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M1 Finance Review 2024: Fees, Services and More

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SmartAsset: M1 Finance Review 2022: Fees, Services and More

M1 Finance strikes a balance between the completely hands-off approach of a robo-advisor and the technical complexity of a full-service investment firm. It allows investors to build an investment portfolio based on stocks, funds and professionally managed portfolios that they select. If you’d like the simplicity of a robo-advisory but want to have a little more control over your money than they offer, it might be worth checking this platform out. If you want hands-on guidance from a professional though, consider enlisting the services of a financial advisor.

Services & Features: What Does M1 Finance Offer?

M1 Finance is an investment platform that offers a hybrid model of traditional investing combined with robo-advising.

The platform is built around portfolio templates that M1 Finance calls its “Pies.” This bit of wordplay is based on the visual setup of the platform, in which you build your portfolio around pie charts that show the allocation of your assets.

Investors can build their portfolios out of a mix of stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETF), cryptocurrencies and portfolios that are either automatically or professionally managed, each of which you can select and weigh independently. For example, an investor who wants to include XYZ Co. stock in his or her portfolio can find and add this asset. Then the system will either automatically balance it with the rest of the assets in your portfolio, or you can set exactly how much of a portfolio should be made of that one stock.

You can research coins and build crypto Pies on M1 Finance, which doesn’t commissions for investing in cryptocurrencies. Apex Crypto is assessing a 1% or 100 basis points fee to all crypto transactions on purchases and sales, reflected in the execution price.

By default, M1 Finance’s system steers investors to its automatically managed portfolios, which are grouped based on investment goals. These are known as “Expert Pies.” For example, you can select an expert pie for retirement, income generation, industry-specific investment, etc. Investors who are looking for simplicity can choose an Expert Pie that best meets their goals and do nothing else. In this case, your portfolio will simply be managed according to that template. Others can choose one of M1 Finance’s automatically managed portfolios and use that as a place to start, adding their own assets as they see fit, or can ignore this option altogether.

The result is an interface from the robo-advising world. Unlike a standard investment platform where you purchase individual shares of stocks, M1 Finance balances your investments around your entire portfolio. You don’t select 100 shares of XYZ Co. Rather, you set your portfolio to contain 5% of XYZ shares. However, it also has some of the choices of an investment platform. While you can choose to have your portfolio entirely managed by M1 Finance’s algorithms by building your own portfolio entirely out of the platform’s portfolio choices, you can also independently add stocks and ETFs to the mix.

This is not to say that M1 Finance can take the place of a full-service investment platform. While the service offers tools such as stock and ETF screeners that allow you to search by some technical indicator such as dividends and price-earnings ratios, these are very limited. People looking for a truly sophisticated individual-asset experience will find the service very limiting. Instead, it is relatively clear that the option to select individual assets is an enhancement to M1 Finance’s core product. Perhaps the best way to think of this is as a robo-investment tool that allows individuals to round out their portfolios with individual stocks and ETFs as they see fit.

Finally, in addition to its investment services, M1 Finance offers limited banking options. Any money not actively under investment is placed in a checking account which you can access and even get a debit card for, and lines of credit for margin trading are available to some customers.

Pricing: How Much Does M1 Finance Cost?

There are usually four types of fees to look out for when choosing a trading platform. You should look out for these when evaluating any investment or trading service:

  • Trading Fees: Any fixed charge attached to each trade that you make. This can come in the form of a flat fee or what’s known as the “spread.” This is when your broker charges you based on the difference, if any, between the buying and the selling price of an asset.
  • Trading Commissions: This is when a broker will charge you a percentage based on the volume or value of each trade.
  • Inactivity Fees: Any fees that the broker charges you for not trading, such as for keeping money in a brokerage account.
  • Non-Trading/Other Fees: Any form of fee for trading on this platform not covered above. For example, a brokerage might charge you for making deposits into your brokerage account, taking money out of it or signing up for additional services.

In the case of a robo-advisor, you should typically expect these fees to come in the form of commissions. Most funds and advisories charge you a percent of assets under management, with the promise that they will grow your money faster than they take it.

M1 Finance is one of the cheapest advisors on the market. At the time of writing, it offered two options: the M1 Basic account and the M1 Plus account. Neither account requires a minimum balance, nor does M1 Finance charge commissions or trading fees. Note, however, that some ETFs may have a commission or trading fee that attaches to the underlying asset, which will be charged.

M1 Plus charges an annual $36 fee. In exchange, users receive a 3.30% interest rate on any money in their M1 Finance checking account along with a 1% cash-back offer on their debit card. This banking service is, in fact, a significant part of the company’s business model, which it advertises as a main source of its revenue. The company also lists a savings product that’s on the way.

Effectiveness: How Well Does M1 Finance Work?

SmartAsset: M1 Finance Review 2022: Fees, Services and MoreVery well. It’s important to understand who M1 Finance is for. This is not a robo-advisory for investors who would like to be completely hands-off with their money. Nor does M1 Finance assume complete inexperience. Unlike many other platforms, setting up an account on this service does not involve questions about your personal goals or risk preferences. The system assumes you know this information already. Setting up an account is extremely easy, in fact, and that’s in part because M1 Finance skips many of the questions that help new investors put their choices in context.

This makes the platform less useful for people who are both investment and financial planning. While M1 Finance does offer its funds around categories of investment, it doesn’t offer nearly the degree of advice of comparable services.

Instead, M1 Finance is very well targeted for someone with a degree of knowledge and experience in investing, but not necessarily an interest for active or granular fund management. Investors who understand enough about the stock market to take advantage of M1 Finance’s individual assets will find a lot to love here. The ability to mostly keep your hands off of your money, but occasionally introduce specific assets that catch your eye, is a great sales pitch to a specific class of investor.

If you’re someone who just wants to build an account and leave it to the pros, there’s nothing wrong with M1 Finance but nothing particularly right. You might be better off with a service like Betterment that offers a little bit more financial advising. However, if the idea of a fund-based investment that you can rebalance as you like is both clear and interesting, M1 Finance may well be the platform for you.

Bottom Line

SmartAsset: M1 Finance Review 2022: Fees, Services and More

M1 Finance is a robo-advising platform that allows you to introduce individual assets into your investment portfolio. While not for everyone, it is a terrific fit for investors who are generally hands-off but who would still like to stay somewhat engaged with their money. However, people looking for a truly sophisticated individual-asset experience will find this robo-advisor limiting. For either type of investor, this is a relatively inexpensive product to use.

Tips on Investing

  • Robots might do a good job passively watching your portfolio, but a human financial advisor can provide more specific feedback about specific services, like tax planning, retirement planning or estate planning. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
  • Are robo-advisors right for you? In our article on the subject we discuss exactly what a robo-advisor is, how they work and what they can do for your portfolio. This is a newer section of the market and it’s increasingly popular due to its simplicity and robust investment options.

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