Betterment Editors

How to set up the Nitrogen integration Feb 17, 2026 3:51:46 PM Overview Nitrogen is a leader in AI-enabled, client-facing software for financial advisors. Its integrated platform combines risk alignment, investment planning, tax planning, retirement planning, and proposal generation, helping advisors deliver smarter, more engaging meetings that can win business and build lasting client confidence. Trusted by over 30,000 advisors, Nitrogen’s technology is built to be seen, enabling advisors to swivel their monitor and guide clients through clear, visual insights that keep them invested in their advisor, fearlessly. The information sent to Nitrogen includes: Account information Positions Enabling the integration You can set up this integration for your firm by taking the following steps: Log in to your advisor dashboard and navigate to Settings > Integrations. Select Blueleaf from the list and click Connect to Nitrogen You will see confirmation that the integration has been enabled. Data will be sent to Nitrogen within one business day. Once the data release is confirmed, Nitrogen will complete the final configuration and make the integration available in the application within one additional business day. For more information on how to use this integration in Nitrogen, see this help article.

How to set up the Blueleaf integration Feb 12, 2026 4:29:36 PM Overview Blueleaf is a complete wealth management platform delivering high-engagement client experiences plus reporting, billing, and rebalancing for firms seeking growth and exceptional delivery for clients. The information sent to Blueleaf includes: Account information Positions Transactions Tax lots Enabling the integration You can set up this integration for your firm by taking the following steps: Log in to your advisor dashboard and navigate to Settings > Integrations. Select Blueleaf from the list and click Connect to Blueleaf. You will see confirmation that the integration has been enabled. Data will be sent to Blueleaf within one business day. Send an email to vipsupport@blueleaf.com to let the Blueleaf support team know that you want to set up an integration with Betterment.

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.

How to set up the Capitect integration Oct 1, 2025 4:18:05 PM Overview Capitect offers modern, holistic performance reporting, flexible client billing, and personalized portfolio rebalancing tailored for today's advisors and their clients. The integration between Betterment Advisor Solutions and Capitect enables advisors to easily include Betterment accounts in reporting, billing, and rebalancing. The information sent to Capitect includes: Account information Positions Transactions Tax lots Enabling the integration You can set up this integration for your firm by taking the following steps: Log in to your advisor dashboard and navigate to Settings > Integrations. Select Capitect from the list and click Connect to Capitect. You will see confirmation that the integration has been enabled. Data will be sent to Capitect within one business day. Once the integration has been enabled, Capitect will reach out directly with next steps.

How Gen Z and Millennial advisors balance AI risks with tech growth Sep 4, 2025 10:15:00 AM The financial advisory industry is undergoing a transformation. Shifting demographics, rapid technological advances, and economic volatility are reshaping how advisors work and who they serve. With a new generation of RIAs entering the profession and younger clients making up a growing share of the market, new perspectives are emerging—on the economy, on technology, and on the very role advisors play in managing investments. Perhaps the most indelible shift of all, is the accelerating pace of AI, requiring advisors to revise how they deliver value to the next generation. In the second installment of our Advisor Survey, Betterment Advisor Solutions spoke to 500 independent RIAs, to find out how financial advisors are responding to the shifting financial planning landscape. Not surprisingly, many advisors (53%) report using AI to stay current with industry updates. And that’s not all, adoption of AI tools has climbed 10% since this time last year. However, the majority of advisors (65%) say they are worried about clients turning to generative AI platforms for financial advice. While AI is already making advisors’ lives easier, it also presents new challenges around client trust, accuracy, and the role advisors play in managing their clients’ wealth. How advisors are using AI As financial advisors wrestle with the paradox of AI, there are some areas we’re seeing Gen Z/Millennials and Gen X/Baby Boomers agree on: AI over social: 53% of advisors now use AI to stay current with industry updates, surpassing social media (48% in 2025, down from 59% in 2024). Positive impact: Overall, advisors are mostly positive about AI's impact, with more Gen Z/Millennials being "very positive" (45%) than Gen X/Baby Boomers (37%). Client misuse: While advisors are finding important use cases for AI in their own work, they’re concerned about clients using AI for financial advice (65%). Their top concerns are the lack of regulation and oversight in Generative AI providing financial advice, increasing the likelihood that clients will misinterpret or receive inaccurate financial advice from Generative AI platforms. But from there, key differences divide younger and older generations. For instance, Gen Z/Millennials tend to lean into AI for administrative tasks (like note taking and meeting recaps) as well as fraud detection; whereas Gen X/Baby Boomers use it more for client communication and portfolio management. The generational divide in AI adoption reveals that the technology is being shaped by client needs, not necessarily by advisor preferences. – Dan Egan, VP of Behavioral Finance and Investing at Betterment As digital natives, younger financial advisors have deeper concerns about the omnipresence of AI and so-called “ChatGPT financial advisors.” Although they might be more cautious about how AI is used, our survey shows that these advisors are perhaps better equipped to manage the financial planning needs of the Gen Z/ Millennials clients, who are looking for a seamless, modern way to manage their money. The way advisors balance caution with innovation will reshape the financial planning journey. To dive deeper into how RIAs across generations are viewing AI, technology, and shifting client expectations, download our latest survey below.

FAQ: Custom Portfolios for Advisors Sep 3, 2025 11:15:00 AM Build your own custom model portfolios while leveraging all of Betterment’s sophisticated portfolio management features. What are custom model portfolios? The Betterment Advisor Solutions platform allows advisors to customize portfolios ETFs, single stocks, and mutual funds, while maintaining access to Betterment’s suite of automated features including: automated rebalancing tax-loss harvesting asset location / tax coordinated portfolios tax-optimized sales for withdrawals How do I create custom model portfolios for my clients? To get started, log into your dashboard and navigate to Portfolios > Create a portfolio > Custom portfolio. Follow the prompts in the module to create securities groups, determine risk levels for your portfolio, and more. What are the program requirements? There are no asset minimums or additional fees required to build custom portfolios. I have more questions - who can I talk to and where can I learn more? Please fill out this form, and our team will follow up with you. Security Selection: What securities are supported? At this time, we support ETFs, mutual funds, and single stocks. What ETFs are supported? Almost all ETFs are supported, as long as there is sufficient liquidity and trading volume. How many different asset allocations can be included in one portfolio? For each custom portfolio, firms can define anywhere from 1 to 25 asset allocations. Betterment Automated Features: What is Tax Loss Harvesting (TLH)? How does this feature work with custom model portfolios? Tax loss harvesting is the practice of selling a security that has experienced a loss—and then buying a similar asset to replace it. The switch does two things: it allows the investor to realize, or “harvest”, a valuable loss while keeping the portfolio balanced at the desired allocation. Capital losses can lower your clients’ tax bill by offsetting gains and reducing ordinary taxable income up to $3000 per year. The custom model portfolios program allows firms to designate a primary, secondary, and IRA secondary ETF ticker for each asset class to be used for TLH. How does Tax Coordination work? Tax Coordination is designed for investors who are saving for retirement in more than one type of account, including taxable accounts, traditional IRAs, or Roth IRAs generally with the same time horizon. Once you set it up, Betterment will look across all of the accounts grouped under retirement and automatically reorganize which assets are held in which accounts. Of these three types of accounts, each are taxed differently: (1) taxable accounts, (2) traditional IRAs or 401(k)s, and (3) Roth IRAs or 401(k)s. With Tax-Coordination, the assets are then arranged (unequally) across all coordinated accounts to help maximize the after-tax performance of the overall portfolio. We do this in a way that keeps the overall allocation the same while boosting after-tax returns. We've outlined the potential benefits of Tax Coordination and some reasons you may not want to use it here. For more information on our estimates and Tax Coordination generally, see full disclosure here. How does Betterment rebalance client portfolios? How does automated rebalancing work? More information about Betterment's automated rebalancing feature is available here. What capital market assumptions are used for balance and spending power projections? Firms can input their own capital market assumptions, or Betterment's team can provide assumptions.