Tax Coordination

Four ways we help trim your tax bill And why these "invisible" wins matter more than you may think. As investors, we tend to focus most on what we can see. Things like portfolio makeup, and the returns generated by those investments. No less important, however, are the less obvious things, like the taxes you never paid in the first place because of technology that quietly runs in the background. You may only think about taxes once a year, but here at Betterment, every day is Tax Day. This sort of year-round tax optimization sounds boring, but believe us, it makes a difference. Taxes can steadily eat away at your returns over the years. So any advisor worth their salt should take taxes seriously and minimize them as much as possible. These “invisible” wins are hard to spot in the moment, so let’s shine a light on them now. Here are four sophisticated ways we buy, sell, and hold your shares, all in the name of trimming your tax bill. Choosing which assets go where – Our Tax Coordination feature helps shield high-growth assets in the most tax-efficient account types. Rebalancing wisely – We take advantage of any existing cash flows to help minimize capital gains taxes while rebalancing your portfolio. Choosing which taxable shares to sell (or donate) – Our TaxMin technology helps minimize short-term capital gains taxes. Harvesting losses – When your taxable investments dip below their initial purchase price, we jump on the opportunity to “harvest” the theoretical loss and potentially lower your future tax bill. 1. Choosing which assets go where From a tax perspective, you have three main account types at your disposal when saving for retirement: Tax-deferred (traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.), where taxes are paid later. Tax-exempt (Roth IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.), where taxes are paid now. Taxable, where taxes are paid both now and later. Because of their different tax treatments, certain types of investments are a better fit for certain accounts. Interest from bonds, for example, is typically taxed at a higher rate than stocks, so it often makes sense to keep them away from taxable accounts. This sorting of asset types based on tax treatments, rather than divvying them up equally across accounts, is known as asset location. And our fully-automated, mathematically-rigorous spin on it is called Tax Coordination. When Tax Coordination is turned on, the net effect is more of your portfolio's growth is shielded in a Roth account, the pot of money you crucially don't pay taxes on when withdrawing funds. To learn more about our Tax Coordination feature and whether it’s right for you, take a peek at its disclosure. 2. Rebalancing wisely When the weights of asset classes in your portfolio drift too far from their targets, our technology automatically brings them back into balance. But there's more than one way to accomplish this portfolio rebalancing. You can simply sell some of the assets that are overweight, and buy the ones that are underweight (aka "sell/buy" rebalancing), but that can realize capital gains and result in more taxes owed. So we first take advantage of any available cash flows coming into or out of your portfolio. When you make a withdrawal, for example, we intentionally liquidate overweight assets while striving to minimize your tax hit as much as possible (more on that below). And when you deposit money or receive dividends, we use those funds to beef up underweight assets. 3. Choosing which taxable shares to sell (or donate) Say there's no way around it: you need to sell an asset. Maybe cash flows aren't enough to keep your portfolio completely balanced. Or you’re withdrawing funds for a major purchase. The question then becomes: which specific assets should be sold? The IRS and many brokers follow the simple script of "first in, first out," meaning your oldest assets are sold first. This approach is easier for your broker, and it can avoid more highly-taxed short-term capital gains. But it often misses the opportunity of selling assets at a loss, and harvesting those losses for potential tax benefits. So our algorithms take a more nuanced approach to selecting shares, and we call this technology TaxMin. TaxMin is calibrated to avoid frequent small rebalance transactions and seek tax-efficient outcomes, things like helping reduce wash sales and minimizing short-term capital gains. In the case of donating shares, we apply the same logic in reverse, or TaxMax as we call it. That's because when donating shares, it benefits you to choose the ones with the most gains, since any shares bought as a replacement will effectively have a reset tax bill. 4. Harvesting losses Life is full of ups and downs, and your investments are no different. At times, most notably during market downturns, the price of an asset may dip below what you paid for it. Tax loss harvesting takes advantage of these moments, selling taxable assets that fit this bill, then replacing them with similar ones so you stay invested. You can then use those harvested losses to shift taxes you owe now into the future. The strategy doesn’t make sense for everyone, but it can help some investors sprinkle tax advantages on a portion of their taxable investing. And our fully-automated spin on it takes a tax hack once reserved for the wealthy and makes it available to the masses. Happy harvesting. In conclusion, we care a lot about taxes Because it’s one of the most reliable ways to boost your returns. We can’t control the market, but tax laws? Those are set by the IRS and broadcast far and wide. And we can help you navigate them wisely. We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t. So the next time you take a peek at your returns, ask yourself how much of that growth will still be there come tax time. If you’re a Betterment customer, you can rest assured we’re working tirelessly to minimize those tax drags. You may not realize it right away, and rightfully so. Live your life, and leave the tax toiling to us.

How our Tax Coordination feature can boost your returns Our spin on asset location can help shelter retirement investment growth from some taxes. Taxes. You may try to think of them as little as possible, but they’re on our minds a lot. Especially when they relate to investments. That’s because we’re always looking to maximize our customers’ potential take-home returns—and key to that pursuit is minimizing how big of a bite taxes take. On that front, our Tax Coordination feature is a fully-automated approach to an investment strategy known as asset location—and it’s available at no additional cost. If you’re saving for retirement in more than one type of account, then asset location in general, and our spin on it specifically, can help to increase your after-tax expected returns without taking on additional risk. Here’s how. How Tax Coordination works Many Americans wind up saving for retirement in some combination of three account types: Taxable Tax-deferred (Traditional 401(k) or IRA) Tax-exempt (Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA) Each type of account gets a different tax treatment, and different assets are taxed differently as well. These rules make certain investments a better fit for one account type over another. Returns in IRAs and 401(k)s, for example, don’t get taxed annually, so they generally shelter growth from tax better than a taxable account. We’d rather shield assets that lose more to tax in these types of retirement accounts, assets such as bonds, whose dividends are usually taxed annually and at a high rate. In the taxable account, however, we’d generally prefer to have assets that don’t get taxed as much, assets such as stocks, whose growth in value (“capital gains”) is taxed at a lower rate and crucially only when they’re “realized,” or in other words, when they’re sold at a higher price than what you paid for them. Wisely applying this strategy to a globally-diversified portfolio can get complicated quickly. Check out our full Asset Location methodology if you’re curious what that complexity looks like—or keep reading for more of the simplified explanation. The big picture diversification of asset location When investing in more than one account, many people select the same portfolio in each one. This is easy to do, and when you add everything up, you get the same portfolio, only bigger. To illustrate this approach, here’s what it looks like with a hypothetical asset allocation of 70% stocks and 30% bonds. The different shades of green represent various types of stocks, and the different shades of blue represent various types of bonds. But as long as all the accounts add up to the portfolio we want, each individual account on its own doesn’t have to mirror that portfolio. Each asset can go in the account where it makes the most sense from a tax perspective. As long as we still have the same portfolio when we add up the accounts, we can increase the after-tax expected return without taking on more risk. This is asset location in action, and here’s what it looks like, again for illustrative purposes: This is the same overall portfolio as we originally showed, except we redistributed the assets unevenly to reduce taxes. Note that the aggregate allocation is still a 70/30 split of stocks and bonds. The concept of asset location isn’t new. Advisors and sophisticated do-it-yourself investors have been implementing some version of this strategy for years. But squeezing it for more benefit is very mathematically-complex. It means making necessary adjustments along the way, especially after making deposits to any of the accounts. Our expert-built technology handles all of the complexity in a way that a manual approach just can’t match. Our rigorous research and testing, as outlined in our Asset Location methodology, demonstrates that accounts managed by Tax Coordination are expected to yield meaningfully higher after-tax returns than uncoordinated accounts. How to benefit from Betterment’s Tax Coordination To benefit from from our Tax Coordination feature, you first need to be a Betterment customer with a balance in at least two of the following types of Betterment accounts: Taxable account Tax-deferred account: A Traditional IRA or a Betterment Traditional 401(k) offered by your employer. Tax-exempt account: A Roth IRA or a Betterment Roth 401(k) offered by your employer. Note that you can only include a 401(k) in a goal using Tax Coordination if it’s one we manage on behalf of your current or former employer. If your employer doesn’t currently use Betterment to provide their 401(k) plan, tell them to give us a look at betterment.com/work! If you have an old 401(k) with a previous employer, you can still benefit from our Tax Coordination feature by rolling it over to a Betterment IRA. For step-by-step instructions on how to set up Tax Coordination in your Betterment account, as well as answers to frequently asked questions, head on over to our Help Center. Or if you’re not yet a Betterment customer, get started by signing up today.

Free financial advice, for the busiest season of your life For households with $100k+ at Betterment, our advisory fee includes complimentary live chat with a licensed financial specialist. Key takeaways Mid-career comes with competing financial priorities, but you don't have to figure out the order alone. Households with $100k or more at Betterment unlock free access to live chat with a licensed financial specialist. Not AI, not a bot—a real person. Higher earners often leave money behind by staying in "default mode.” Use live chat to size up advanced strategies like asset location, backdoor Roth IRAs, and tax-loss harvesting. Transferring investments from outside Betterment can be a simple way to reach $100k and unlock live chat, while also bringing more of your financial life under one roof. If life is one long series of challenges, those in their 30s or 40s are somewhere in the messy middle of it all. Maybe you just bought a house, or you're trying to. Maybe there's a kid on the way, an expensive wedding behind you, and a college fund somewhere on the horizon. Your income is real now, your finances are getting complicated fast, and the old advice ("just max out your IRA") stopped covering it a while ago. The good news? You don't have to untangle everything by yourself. Households with $100k or more at Betterment now have free access to live chat with a licensed financial specialist—someone who can look at your specific situation and help you figure out what to do next. So let's set the table for your first conversation. Too many goals, not enough dollars? You’ve got a lot going on, so much that your cash flow can’t cover everything. Free live chat can help you quickly prioritize and start knocking out money goals. Because the sooner you start, the sooner you can start enjoying the financial freedom that comes with stacking milestones. Here’s a sampling of the life goals we can help you sort through: Buying a home. Whether you're ready to make an offer or still saving for a down payment, a home purchase reshapes your whole financial picture. A $100k Betterment balance not only lets you size up your strategy with the help of a specialist, it can score you a discounted rate on a mortgage. Building (or rebuilding) an emergency fund. Life has a way of getting expensive at the worst moments. Three to six months of accessible cash is the foundation everything else sits on. At the same time, it’s also possible to overdo it. So size up exactly how much cash you need to sleep better at night, and what to do with the rest. Saving for your kid's college. This one isn’t a pass-fail proposition. Saving even a little, especially while your kids are little, can lighten their financial load when college or trade school come knocking. The question is where to save, and how this goal fits against everything else you're juggling. Charitable giving. The great thing about building the foundation for long-term wealth is it empowers you to give with an abundance mindset. And by donating and replacing appreciated shares instead of dollars, you can effectively reset the tax bill on a slice of your taxable investing as an added bonus. Move beyond the basics of investing Once your finances mature a little, you hit a different category of question. Not "Am I saving?" but "Am I set up the right way?" This is where a lot of investors quietly wonder if they're missing something. And often, they are—not because they've done anything wrong, but because default settings don't always age well. A few advanced settings worth exploring include: Asset location (aka Tax Coordination). It's not just what you invest in, it's where you hold it. You may now have a mix of account types (tax-deferred, tax-exempt, and/or taxable), and strategically dividing up your portfolio between them can meaningfully reduce the potential tax drag on your returns over time. Backdoor Roth contributions. Make more money, and the tax benefits of a traditional IRA will quickly phase out. Make a little more, and the same goes for Roth IRAs. But there’s a perfectly legit workaround that high earners use to get money into a Roth anyway. It takes a couple of steps, so live chatting with our team (and a tax advisor) is highly recommended. Tax-loss harvesting. When your taxable investments dip below their initial purchase price, you can jump on the opportunity to “harvest” the theoretical loss and potentially snag similar benefits as tax-deferred accounts. None of these are hacks. They're just what a well-kept portfolio and automated investing can look like once you've moved past the basics. Help has entered the chat If your household has more than $100k at Betterment, you've reached the point where some money questions are worth asking out loud—and you can do exactly that, for free, with a licensed financial specialist via live chat. Not a chatbot. Not an FAQ page. A real human who can act as a sounding board, take a look at how you're set up, and tell you honestly whether anything deserves a second look. Think of it as a gut-check from someone who's seen a lot of portfolios. The kind of conversation where you can ask: Is a backdoor Roth right for me? How can I grow my charitable giving right along with my wealth? Does my particular mix of assets and accounts make sense? If you're already at $100k, you're already in—simply open a new support chat and select “Talk to a financial specialist.” And if you're not quite there, transferring existing investments from external accounts can be a straightforward way to get there. It can mean bringing more of your financial life under one roof, with the fuller picture in view. So consider transferring your investments to Betterment, and get a second set of eyes for your nest egg.