More importantly, is this another wealth management robot with little to offer and high risks involved, or has SoFi managed to bring investments into the reach of the average consumer? Let’s find out.
What is SoFi Wealth?
Most consumers lack the knowledge or resources to take the leap into investments, and that’s where SoFi steps in. At its basic level, SoFi Wealth is an application that allows users to create investment portfolios that are specifically designed to be low-cost and tax-efficient. You can create different types of accounts based on your financial situation and employment status and the platform will adjust your portfolio for optimal investment opportunity.
The beauty of this tool is that it does all the work for you. From monitoring market fluctuations to observing your own personal details and finally to calculations, SoFi Wealth automates the entire process. This is an ingenious way for consumers who know little or nothing about investment to break into the field and actually turn a profit without paying hefty accounting or investment firm charges.
Education: The SoFi Difference
SoFi Wealth is a type of robo-advisor - a digital financial advising tool that either tells you when to buy or sell or takes care of the trading process automatically for you. This modern invention helps people less familiar or lacking in time make smarter, easier trading choices. What makes SoFi’s version stand out from the competition is that it combines the best of both technology and human guidance together in order to deliver the most reliable and comprehensive platform for its users.
As with all of SoFi’s products, SoFi Wealth also aims to educate and be a resource for consumers to help facilitate smart financial decisions, creating a healthier financial ecosystem all around. The way it intends to implement this within the wealth management tool is by offering hands-on counseling, as well. Licensed financial advisors will be available to customers by phone or live chat consultations. Users can call or type in with questions about investment decisions, trade options, and even just regular financial health queries. This gives young investors or others who haven’t ventured into the world of finances and investments previously the ability to traverse these choppy waters confidently. Basically, it offers the low cost advantage of price-competitive investment robots coupled with the hand holding of consultants that first-time investors really need to succeed.
Uses & Benefits of SoFi Wealth
Getting started with this low-cost, online wealth management system is simple. Users can sign up for a SoFi account if they aren't currently a member of the club. One of the key benefits of the platform is the low minimums involved. Investments start at as low as $500 for the initial investment. Alternatively, members can make continuous payments of $100 per month and receive the same access to the platform.
Investors can sign up to one or several of 3 different types of accounts with SoFi Wealth:
- Individual accounts that are held by a single person alone
- Retirement accounts that deal with retirement funds such as IRAs, Roth IRAs, and Simplified Employee Pensions
- Joint accounts that are shared by multiple individuals
Each type of account has its own benefits, and members can discuss their options with a competent financial advisor as part of the wealth management service.
The next major benefit is the creation of smart portfolios. The platform’s main purpose is to help users build low-cost investment portfolios without all the complexities that investing often entails. The robot will automatically rebalance these portfolios in order to create long-term returns for investors, at the same time minimizing the risks that often come with investments.
What’s also unique about this investment robot is that it takes personal factors into consideration when developing your portfolio. The financial planning stems from factors that are important to the average SoFi customer like family investment planning, first-time mortgage possibilities, and joint financial structuring for couples.
SoFi Wealth is also available via the mobile app, available for iOS or Android devices, for even more financial convenience.
Finally, in keeping with its trend of educating and enlightening investors, SoFi Wealth provides valuable information to users all the time. Members will receive:
- Weekly updates about what happened in the markets and within their own personal portfolios the previous week
- Smart tips containing macro-trends within the current economy
- Information on what influencers are rising and what their impact may be on the capital markets
- A breakdown of what all this means vis a vis your actual investment portfolio
How SoFi Wealth Compares Against the Competition
We’ve already seen how SoFi’s offering is more robust, well-rounded, and user-centric than other options out there. Additionally, unlike many of the competitor’s wealth management platforms such as Betterment, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital, SoFi Wealth is a tool created to help consumers, as is apparent from their entire design and pricing structure. SoFi personal loan borrowers automatically receive the service free of charge, and even those who are not current SoFi customers pay a mere 0.25% management fee, which is only paid after the first $10,000 are invested (anything below that is free of charge).
What’s more, the financial advisors make it simple to start investing. Most people aren’t sure where to begin. Advisors sit with each customer, examine their account details, help set financial and investment goals, and suggest the best routes to reach those goals. The advisors use an aggregate of different types of investments and funds, based on your age, assets, debts, and income, to maximize your returns.
To Sum Things Up
SoFi has established a name for itself in the world of finance as a personal finance expert. It regularly hosts networking, employment, and other social events for their customers, offers job placement services, and has an unemployment freeze on their loans built in.
SoFi Wealth is another step in the right direction towards creating an all-inclusive suite of financial services from start to finish. Already helping borrowers obtain the funds to pay off outstanding loans and debts, SoFi now branches out even further, assisting their members in managing their assets and investments once those debits are cleared. With lower fees than traditional banks and investment consultant firms, personalized assistance with professional advisors, and automatic real-time adjustments to portfolios based on your own financial status and concerns, SoFi Wealth has brought profitable investments within the grasp of anyone who is willing to reach out and grab it.
