(k) plan, including plan design (eligibility, match, vesting), investment options, recordkeeping, administration, and compliance. Types of plans: Know the differences between plan types like safe harbor plans, Simple 401(k)s, and traditional and Roth 401(k)s. The role of TPAs: Explore your options for third-party administrators (TPAs) and understand the pros and cons of bundled vs. unbundled when it comes to handling plan administration and investments. (Note: At Betterment, we’re flexible and can work bundled or unbundled.) Your role: Understand your role as an advisor vs. a plan fiduciary. In many cases, you can offload fiduciary and administrative responsibilities to your platform partner (such as Betterment), reducing your liability and workload. Step 2: Choose the right partner Choosing your plan provider and tech platform might be the most important decision you make. Take the time to reflect on the following areas. Checklist: Turnkey platform: Select a provider and tech platform that simplifies the process by handling recordkeeping, compliance testing, and Form 5500 filings. Digital onboarding: Onboarding should be paperless, fast, and intuitive. You want your clients to have a seamless experience that differentiates you from legacy providers. Trustworthy business partner: Ensure the partner won’t compete for your client relationships, which is important for trust and long-term growth of your offering. Employee engagement: By incorporating built-in participant education and a modern digital experience, you can increase adoption and directly reduce the education burden on your team. Scalable and competitive: The technology and process that your partner brings to the table should be designed for efficiency and automation, making it profitable even for smaller firms. Step 3: Prospect and position Once you select your partner, it’s time to grow your business. Checklist: Prospecting process: Start with your own book. Ask existing wealth clients if their businesses offer retirement plans, or if they are considering one. Sales language: Make it easy for prospects to see the value you offer. Use simple positioning language like: “We offer a turnkey 401(k) solution designed for small businesses that takes the administrative burden off your plate.” Marketing materials: Leverage marketing resources or one-pagers from your platform partner to help explain the value to business owners. Bonus tips: How to market to clients who own businesses With a sea of legacy retirement plan providers in the market, you have an opportunity to differentiate on ease and support. Use these three tips to clearly communicate your value and help clients understand the pain point you solve for them. Highlight turnkey administration: Emphasize that providers like Betterment handle compliance, testing, and filings—removing traditional headaches. Showcase digital onboarding: Make it clear that plans can be launched quickly without stacks of paperwork. Address prior pain points directly: Acknowledge that legacy TPAs and recordkeepers have caused frustration, and explain how your model solves those issues. Retirement is no longer an optional add-on for advisors who want to future-proof and scale their practice. Choosing the right partner can make offering a 401(k) plan a profitable and client-centric way to drive growth. Ready to start or reconsider your retirement offering? Contact a Betterment Advisor Solutions representative today to see a quick demo of our turnkey platform.

Switching custodians: Why Sound Financial transitioned their book to Betterment Advisor Solutions Jan 26, 2026 9:15:00 AM A conversation with Cory Shepherd, ChFC®, CFP®, President and Partner Moving to a new custodian is not an easy decision. For this interview, we sat down with Cory Shepherd, President and Partner at Sound Financial Group, to learn how he navigated a decision to switch providers in 2020. Sound Financial was searching for a custodian that could offer something different than the legacy options. They needed a partner that not only met their basic pricing and operational needs, but also complemented their planning philosophy and could set their practice up to scale long term. The team ultimately landed with Betterment Advisor Solutions, a decision that has helped the firm cut overhead costs, streamline onboarding, and invest more time in giving quality, human advice. Moreover, we discover how Sound Financial’s decision to switch to Betterment Advisor Solutions was, in the end, a way to maintain “elegant simplicity” in their lives as independent advisors—giving their team, their clients, and their families more flexibility to pursue their goals. Read the full story below. The path to independence Cory Shepherd, ChFC®, CFP®, is the President and Partner at Sound Financial Group. The fee-based planning firm has three advisors and serves about 300 clients representing $125MM in AUM. Sound Financial’s path to independence was, in some ways, an accident. For years, co-Presidents Paul Adams and Cory Shepherd focused on expanding their team within the broker-dealer model. But a series of contract negotiations with their broker-dealer in 2016 prompted a decision to go independent. “Breaking that relationship was one of the best, ‘bad’ things that could have happened to us. After that, we stopped trying to grow horizontally with as many advisors as possible, and started prioritizing growing vertically.” The move not only changed their business strategy, it changed their perspective on independence and the beauty of deciding for yourself what work looks like. “We have this amazing life with a lot of freedom. We work closely with clients we love and avoid the multilayered requirements of larger corporations.” An action-forward planning philosophy Sound Financial is passionate about creating financial plans that won’t end up collecting dust—both figuratively and literally. “During my early days at MetLife, I was so proud of our financial planning work. We’d create these 80-page, leather-bound, beautiful plans. And then, one day, I found out that a client had wedged one under the leg of their pool table to level it out.” That epiphany underpins Sound Financial’s Wealth Design process: The biggest challenge clients face isn’t creating a financial plan, but implementing it. “If an advisor just hands over a plan document, 9 times out of 10 there will be major breakdowns in implementation.” With an average annual household income range of $250,000 to $1.5MM, the firm’s clients are largely working professionals—physicians, tech executives, and business owners—in the wealth accumulation phase. To emphasize the importance of action for these clients, Cory compares the planning process to an architect designing a house: “An architect’s job is to provide a blueprint that ensures you’re getting the best house for you, the house that will allow you to live your best life. But the design is only worthwhile if you can act on it and actually build the house.” Repapering hurdles prompt a switch Prior to transitioning to Betterment Advisor Solutions, Sound Financial had a positive relationship with their core TAMP. However, an acquisition by another firm in late 2019 prompted a switch. About 8 months into the transition, Sound Financial was surprised to learn they were going to need to repaper the majority of their client accounts. “We honestly weren’t looking to make a move, but, because they were going to make our clients go through the trouble of repapering accounts anyway, we felt it was our responsibility to do some due diligence and see if there was a better fit for them somewhere else.” Searching for a future-forward custodial partner In their search for a new custodian, Sound Financial prioritized price, innovation, and transparency for clients. As a smaller firm, they found it challenging to find a partner that was aligned to their pricing requirements. “Our firm was being charged 42 bps at the time,” Cory noted. “We couldn’t justify the fee, and [our TAMP] wasn’t able to customize it. They didn't want to make that custom, cut-out niche for us and, at the end of the day, we just couldn't make the pricing fit.” Sound Financial also evaluated how various platforms could help improve their back-office and client onboarding experience. At the time, tech stack fragmentation was a challenge. They were layering one-off tools on top of their core systems (TD, Fidelity, and AssetMark) to support account management and opening, which created a disruptive and paper-heavy process. “Back then, it took us an hour just to open a new household’s first account. On top of that, we then needed 20 minutes for each additional account opened, just to manage all the paperwork.” Considering Betterment Advisor Solutions Cory admits he was apprehensive when his business partner first brought up Betterment. “I thought of it as a millennial product for DIYers.” But the custodial platform’s integrated onboarding technology alone piqued his interest. “I’d been embedded in the world I’d grown up in, so it was a little like magic the first time we had a Betterment Advisor Solutions demo. The technology made everything so simple. Even for clients to do it themselves. Click, click, click, and you open an account, even live with a client, in about five minutes. That was huge.” The team also appreciated that the platform adds transparency to the client experience. The planning and projection tools in particular felt like something they could really give to a client. Still, Sound Financial had some reservations and risks to weigh before making the leap. Chief among them: the Betterment brand. “We wondered, Are we going to have to compete against ourselves? Will folks want to leave us and just go to Betterment solo? But that hasn’t happened. In fact, clients who had Betterment accounts already, before they met us, have brought them into our practice.” Making the switch: 90% of assets in 90 days An all-in-one, vertically-integrated custodian, Betterment Advisor Solutions offered Sound Financial something new in their search for a custodian. “As an independent practice, we really liked the fact that Betterment Advisor Solutions was focused on a different kind of value proposition: good technology, ease of communication and workflow, and efficient pricing.” The process of transitioning their client assets was a contrast to the demanding, piecemeal transition they’d made just a few years prior when going independent. “We moved 90% of our client assets within 90 days. It was super fast.” The Sound Financial team expertly navigated client conversations around the transition, emphasizing the improved client experience and technology. “It was an easy conversation to have because there is a lot of value for the client. We discussed the expected time savings, and how we planned to use this time to improve servicing for them. We also focused on the ease of use, the transparency, and being able to do things yourself.” Results Cutting overhead costs and client fees To Betterment Advisor Solutions, Sound Financial noted they have been able to cut their custodial fees by more than 50%, and recapture these savings in the firm’s profitability. They’ve steadily increased growth rates year over year without increasing client fees—even during the turbulent COVID-19 market. Outsourcing investment management increased their team’s capacity, giving the firm greater operational leverage. “The efficiency of the technology is so much higher that we have not had to keep up the hiring pace that we were previously maintaining. With Betterment Advisor Solutions, we could just about double the total number of clients we have and not have to hire another person.” Moreover, efficiencies unlocked in investment management allowed Sound Financial to improve pricing at the top end of their fee grid. “This gives us a clear advantage over competitors in attracting these higher-net-worth clients to work with us.” A boost to employee morale and retention Reducing hiring needs gave Sound Financial an additional, unexpected competitive edge: a happier workforce. “We’re unlocking time and capacity as we grow, and, with fewer hires, we can reward our team members more than our competitors can. Suddenly, employee retention becomes a big bonus—and one that was not as obvious.” Fostering strong employee retention is now a vital part of the firm’s business strategy. “We’re focused on doing what’s right for our team. Too much turnover, and having to frequently introduce clients to a new name on the phone, can start to erode clients’ confidence in your practice.” Future-proofing a practice in an AI-dominated culture Moving to Betterment Advisor Solutions as their core custodian has changed how Cory thinks about growing and sustaining the practice. At first, they believed they could use automation to simply increase the number of clients served—taking on significantly more client accounts, and spreading the team thin across the base. Instead, the team now sees investing more time in each client relationship as their primary path to growth. “What we’ve realized over time is that the technology can give us more time to have a more customer-centric and intimate relationship with a client, and that’s how we want to grow.” Sound Financial believes creating a personal planning experience will help them stay ahead of the curve. “AI is at the forefront of almost every cultural conversation right now, and deepening the human experience for clients is a more valuable and ‘AI-insulated’ model than providing generic advice to the masses. “We don’t want to compete with a mass market, digital approach. We want to use automation to free up our time to grow organically — give clients such an amazing experience that they’re compelled to refer us to people they know. That’s harder for AI to disrupt.” What’s next for Sound Financial The Sound Financial team remains focused on scaling intentionally. They have a successful podcast that they use to reach new clients, and have tested paid mediums for lead generation. But they’re less interested in ramping up an online acquisition model. “I love meeting with someone who cares about someone that I already know and work with, and working with that new connection. A lot of our clients become just like friends and family to us.” Looking forward, Cory sees technology as a means for making daily operations more efficient. “We really value balance. And we want to continue using technology that helps give all of us back time. Time to work with clients and time with our families.” “Our goal is to quietly and intentionally grow the community of people we’re helping, and to use technology to streamline our work as much as possible. All so we can retain this elegant simplicity that we’ve found in our lives.”

Advisor Spotlight: Katelyn Bombardiere, Commas Jan 23, 2026 11:00:00 AM For this Advisor Spotlight, we welcome Katelyn Bombardiere, CFP®, a Financial Planner at Commas, to chat about her passion for helping the everyday investor. Advisor: Katelyn Bombardiere Firm: Commas Bio: Katelyn Bombardiere, CFP®, is a Financial Planner at Commas, a fee-only financial planning firm based in Cincinnati. Katelyn started her career in the high-net-worth wealth management industry where she quickly realized her passion for helping the "everyday" investor. She sought a different approach to help people (like her friends, family and peers) without worrying about asset minimums. Firm Bio: We all don't have millions of dollars—but we all have goals. Commas is a financial advisory that provides fee-only service to the EveryInvestor: those who might not fit the standards set by traditional high-net-worth advisories but still deserve personalized financial guidance to meet their goals. We offer services with no account minimums, working with our clients at every step of the process and empowering them to create, plan, and achieve their desired money goals. We Are: Encouraging: 0% Judgment Trustworthy: Certified, Not Stuffy Purposeful: Fee-only for All Approachable: We Wear Jeans Why did you decide to become an advisor? As a sophomore in college, I was fortunate enough to go on a trip through the Leeds School of Business at The University of Colorado at Boulder. This trip took a group of students to over 10 different financial firms to introduce them to the possibilities of careers in finance. It was on this trip that I declared my major as finance and figured out that I wanted to be a wealth advisor. From there, I pivoted my internship and career choices to pursue my goal of becoming an advisor. What are some questions that you wish more clients would ask, and why? I think it is important for people who are looking for an advisor to know: if the advisor they are talking to is a fiduciary how that advisor is getting paid the investment philosophy and financial planning process the advisor follows what the advisor's qualifications are. I think gauging a sense of the advisor's passion is important too. You want to work with someone who is passionate about what they do, continues to learn, and shows an interest in you. What do you think is the biggest mistake people make with their money? Either they don't save enough, or they save but don't invest. Another big mistake is not understanding the difference between long-term investing in well-diversified funds and day trading. What does your firm's current tech stack look like? How has technology impacted your work? We utilize Betterment Advisor Solutions as our custodian and Right Capital as our financial planning software. We have created our own CRM platform using Airtable which is a zero code cloud spreadsheet database. This tool allows us to customize our own portal where we house client data, tasks, meeting notes, and the client ledger (types of accounts, where they are held, contributions, notes, etc.). What makes Commas unique, however, is our internal automations through Zapier. For example, after our introduction meeting, the prospect is automatically sent an email with the next steps (signing up for our fee, completing a questionnaire and opening a Betterment account with our client agreements). Once they complete that step they are automatically sent another email asking them to upload documents to our secure portal. Those documents then file themselves into the correct client folder. The clients are then prompted to schedule our discovery meeting. This process continues all the way through the client onboarding process, and even when it comes time for generating annual reviews. These automations are what allows us to service our clients more successfully. They decrease the time we spend on busy work—account opening paperwork, filing documents, creating review outlines, sending template emails, etc.—and increase the amount of time we get to meet with clients and work on their financial plans. How have the recent trends toward remote and hybrid work impacted your relationship with clients? The remote work trend has only strengthened our client relationships as we were already well equipped from a technology standpoint. Our client meetings are generally 30 minutes to an hour, which is on the shorter side when looking at some other wealth management firms. I think our clients like the ability to have a quick meeting and get back to their day. They are just as busy as we are! This also allows us to work with clients all across the country. What do you think is the biggest opportunity for advisors today? To work with the everyday investors and show them that they are qualified to work with an advisor. You don't have to have thousands or millions of dollars to get good financial advice from a trustworthy source. This is also an opportunity to prove that fiduciary financial advisors are trustworthy professionals, not shifty sales people. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Treat myself to a nice international vacation, set aside some funds for my closest friends and family (as long as they invest it for their futures), and invest the rest to ensure that I can attain all of my goals and retire comfortably. If you could only give one piece of financial advice, what would it be? If you are young, start investing today—even if it is $10/month! If you are older, still get started today! I also can't help but advise that you talk to a financial advisor (fiduciary!). Every single person's financial situation is different, and having the peace of mind that you are on track is so powerful. Yes, you can absolutely do this on your own, but do you have the time or passion to do it? Will you be 100% confident in your choices? If you are sick, you go to the doctor. If you have a toothache, you go to the dentist. If you have finances to manage (spoiler alert we all do), why not talk to a financial advisor?

From $0 to $40MM AUM: Jason Hamilton on Improving Client Service with Technology Jan 23, 2026 10:30:00 AM We sat down with Jason Hamilton to learn about his personal journey to becoming a financial advisor and launching his own practice—and how Betterment's technology has helped him build a $40 million firm. Advisor: Jason Hamilton Jason J. Hamilton, CFP®, CRPC® is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® who helps high-performance professionals and high-net-worth investors create alignment with their abundance so they can live in flow with their wealth and serve their purpose. After coaching clients on their finances for over a decade and over six years as a registered investment advisor, he knows what helps clients go from chaos to serenity with their finances. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, he also brings the technical expertise, education, experience, and ethics requirements investors are looking for to help them achieve their goals, lower their taxes, and optimize their income and investment returns. Jason is the founder of Keep It Simple Financial Planning, a fee-only registered investment advisor, managing over $40 million in assets for his clients. He is also the Head of Family Financial Coaching at his family's nonprofit IDEAL, a community development corporation, located in East Los Angeles. Firm: Keep It Simple Financial Planning Keep It Simple Financial Planning (KISFP) was founded in 2016 to help underserved investors receive technical financial advice in a simple and understandable way. Read more about why we believe “Keep It Simple” is the best philosophy. Why did you decide to become a financial advisor? My story originates just before the 2008 financial crisis. Before this, my family owned a small business: An Italian restaurant in a suburb of San Jose. The restaurant's name was Mio Vicino which means "my neighbor." Prior to the financial crisis, my family hired an advisor to help them with their financial and retirement planning. Unfortunately, instead of comprehensive fiduciary financial advice, my family was sold a myriad of insurance products. I believe with better planning, we would have had a much better response and outcome to the economic situation. Before the end of the crisis, we were forced to close the restaurant due to insufficient financial resources. On the bright side of this journey, I saw what my family went through and became determined to not have the same fate for myself. This led me on my journey of financial self-discovery to learn everything I could about financial planning and wealth management. What started as a Google search for "how do people become wealthy?" became an obsession and now a career. Helping clients get into alignment with their wealth has been rewarding in many ways. For years prior to becoming an advisor, I would read online forums, where I found out about advanced financial planning education to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®. At the time, I had no knowledge of the financial planning industry. Since my company offered education reimbursement, I decided to sign up for a course at UCLA extensions. This was the beginning of my journey to become a CFP®. I enjoyed the courses. They filled in the gaps from my prior reading and gave me structure to the process of proper financial planning. It was actually fun! In my search to change careers, I found a group called XY Planning Network that was providing the tools and education to help advisors launch their firms, and the rest is history. I hired coaches and consultants to help me start up and learn the business and the compliance aspects of running a registered investment advisor and, in 2016, I launched Keep It Simple Financial Planning. Over time, I have obtained the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designations. More recently, with the popularity of investing in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, I completed my Certificate in Blockchain and Digital Assets and became a member of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals. Today, we help clients with flat-fee financial planning advice in nearly 40 states and manage over $40 million in assets under management for our clients. Coming from a lower-middle-class family, we knew how to work but I was never taught HOW to build wealth outside of one day buying a home. Investing was not part of the culture of my family. We all knew how to work hard and sacrifice. But, one thing that I teach now that I didn’t get growing up is how to turn my labor into capital that will work for me. Books also had a significant impact on my journey. Dave Ramsey, Warren Buffet, Suze Orman, and Jack Bogle are a few of the authors from whom I absorbed great insight and knowledge. But the most impactful for me were two books by Thomas J. Stanley: The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. The Millionaire Next Door showed me the path for how to become a first generation millionaire (and that over 80% of millionaires are first generation!). And The Millionaire Mind showed me what it takes to achieve multimillionaire status. Reading these books changed my perspective significantly about what it takes to be successful financially. What is the least understood aspect of your job? The least understood aspect of my job is that many times there is more psychology than technical financial planning in what we do. We are dealing with humans and not machines. Within a number of hours I can tell a client exactly how to optimize their financial situation. The challenge is, what may be optimal financially may not be optimal emotionally. As advisors, the better we are at understanding humans, the more likely our advice is likely to be implemented. What does your firm's current tech stack look like? I am a self-admitted technology addict. While we don't use all of our tools with all clients, there are some great applications for advisors to use when appropriate. We use: Asset Map, RightCapital, Income Conductor, Income Laboratory, Holistiplan, Cash Flow Mapping, Kwanti, AdvicePay, and, of course, Betterment Advisor Solutions. Why did you choose Betterment Advisor Solutions? And how has our technology impacted your business? I have tried multiple custodians since starting my firm but the efficiency, beautiful client portal and app, and the support team I get with Betterment Advisor Solutions is second to none. Because of the digital onboarding and easy digital account transfer process I have been able to scale much faster and serve a more financially diverse client base than I could with a traditional custodian. What is one critical lesson you have learned from your clients? One critical lesson I have learned from my clients is that if you help people get into alignment with their wealth, other parts of their lives will flourish as well. Finances are such an important aspect of living in the United States and, if you can get into flow with your financial wealth interactions, you will experience harmony in other areas of your life typically. How has a remote or hybrid work environment changed how your team works? Our firm has been primarily virtual since our founding over 6 years ago and, since the pandemic, it has tripled in size as many more investors have become comfortable with virtual meetings. In our case, the remote work environment has improved our ability to grow and serve clients. We were ready as more and more clients become comfortable with using virtual communication tools to stay connected to friends and family. Now, it has become the overwhelmingly preferred meeting method and has allowed us to help clients solve the specific challenges they face from nearly anywhere in the nation. What do you think is the biggest opportunity for advisors today? To put themselves out there on social media to discuss and share their expertise. I see so many advisors wasting time and money on paid lead gen services, which if you knew how they worked, are typically a huge waste of money. Maybe not waste but for sure not fully optimized. People in general are desperate for a great advisor that aligns with their personality type. I think if advisors would just put out one educational video per week in their niche, or even general good financial advice, they would never have to struggle for business. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Pay off mom's house and travel a lot. If you could only give one piece of financial advice, what would it be? That if your financial situation is not ideal, DO NOT blame or put any responsibility on anyone outside yourself. If you do not take 100% ownership of your situation you will never be successful. Literally anything you need to know about finances, you can find online in a blog or on YouTube. The challenge is people are typically their own worst enemy when it comes to finances. For this reason, hiring a trusted fiduciary advisor may be the best decision individuals make for themselves.

AI-driven markets and what advisors should watch in 2026 Jan 9, 2026 9:13:18 AM Key market trends advisors should keep an eye on in 2026, including AI-driven valuations, monetary policy shifts, and macro risks affecting stocks and bonds. U.S. markets closed out 2025 with strong headline returns, driven largely by continued enthusiasm around artificial intelligence and a small group of mega-cap technology companies. At the same time, familiar late-cycle questions resurfaced: Are valuations running ahead of fundamentals? And how much patience will markets have for profits that remain more theoretical than realized? Below, we look at what impacted performance in the fourth quarter of 2025 and what financial advisors should be watching in 2026. We cover elevated AI valuations, evolving monetary policy expectations, and the key macro risks that could reshape the outlook for both equities and bonds. AI-driven returns dominated markets in Q4 Stocks rallied in 2025, driven largely by Big Tech companies racing to develop transformative AI. However, that enthusiasm increasingly reflects expectations about future profitability rather than earnings today. And all of those businesses’ investments in AI infrastructure have turned up the volume on talks of an emerging AI bubble. Valuations highlight growing reliance on future AI profits One of the clearest signals of elevated market expectations is the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which compares current prices to current profits. How much are people paying to own the market, in other words, relative to its current profits? If this ratio gets high enough, investors start to ask themselves whether such a steep cost is worth it for a piece of those earnings. Sometimes investors seek out better relative value—one reason international stocks outperformed in 2025—and sometimes they continue paying a premium for growth. But that dynamic becomes increasingly pinned on hopes of hypothetically larger profits down the road, not the earnings generated today. So just how big are those AI hopes right now, and how relatively expensive is it for a share of the U.S. stock market’s earnings? We’re not at dot-com bubble levels, but we’re getting close. AI investment spending is reshaping market leadership Companies are committing enormous capital to expand their computing capacity, betting that scale and infrastructure will be critical to realizing AI’s long-term potential. As those investments have played out, the market has begun to highlight certain players, rewarding firms seen as better positioned to translate spending into durable earnings while penalizing those facing execution challenges. In the fourth quarter, shares of Google rose by nearly 30%, while Oracle and Meta declined by roughly 30% and 10%, respectively. While AI dynamics explain much of recent equity performance, monetary policy remains a critical backdrop for markets in 2026. Easing monetary policy could support markets in 2026 As labor market conditions and inflation have slowed, gradually easing interest rates may help cushion the market. The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate by 0.25% in December, and may do so again in 2026. The chart below illustrates the expected path of the federal funds rate based on both the median projection of members of the Federal Open Market Committee and rates implied by the pricing of market futures contracts. Beyond rate policy, the Fed has also taken steps to support market liquidity. In December, the Fed announced that it will purchase short-term securities to ensure bank reserves are ample, supporting the smooth functioning of the financial system. Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, appears likely to be tapped soon as Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement. Hassett would likely lean into a monetary policy accommodative to the economy and markets. Why the macro backdrop remains constructive—but fragile An outlook of continued economic growth, incrementally more accommodative financial conditions, and resilient corporate earnings offer a favorable backdrop for stocks in the first half of 2026. While valuations appear stretched in certain parts of the market, the last quarter has seen overall price action cool off, potentially setting the stage for further gains. The impact of tariffs will likely continue to fade as we approach the one-year anniversary of “Liberation Day.” The Trump administration will take a more cautious approach to instigating surprises in the trade war in 2026, fearful of worsening affordability and market volatility in a midterm election year. Geopolitical developments involving President Maduro of Venezuela have already injected geopolitical uncertainty this year, yet we would expect the market impact to be muted overall, with effects, if any, showing up in oil prices. Key risks that could disrupt the market in 2026 Despite a constructive baseline outlook, several downside risks warrant close attention. The main risk for markets lies in currently weak but stable job growth deteriorating significantly. A sharp rise in the unemployment rate would bring with it a downturn in consumer spending and a vicious cycle of more anemic demand leading to further job cuts. A second, related risk involves financial conditions tightening rather than easing. A higher cost of borrowing and increased rates on safer securities could undermine the prices of riskier financial assets.

2026 portfolio updates: What financial advisors need to know Jan 5, 2026 10:15:00 AM Updates to the Betterment managed strategies are coming soon. As part of Betterment’s investment oversight, our Investing team regularly reviews and updates our portfolio strategies to align with changing market conditions. In our 2026 portfolio updates, we are implementing strategic adjustments across multiple portfolios, guided by updated capital market assumptions, the expected risk and return profiles of asset classes. Portfolios refreshed by the 2026 strategy changes: Core portfolio Value Tilt portfolio Innovative Technology portfolio All Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) portfolios: Broad, Social, and Climate Impact Crypto ETF portfolio Key investment shifts: equities, bonds, and crypto Equities: We are modestly increasing our exposure to U.S. large-caps, while reducing exposure to U.S. mid-caps, for nearly all portfolios. This better aligns our portfolios with benchmarks while maintaining strong diversification. Fixed Income: This year, we’re introducing an additional actively managed bond fund to our non-SRI portfolios. Unlike traditional passive bond strategies, which tend to overweight U.S. Treasuries, active management gives us the ability to be more flexible and seek opportunities across broader areas of the bond market. This added flexibility helps portfolios stay aligned with shifting market conditions. In a declining interest rate environment, segments like securitized products and high-yield bonds may offer more attractive risk-adjusted return potential. At select risk levels across our portfolios (including all three of our SRI portfolios), we’re also adjusting short-term bond allocations by slightly increasing exposure to short-term Treasuries. These changes help smooth the glide path used in our auto-adjust feature, which de-risks clients as they approach their goal’s target date. Betterment Crypto ETF portfolio: We are increasing our bitcoin and decreasing our ethereum allocation to align with its market capitalization weight. Further changes include obtaining these exposures through lower-cost funds, which reduces the portfolio’s weighted average expense ratio of the portfolio by 0.10%. How these updates affect your clients’ portfolios Similar to last year’s updates, we plan to update allocations for newly funded portfolios towards the end of January 2026. For existing goals, our automated rebalancing feature will transition client portfolios to the new target portfolio weights, using clients’ dividends, deposits, and withdrawals and sell/buy rebalancing to manage the transition tax-efficiently. Funds that are no longer in the target allocation may be retained to help reduce potential tax impact, while future cash flows will be directed toward the new primary holdings. Rebalancing will respect any gains allowance, or other rebalancing settings that you’ve set for your clients’ goals. You can log into the Advisor Dashboard to review and update your client gains allowances, or disable system rebalancing if you prefer to rely on only cash flows to reduce drift in your client accounts. You’ll want to adjust settings before the end of January to ensure they're in effect before portfolio updates are made. Learn more about Betterment’s investment approach If you’d like to find out more about Betterment’s approach to investing, you can check out these articles: Portfolio Construction Process: Core, Value, Innovative Technology ETF Selection Methodology