Office address: 450 West 33rd Street, Floor 11, New York, NY 10001
Website: betterment.com
Year established: 2010
Company type: financial services
Employees: 450+
Expertise: automated investing, retirement solutions, high-yield cash management, IRAs, crypto investing, checking accounts, trusts, financial planning, tax optimization, socially responsible investing
Parent company: Betterment Holdings Inc.
Key people: Sarah Levy (CEO), Peter Lorimer (CFO), Mike Reust (president), Seth Rosenbloom (general counsel), John Mileham (chief technology officer), Johanna Richardson (chief product officer), Kim Rosenblum (chief marketing officer)
Financing status: venture capital-backed
Betterment is a digital investment advisor based in New York City with over $65 billion in assets. The company offers automated investing, high-yield cash accounts, IRAs, crypto portfolios, and checking services. More than 1 million customers use it for goal-based investing, tax-saving tools, and easy cash management.
Betterment was established in New York City in 2008 by Jon Stein and Eli Broverman. Their goal was to make investing simple and affordable for everyone by using technology.
The company officially launched in 2010 at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, where it won the Biggest New York Disruptor award. It quickly attracted nearly 400 early customers.
In the years that followed, Betterment introduced features like the Tax-Coordinated Portfolio in 2012 and the RetireGuide tool in 2014. The company expanded into advisor services with Betterment Institutional, later called Betterment for Advisors.
It then entered the workplace benefits market in 2016 with Betterment for Business. By 2017, the firm managed $10 billion in assets and offered socially responsible investing options.
Betterment continued to grow as it acquired Makara in 2022 to expand into crypto portfolios. The firm also launched Crypto Investing later that year. The company acquired Marcus Invest accounts from Goldman Sachs in 2024, broadening its customer base.
In 2021, Betterment refreshed its brand with a new logo and identity. By 2024, the company managed over $45 billion in assets for more than 1 million accounts.
In 2025, Betterment acquired Ellevest’s automated investing business as the latter shifted its focus to wealth management for high-net-worth clients. This transfer brought new digital-first clients to Betterment, who valued features like joint accounts and cash options.
Later in the year, the firm announced the acquisition of Rowboat Advisors, a portfolio management software provider. The company seeks to enhance its offerings for independent advisors with tools for tax management and direct indexing.
Betterment offers expert-built portfolios and a simple digital platform. Investors can choose from diverse, socially responsible, cash, or crypto options:
Betterment is also known for its tax-saving strategies and automated portfolio management. Investors benefit from low-cost ETFs, transparent pricing, and automatic rebalancing with reinvested dividends.
Betterment states its team is driven by helping people reach their goals, no matter the size. The company says it values different paths to “better” and focuses on making investing simple for everyone. Their core values include:
The company also says that it invests in each employee’s career. Benefits include:
Betterment supports equity by offering open employee resource groups for all staff. The company says these groups host curated programs to help everyone feel valued and heard.
Sarah Levy became CEO of Betterment in 2020. Before joining the company, Levy spent over 20 years at Viacom in senior leadership, including as COO. She began her career at Disney and is known for her experience in brand building, strategy, and operations.
The Betterment leadership team combines diverse skills and backgrounds to guide the company’s direction:
Together, these executives oversee Betterment’s strategic, operational, and technological priorities, ensuring effective management across all areas of the business.
To expand advisor planning solutions in 2025, the company partnered with Envestnet, a major wealth technology provider. Betterment Advisor Solutions, the advisor-focused division of the firm, also joined with Vanilla, an estate planning technology firm.
They aim to offer advisors advanced estate planning tools and education. These partnerships help advisors provide more complete services and support the company’s focus on meeting growing client needs.
The company also conducted a study that revealed how different generations prefer to communicate with their advisors. Younger clients often want digital tools and transparency, while older clients may value more personal or traditional contact. By sharing these insights, the company enables firms to tailor their approach and use technology to better serve clients of all ages.
A new cohort of social media influencers is taking its knowledge and expertise into the financial realm, breathing new life into stodgy prospecting campaigns that have largely relied on blog posts and dinner seminars.
This month’s #AdviserTech roundup includes Franklin Templeton’s purchase of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management and its Canvas direct index platform; Morningstar’s acquisition of Moorgate Benchmarks; Betterment for Advisors’ shift from TAMP to RIA custodian competitor; and the SEC’s inquiry into when fintech-driven nudges become bona fide investment advice.
Fintech experts say the next disruption could come from out of the blue, and that advisers should avoid embracing tech for tech's sake.
This month's #AdviserTech roundup includes Riskalyze’s recapitalization, RightCapital’s launch of retirement decumulation tools, Veriti’s crossing $1 billion of AUM, and American Express partnering with BodesWell to return to the financial planning business 16 years after spinning off Ameriprise.
The $160 million round is the largest to date for the leading independent robo-adviser. The latest influx will be used to accelerate its business-to-business arms, particularly its 401(k) offering.
The NFL franchise will expose Stash’s financial literacy programs to 6 million fans via social media and 11 million viewers that watch the team during a broadcasted game.
Loh served as vice president of digital advice and innovation and oversaw the Intelligent Portfolio automated advice platform at Schwab. The hire emphasizes the bank’s recent push to utilize technology offerings to serve the mass affluent market.
The payments giant enters a competitive but flourishing marketplace for online brokerages as it evolves its app to enable millions to trade individual stocks. PayPal currently has approximately 400 million users.
The robo-adviser allows users to choose between six types of portfolios using exchange-traded funds that are curated by investment experts.
Had Juniper Networks' plan used higher-revenue-sharing share classes, net costs conceivably could have been lower, if those fees were rebated back to participants, according to the complaint.
A new study by the research firm Backend Benchmarking estimates the high cash allocation in the company's automated portfolios may have cost investors more than $500 million over six years.
Robinhood hit the public market after experiencing dramatic growth and heightened scrutiny throughout a pandemic year.
Cash spreads are certainly nothing new, but with almost $64 billion in assets, Charles Schwab & Co. is likely the largest robo-adviser to hold significant chunks of client assets in cash.
The capital to purchase the $4.4B Los Angeles-based RIA came from private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners.
This month's #AdviserTech roundup includes SmartAsset’s achieving unicorn status, Broadridge acquiring AdvisorStream, and Principal shutting down RobustWealth.
