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Portfolio > Economy & Markets

Betterment Streamlines Offerings; Cuts Fees and Minimums on Premium Accounts

By Bernice Napach

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On the same day that Betterment announced it was expanding human advice to all its retail clients through an in-house messaging tool, it eliminated its Plus offering, which had provided an annual planning call from a licensed advisor plus account monitoring throughout the year. Betterment also reduced the minimum balance and fees for Betterment Premium, which allows for unlimited phone calls with advisors.

(Related: Betterment Users Can Now Contact CFPs Via App)

 “We streamlined our offerings and now have Betterment Digital and Premium only,” said a spokeswoman.

(Related: Betterment Now Offers Human Advice, Restructures Fees)

Betterment Plus customers were moved into Betterment Premium accounts, and the minimum balance for those accounts was reduced from $250,000 to $100,000, the same minimum of the former Betterment Plus accounts. In addition, the fee for Premium accounts was cut from 50 basis points to 40 basis points, again the same fee that Plus accounts charged.

“Our Premium plan and our new mobile messaging feature offer the same level of advice, but provide a different level of access,” the spokeswoman said.

Premium customers will still have access to unlimited phone calls with advisors which they can schedule in advance, receiving real-time responses over the phone. They can also use the new mobile messaging feature available to all Betterment clients, but real-time responses are not guaranteed, according to the spokeswoman. All clients using the new messaging feature can expect a response “in about one business day,” according Betterment announcing of its new messaging feature.

Betterment has $9.058 billion in assets under management and 330,315 client accounts. Six months ago, when it first announced it was adding human advice to its digital services, it had $7.3 billion in AUM and about 200,000 accounts. It was also recently valued at $800 million after receiving $70 million  in new funding.

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