Ally Invest and Personal Capital are two investing and financial planning platforms that compete with numerous similarities.
Personal Capital has developed a platform that combines a traditional financial advisor with robo-advisor qualities. You can get access to a human financial planner and have full-scale investment management with Personal Capital.
Ally Invest is known for its low brokerage fees. Ally charges zero commissions for trading stocks, options, and ETFs. Now, Ally Invest has released a robo-advisor feature called Managed Portfolios, which will choose and manage your investments for you.
Both the platforms can help investors build portfolios and invest across asset classes. It depends on the investor’s financial goals and expertise for which app is best for them.
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Here are a few key differences between Personal Capital and Ally Invest:
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Personal Capital is an up and coming platform that helps you manage your finances. Nearly 2 million people use the Personal Capital platform to manage their finances.
Personal Capital has two versions to facilitate its users:
Most users start out with the free version, but 18,000 clients have more than $8 billion in assets under management with Personal Capital.
First, you need to open an account with Personal Capital.
To get started with Personal Capital, you can begin to link all your external financial accounts in the software, including IRAs, mortgage, credit cards, 401ks, savings, and checking accounts.
Once you connect all the accounts, Personal Capital will provide a comprehensive view of your current financial situation.
Personal Capital Wealth Management offers in-depth insights into your financial plan and full-scale investment management.
There are two versions of the app, and every version has distinct functions. Here, you can find the details of the free version.
There is a misconception that the free version of Personal Capital aids budgeting, but it has more features related to investing your money in the right securities.
This free version has the following features:
This tier gives your access to human financial advisors as well as full scale investment management. The minimum account balance to get started is $100,000 and fees start at 0.89% annually.
Personal Capital has a team of skilled investment advisors and financial planners. Therefore, you can contact them and discuss your financial goals, risk tolerance, and return expectations, etc. Accordingly, they can assist you with your customized financial plan.
The investment strategy of Personal Capital is based on factors such as:
The platform offers a savings account with an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) higher than most banks. The Personal Capital Savings Account has no minimum balance and up to $100,000 per day in withdrawals.
The user can open a savings account through the Personal Capital website by providing their email and phone number. After that, he can fill general information and link all external financial accounts to have access to a free version of Personal Capital.
The Free Financial Dashboard is free to use. The company earns selling advisory services to a limited number of clients who hold over $1 million of assets.
The Wealth Management Service charges a fee based on the assets under management:
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Ally Invest caters to both beginners and advanced investors due to its zero commission trading and low annual fees. There are two primary offerings on the Ally Invest platform:
It hardly takes 10 minutes to make an account on Ally Invest. First, you’ll need to share your investment goals, and the software will line up a diverse mix of ETFs for you.
Second, you can customize your investment portfolio by setting the risk tolerance and expected return. Lastly, you just need $100 to start investing. You can track the progress of your portfolio from your mobile phone or web app.
Ally Invest becomes the first choice of the investor due to its no advisory fees, minimum $100 starting investment, and customer support service. The Ally platform has a number of features under both its Managed Portfolios and Self Directed services.
Ally Invest offers managed portfolios which are prebuilt investment portfolios that users can access. By answering a variety of questions about risk aversion, time horizon, and investment goals, Ally Invest will recommend a managed portfolio that will fit the user’s needs. These portfolios are automatically rebalanced and use a variety of 17 ETFs to create each portfolio.
Legacy Portfolio: There is an annual fee of 0.30% for investing in Ally Invest Managed Portfolios.
Free Version: Using Ally Managed Portfolios Cash Enhanced feature you can get the 0.30% annual management fee waived. However, 30% of your portfolio will be invested in an interest bearing cash account.
Expense Ratios: The fund expense ratios in the underlying ETFs range from 0.11% to 0.17% annually.
Unlike other service providers, Ally has vast investing options for the users to select from.
Ally Invest provides the following tools for the self-directed brokerage service:
There is a separate account for currency (Forex) and future trading on the site. The minimum balance required to open the account is $250, but Ally Invest suggests the investor has at least $2,500 to utilize the services of Ally Invest fully.
Ally Invest does not charge any hidden commission or fee on a currency trade. So, if you are a beginner, do not hesitate to invest through Ally Invest to get an exceptional experience.
There are more than 50 currency pairs on the Forex platform, along with other options, including gold, silver, and commodities. Further, the trading platform assists the user with more than 100 technical indicators.
Moreover, the trading commission varies depending upon the volume and other factors, but the lowest cost is $0.45 per contract. Just like options trading, Forex trading is for advanced investors only.
As mentioned earlier, Ally Invest prides itself on the minimization of fees on its platform. Here are a variety of fees to look out for:
Personal Capital and Ally Invest are the two investment platforms where users can buy and sell securities and gain exposure to stock, bond, and other markets.
Though, Personal Capital and Ally Invest have a variety of important differences.
Best Platform For Trading Individual Stocks, Bonds, Options
If you are a beginner and interested in the concept of investing in individual stocks, ETFs, options, etc., then you may want to consider using Ally Invest self-managed accounts. You will be able to trade individual securities using the Ally invest self-managed service.
Best Platform For Higher Net Worth Investors
Personal Capital offers features that offer an appealing option for high net worth investors. Those that have more complicated financial situations and would like access to a financial planner may find that Personal Capital is the better option.
Best Platform For Beginner Investors
Both Ally Invest and Personal Capital have features that cater to beginner investors.
If you are a beginner and have a more complicated financial situation then Personal Capital may be the better option as you can access human financial advisors to answer your questions. However the $100,000 minimum makes this out of reach for most investors.
If you are a complete beginner with a simple and straightforward financial situation then Ally Invest Managed Portfolios may be a good option, with low fees and pre-built portfolios.
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