Betterment Advisor Solutions Reviews & Product Details

What I appreciate most about Betterment Advisor Solutions is how it blends a modern, intuitive platform with investment management that prioritizes fiduciary responsibility. The technology is user-friendly for both advisors and clients, which simplifies administrative tasks and improves the overall client experience. While we have not utilized their custodial platform, our experience with their 401(k) offering has been very positive, as it provides flexibility when needed. Additionally, Betterment’s continuous innovation, responsive service team, and dedication to transparency make it a dependable partner, supporting advisors in scaling their practices efficiently and delivering excellent outcomes for clients. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While Betterment Advisor Solutions is a strong and expanding platform, some elements still show its relative youth compared to more established providers. Certain features and workflows are still developing, and there remain opportunities to enhance functionality, reporting depth, and administrative flexibility. As the platform grows and matures, these aspects will likely see improvement. However, for now, advisors with more complex or specialized needs might sometimes find that the platform is still working to catch up in a few respects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

First and foremost, they are a modern tech provider with a wonderful user interface. Clients rave about how much they like it compared to wherever they had their accounts prior. I really value a positive client experience first, and ease of use for me as the advisor second. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Occasionally I run across account types (up until recently, Solo 401k's - although they have just added that) or certain types of service requests that cannot be handled cleanly. But these are few and far between, and very rarely is it an issue, as usually there is some kind of workaround. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The offerings are becoming much more advisor-friendly over the past few years. I also think support and advisor outreach has come a long way. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Several things, but all boil down to over-promising and failing to deliver. This has happened to me numerous times.

First, we were told more than 2 years ago that client fee invoicing was "coming up next". You calculate the fees and deduct them, yet our firm has to produce invoices again each month because you fail to inform the client of the deduction in a compliant manner (state making this allegation: Colorado).

Second. the crypto account rollout was very frustrating. We had to add significant language to our ADV and our client agreements because of this new offer, and then you took it away a year later. This made us repaper existing clients twice in 15 months.

Third, the stock portfolio rollout was abysmal. We sought to build a model with some commonly-held stocks like HIMS, ROKU, UBER, SG, CAVA, and others, and only a couple were actually available. We were told that NO more stocks were going to be made available, even if we requested them.

DON'T HYPE US - deliver what you promise. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I am an investment advisor using Betterment Advisor Solutions for our investment platform, and it's great that everything is user-friendly, intuitive, and paperless, making it very easy to onboard new clients and manage portfolios for existing ones. My clients love their client portal, and I really appreciate being able to save a lot of time compared to what I have done in the past. I don't have other complaints because if I have an issue, an advisor customer rep will answer the phone in a matter of minutes and solve the problem or answer my question. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are a few types of accounts that are not yet offered, such as UGMA/UTMA accounts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love the interface of Betterment Advisor Solutions. It's great how it facilitates a working partnership with my clients, allowing us to easily hop onto their accounts and view exactly what they see. This feature is really helpful in guiding them to make the best investment decisions while I'm there to back them up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes it feels like just the household feel for me is pretty good, but for clients it's not as well understood. And so that can be a frustration. For what one spouse is not able to see for the other spouse. I would prefer an in-house DAF rather than having to outsource it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Automated emails, tax loss harvesting, auto rebalancing, access to topp portfolio managers, ability to create my own portfolios (from limited menu) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recently, Betterment instituted tier 1 and tier 2 support. Tier 1 support is a joke. The tier 1 people do not know the answer to any question, they do not have access to anything of value to advisors, and they cannot transfer you to anyone. Tier two people are knowledgeable, but they are unavailable by phone, and you have to wait sometimes 2 days for them to get back to you. Tier 1 support may be the worst customer service experience I've had in my life. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like how the bundled 401k package is a great tool for my firm, allowing small businesses to access bundled plans and making administrative work easier. The sponsor portal is useful for client communication and platform use. I find the app simple and the default Betterment Advisor Solutions' investment options diversified and cost-efficient. Changing employer or participant information is straightforward, and my clients are impressed with the ease of features like adjusting contribution amounts or choosing between traditional and Roth. The initial setup was incredibly easy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Direct support for advisors. Took a while to understand who was my representative to the plan to help make changes or answer questions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like the cash reserve feature; it's very valuable with its competitive rate and clear interest accrual information, which makes it easier for clients to understand their gains compared to other options. The email-based account opening process is another highlight, as it's quite fast and efficient, especially for tech-savvy clients who prefer not having to go through a manual process. This process reduces the amount of handholding required, which is beneficial for both the clients and us. The backend is well-organized, particularly from a billing standpoint, which we also appreciate. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have a few issues with Betterment Advisor Solutions. One thing is the handling of account beneficiaries. Betterment doesn't push enough on the account onboarding process for beneficiaries, which could be a liability risk if there are no beneficiaries or only primary ones. Also, I'd really like it if you added 'per stirpes' to your beneficiary capabilities, as I was disappointed it wasn't an option when I added mine personally. When it comes to account transferring, anything that can't be ACATed is a massive headache, and transferring out of Betterment requires a medallion signature guarantee, which is excessive and not helpful. There are also issues with performance reporting capabilities not being as comprehensive as I'd like. I find the integration with eMoney sometimes works, but not consistently, but that could also be user error on my part haha. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Betterment Advisor Solutions as another custodian and investment services option for clients. I think the website is very easy to use, which makes a lot of clients feel comfortable logging in. I rarely get questions from clients on how to navigate the site, which is arguably the biggest plus for this type of service. The initial setup was simple and not overly complex. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

They are very very slow with processing checks. Betterment can take 5 business days or longer to process, which is extremely frustrating. Additionally, getting in touch with their service department is challenging. You typically can only email them, whereas all other custodians I work with you can call and speak to a human being. Often times a phone call to a service department is necessary or can resolve an issue much faster. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Betterment Advisor Solutions is very user-friendly and provides great resources for clients to get help and additional information. It makes the onboarding process easy and works great on our end as advisors. I value the tools that show us the RMDs needed to be met each year, as well as the breakdown of investments and returns. The tool that allows you to choose how much capital gains you're willing to realize in a given year is very helpful. The initial setup experience was great, the team was helpful, and the process was very smooth. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When rolling over Inherited IRAs, we have to first open up a cash reserve or any account before opening up the Inherited IRA. Then, we have to physically mail a form for the client to sign and then mail back to us, so that we can then submit it to the custodian to transfer the funds. This process takes way longer than any other transfer. I wonder if there's a better option for this and if we can shorten the time it takes to do these transfers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.