How does robo investing work on SoFi?

SoFi Robo Investing is a robo-advisor service that takes factors such as your risk tolerance and age into account to create an appropriate investment portfolio for you. SoFi Robo Investing accounts can be standard (taxable) or retirement accounts, and they're designed to put your investments on autopilot to generate solid long-term returns without much effort on your part.

Is SoFi Robo Investing good for beginners?

SoFi Robo Investing's platform is very beginner friendly. You can start investing with as little as $50. Its app and desktop platforms are very user friendly, and SoFi provides extensive educational resources to help beginners learn how to invest properly.

SoFi Robo Investing Review: Can Robo-Advising Really Be This Cheap?

If you want to improve your financial health without breaking the bank, SoFi Robo Investing may be for you. SoFi® charges a competitive management fee, and only requires a $50 minimum investment to get started. But here's our favorite part: SoFi® offers advice from its in-house financial planners to SoFi Robo Investing members at no additional cost.¹ Keep reading our SoFi Robo Investing review to find out if it's the next step in your financial journey.

SoFi Robo Investing could be a good fit for you if:

You want a robo-advisor with a reasonable management fee and unique investment options.
You want calls with 1:1 financial planners at no extra cost.¹
You want to manage all your finances in one app.

Ratings Methodology

SoFi Robo Investing

Learn More

Our Rating:

Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.

4.5/5

Bottom Line

With a reasonable management fee and unique investment options, anyone can get started with SoFi Robo Investing and cut their costs.

Fees:

0.25% annual advisory fee³

Account Minimum:

$50

Learn More for SoFi Robo Investing

On SoFi's Secure Website.

Alternatives to consider

We believe in comparing options before committing. Here are two robo-advisors we recommend highly for you to compare side by side with SoFi Robo Investing when deciding which robo-advisor is right for you:

Offer	Stash	M1 Finance
Rating	Rating Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars. 4.0/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.	Rating Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.
Commissions	Commissions None	Commissions No commission, trading, or management fees for self-directed accounts. Platform fee of $3 monthly.
Account Minimum	Account Minimum $0	Account Minimum $100 for individual account, $500 for retirement account
Learn More	Learn More for Stash On Stash's Secure Website. Read Full Review	Learn More for M1 Finance On M1 Finance's Secure Website. Read Full Review

M1 is not a robo-advisor and only offers self-directed brokerage services.

Full SoFi Robo Investing review

SoFi® (named for "social finance") quickly became known for its customer-centric approach to lending. Now it's making a splash with its impressive SoFi Invest® platform.

The SoFi Invest® platform lets customers invest in stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs, as well as alternative investment funds that historically haven't been available to retail investors. For investors who prefer to keep investments on autopilot, SoFi offers automated investing.

In this SoFi Robo Investing review, we'll take a deeper dive into the robo-advisor platform and look at the pros and cons to help you decide whether it's right for you.

Our ratings methodology

At Motley Fool Money, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology

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We tried it: Our team's experience

Here at Motley Fool Money, we pride ourselves as real users of most of the products across our site. Writer Brittney Myers uses SoFi Invest® -- here's her take on this broker:

Brittney's review

The SoFi Invest® app is fairly easy to use, especially compared to some other apps I've used. It wasn't hard to figure out where to go to buy stock and see my portfolio. And I liked the free stock I got for opening an account; it was from a fairly well-known company that I was curious about anyway. (Some apps give you stock you've never heard of or would never buy.)

Top perks

One of our favorite robo-advisors

SoFi Robo Investing is one of our favorite robo-advisors. It ranks among the best we've seen in these categories:

Best Robo-Advisors for Beginners

Best Roth IRA Accounts

Low costs

SoFi Robo Investing is one of the best robo-advisors for low costs. The company charges a 0.25% annual advisory fee³, which is in-line with competitors, and has a reasonable $50 account minimum. However, note that the underlying investment funds may have their own fees, which are reflected in your long-term investment performance.

There are also no fees for money transfers, and you won't pay anything to set up or maintain your account. If you use SoFi's invest platform for active investing (for example, to buy a specific stock), you won't pay any trading commissions.

Support for retirement accounts

SoFi Robo Investing supports individual and joint accounts, as well as traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs.

Access to human advisors

Few robo-advisors offer access to a human financial advisor, and those that do tend to limit access. SoFi Robo Investing customers get virtual access to financial advisors¹, which is one of the most unique features of the platform. All of SoFi's investment specialists are financial planners and are bound to the fiduciary standard, which means they won't attempt to sell you products simply for a high commission but instead are required to put your best financial interests first.

Automatic rebalancing

SoFi automatically adjusts your investments over time to make sure your portfolio has a good balance of risk and return, based on your financial goals.

Online and mobile experience

SoFi's simple-to-use online and mobile apps are standout features. Notably, its iOS and Android apps are highly rated.

The apps let you access all SoFi products, which means you could manage your banking, investing, and lending all in one place if you take full advantage of a SoFi membership.

Alternative investments

SoFi Robo Investing allows members to have alternative investment funds incorporated into their portfolios. There are three different portfolio themes: --– Classic (traditional robo-advisor), Classic with Alternatives (mix of traditional ETFs and alternative investment funds)², or Sustainable (ESG-friendly investments).

TIP

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What could be improved

No tax-loss harvesting

Tax-loss harvesting is a strategy where you (or your broker) sell certain investments that are losing value with the goal of offsetting taxable gains across your portfolio. This reduces the amount of tax you owe on your investment gains.

SoFi doesn't offer tax-loss harvesting service, which is a potentially major drawback for investors with large accounts or who are otherwise in high tax brackets and want to reduce their tax bill.

How it works

How SoFi Robo Investing works: In addition to standard brokerage accounts, SoFi Robo Investing offers IRAs (traditional and Roth) and SEP-IRAs, and it lets members roll over existing retirement funds from a 401(k) or similar plan into a SoFi account. Members can access accounts through SoFi's online portal or through its user-friendly mobile app.

SoFi Robo Investing customers can choose from several investment portfolios offering a variety of risk levels and investment goals, including alternative investment funds that are traditionally not available to retail investors. If you aren't sure which one to choose, don't worry -- you can answer questions about your financial goals, current assets, and income, and SoFi will do the rest.

As with most robo-advisors, the portfolios are composed of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that put your money into a mix of stocks, bonds, and other asset classes. Unlike many competitors, SoFi uses some of its own ETFs in its SoFi Robo Investing portfolios, which is another way it keeps expenses low.

Learn more: How to automate your investments

Services offered

SoFi Robo Investing offers automatic rebalancing, which means it automatically adjusts your investments on a regular basis to maintain your desired risk level and investment goals. For example, if your portfolio contains a 50% stock and 50% bond mix, and the stock market rises dramatically, the value in your portfolio might be tipped toward 60% stock and 40% bond. SoFi automatically adjusts your investments by selling some stocks and buying some bonds to regain the 50/50 mix.

SoFi members also have access to a high-interest savings account, which pays an APY on cash balances. The APY varies over time and rivals some of the best online savings accounts. There is also an integrated fully online checking account, as well as a variety of other banking products and services offered by SoFi.

Pricing and fees

SoFi Robo Investing has a fee structure that is competitive with other robo advisors. You'll pay a 0.25% annual advisory fee³ and minimal investment expenses on the underlying ETFs in your portfolio, so you keep more of your returns than you would with many of SoFi's competitors.

Service/Item	SoFi Robo Investing Cost
Annual advisory fee	0.25%³

Data source: SoFi Robo Investing.

Customer service

There are two types of support clients of a robo-advisor could need: investment advice and help with technical issues. We already mentioned that SoFi Robo Investing customers get access to human financial advisors¹, and you can schedule appointments via phone or video call. SoFi's advisors can't advise on the purchase of specific securities, but can offer guidance on your overall financial goals. You can reach a financial advisor by logging into your account in the app or online.

For technical support, you can access a SoFi rep via email anytime or via online chat or phone Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. To reach support via phone, call 855-525-SOFI (7634).

FAQs

SoFi Robo Investing is a robo-advisor service that takes factors such as your risk tolerance and age into account to create an appropriate investment portfolio for you. SoFi Robo Investing accounts can be standard (taxable) or retirement accounts, and they're designed to put your investments on autopilot to generate solid long-term returns without much effort on your part.
SoFi Robo Investing's platform is very beginner friendly. You can start investing with as little as $50. Its app and desktop platforms are very user friendly, and SoFi provides extensive educational resources to help beginners learn how to invest properly.

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SoFi Robo Investing Review: Unique Portfolio Options and More