Citi Unveils New Low-Cost Robo-Adviser And It’s Free For Some Customers Bankrate Caret RightMain Menu Mortgage Mortgages Financing a home purchase Refinancing your existing loan Finding the right lender Additional Resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Bank Banking Compare Accounts Use calculators Get advice Bank reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Credit Card Credit cards Compare by category Compare by credit needed Compare by issuer Get advice Looking for the perfect credit card? Narrow your search with CardMatch Caret RightMain Menu Loan Loans Personal Loans Student Loans Auto Loans Loan calculators Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Invest Investing Best of Brokerages and robo-advisors Learn the basics Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Home Equity Home equity Get the best rates Lender reviews Use calculators Knowledge base Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Loan Home Improvement Real estate Selling a home Buying a home Finding the right agent Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Insurance Insurance Car insurance Homeowners insurance Other insurance Company reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Retirement Retirement Retirement plans & accounts Learn the basics Retirement calculators Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Advertiser Disclosure
Advertiser Disclosure
We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover. How We Make Money
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. SHARE: Mitch Diamond/Getty Images January 30, 2020 Bankrate senior reporter James F. Royal, Ph.D., covers investing and wealth management. His work has been cited by CNBC, the Washington Post, The New York Times and more. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Bankrate logo Editorial integrity
Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. Here is a list of our . Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers. Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Bankrate logo How we make money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. Citigroup is jumping into the digital investing advisory space with a series of low-cost portfolios that it will offer to customers. The company has announced the debut of a new robo-adviser that’s free for Priority clients, those who have at least $50,000 in assets or investments with the nation’s third-largest bank by assets. It’s also available free for Citigold customers. The new robo-adviser – called Citi Wealth Builder – invests client’s money into one of six pre-made portfolios comprised of (ETFs). The portfolio is selected based on customers’ responses to a questionnaire that assesses their risk tolerance and total assets among other questions. From there, the robo-adviser does the rest, monitoring the portfolio and rebalancing it as needed. Customers who are members of the Citi Priority and Citigold programs can use the robo-adviser to create one portfolio without an advisory fee. However, they’ll still pay the expenses charged by the ETF investments themselves, which range from 0.18 – 0.24 percent. Additional accounts will be charged 0.55 percent of assets annually, or $55 for each $10,000 invested. Citi customers who aren’t members of either program can also use the new robo-adviser for the same advisory fee of 0.55 percent of assets annually. The robo-adviser account requires a minimum initial investment of $1,500 to get started. [READ: ] How Citi Wealth Builder compares to other robo-advisers
Like other big bank rivals, Citi is pushing to grow its assets, and its latest move follows a popular strategy in the industry of bundling a range of financial services to encourage customers to do most, if not all, of their banking and investment with one bank. Citi is among the last of the big banks to offer a robo-adviser, following on the heels of , , and Morgan Stanley. These banks usually charge advisory fees of 0.35 – 0.45 percent of assets annually. So if you can score a free portfolio, Citi’s offering might make sense for you. If you can’t, Citi’s price is actually less attractive than much of its competition. And pure play robo-advisers including Wealthfront, Betterment and Ellevest, as well as broker Charles Schwab, each offers a lower overall cost for its robo-adviser offering. For example, Betterment, Ellevest and Wealthfront each offer a robo-adviser with an advisory fee of 0.25 percent and many attractive features such as auto-rebalancing. In addition, their portfolios are typically constructed with ETFs that have lower expense ratios, 0.8 – 0.16 percent. may go them one better, though. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios offers an account that charges no advisory fee – typically the single largest cost of a robo-adviser. Its fees for ETFs are also competitive, and the broker offers free auto-rebalancing, though it does require a $5,000 minimum account balance. But it’s important to remember that Citibank will be offering its robo-adviser as part of a larger suite of banking services provided as part of the Citi Priority program. [COMPARE: ] Benefits of the Citi Priority account package
When you have at least $50,000 in assets or investments at Citibank, you can become a Priority client, a program that offers you various benefits: Free checks, money orders and official checks Discounted pricing on mortgages No stop payment fees or ATM foreign exchange fees A discount of 0.25 percent on HELOCs and no annual fee A discount of 0.25 percent on personal loans and no annual fee No annual account fees on wealth management investment accounts $4.95 stock trades with Citi Personal Wealth Management Increased ThankYou points beyond what you already earn for your Citi credit cards Along with much of the industry, Citibank is in the midst of gathering deposits, and programs such as Citi Priority are a way to give customers a bundle of services at lower cost for bringing more of their business to the bank. [READ: ] Bottom line
Whether Citi’s new robo-adviser makes sense for you depends on your own personal financial situation. But if you can get the robo-adviser service as part of the other perks of being a Citi Priority client, then it starts to make a lot more sense for a wider range of customers. Learn more
SHARE: Bankrate senior reporter James F. Royal, Ph.D., covers investing and wealth management. His work has been cited by CNBC, the Washington Post, The New York Times and more. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Related Articles