The Schwab Intelligent Portfolios desktop user experience is simple, clean, and user-friendly. The platform makes it easy to set goals, readjust your contributions, and see whether you’re on track. You can see your account balances, investment performance, and past transactions in one convenient location. There’s not much to customize, but it’s a good basic setup for investors who don’t want something complicated.
It’s nice that you can start building your portfolio and see the asset recommendations without setting up an account first. The experience is all online, and you must receive electronic delivery of records by email.
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is available via both iPhone and Android mobile apps. The design is nearly identical, giving you access to the same tools and information as the desktop version. Schwab is also developing an iPad app and improvements to the Android app so that it works faster.
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios provides 24/7 customer service. This is convenient as many other robo-advisors limit customer service to business hours or may not offer live customer service at all. You can reach a Schwab customer service rep by phone or live chat. You can also visit an in-person Charles Schwab branch.
If you want help from a human financial advisor, you can sign up for Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium. The advisor will work with you individually and give unlimited guidance on your plan. However, you need at least $25,000 in your account to use Premium. Access to human advisors is not available for the basic version.
Schwab, an SIPC Member Bank, provides insurance above the standard SIPC limits for your account. You get the normal $500,000 of coverage, including $250,000 for cash, plus an additional $150 million in excess coverage, with up to $1.5 million for cash.
Investing Insights is Schwab Intelligent Portfolios' educational platform that gives customers access to a full range of educational articles, videos, podcasts, whitepapers on ETFs, newsletters, and magazines released by Schwab’s online brokerage. Included in this comprehensive offering are market commentaries from the many investment experts working at Schwab. As one of the world’s largest brokers, Schwab provides a wide range of educational resources compared to smaller competitors
The Schwab Intelligent Portfolios cost was one of its highlights. Schwab does not charge a monthly management fee for the basic version of its robo-advisor. This is excellent, as most other robo-advisors charge at least some monthly fee, either as a dollar amount or a percentage of your portfolio. The Premium version with access to human advisors charges you $300 upfront, with a $30 monthly fee afterward. This is still very reasonable for access to financial planners.
Schwab does not charge commissions on your trades. You do need to pay the investment fees on the ETFs. Schwab makes money this way as many of the recommended ETFs for the robo-advisor come from Schwab. It also earns commissions from other companies for recommending their ETFs. The annual fee depends on your portfolio allocation but has a weighted average of roughly 0.13%.
| Category | Fee |
| Annual Gross Advisory fee for $5,000 account | $0 |
| Annual Gross Advisory fee for $25,000 account | $0 ($30/mo for Premium plus $300 setup fee) |
| Annual Gross Advisory fee for $100,000 account | $0 ($30/mo for Premium plus $300 setup fee) |
| Termination fees | $0 |
| Expense ratios | 0.02% to 0.19% (0.13% weighted average) |
| Mutual funds | N/A |
Customer Reviews*
“The information that Schwab provides, like the details about the funds, the details about how the robo advisor adjusts based on your risk appetite, all that stuff is really good. The ability to see it and get the updates and everything. Whenever there's a shift in the portfoliothat all is good.”
* Customer reviews were collected from an independent Investopedia survey of 205 current robo-advisor platform users.
The Bottom Line
After considering the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios pros and cons, we found there’s a lot to like about this platform. If you’ve got a reasonably large portfolio and want to keep fees low, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is an excellent choice. You can sign up for the basic robo-advisor service with no monthly management fee and only owe for the ETFs, which is a steal compared to the typical robo-advisor. The platform makes planning your goals and portfolios easy by using a wide selection of ETFs and asset classes.
Our review of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios did find some notable issues. First, the account minimums are high. You need $5,000 to open a basic account and at least $50,000 to use tax-loss harvesting, a feature that’s more accessible elsewhere. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios also doesn’t offer too much customization. Still, if you want the support of a quality robo-advisor at a bargain price, this is it.
Does Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Have Monthly Fees?
The basic Schwab Intelligent Portfolios account does not have monthly fees. Schwab does not charge anything for managing your account with the robo-advisor. It also does not charge commissions on trades. You only owe the management fees of the ETFs in your portfolio.
The Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium account does charge a $30 monthly fee. In exchange, you get unlimited access to human financial advisors (who are CFPs).
Is Schwab Intelligent Portfolios FDIC Insured?
The cash portion of your Schwab Intelligent Portfolios account has FDIC insurance, as Schwab Bank holds the money. You receive the standard limit of up to $250,000 per account. FDIC insurance does not apply to the investment portion of your account. Instead, these assets receive SIPC insurance. Schwab provides the typical $500,000 per account plus excess coverage.
What Is the Minimum Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Account?
There is a $5,000 minimum for a Schwab Intelligent Portfolios account. This is high compared to most robo-advisors. If you want a premium account with access to a human advisor, you must deposit at least $25,000. To access tax-loss harvesting, you need $50,000.
What Are the Returns of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios?
The returns of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios depend on your investment strategy and risk tolerance. Based on your inputs, the platform designs a portfolio of stocks, bonds, commodities, and cash using ETFs. The platform then shows the historical returns of your target portfolio. For example, a U.S. based portfolio with a moderate risk profile had a three-year historical return of 7.20% as of 2023. You can use this information to predict your growth, but note that past performance does not guarantee the same future returns.
Is Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Good for Retirees?
Thanks to its Intelligent Income feature, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios can be good for retirees. This tool lets you set up retirement withdrawals from your account and predicts how long the portfolio will last based on your withdrawal rate and investments. The robo-advisor also determines how to best manage the ETFs to create tax-efficient withdrawals from selling assets. These features make Schwab Intelligent Portfolios a helpful option for retirees.
How Does Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Help You Save Money on Taxes?
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium offers tax-loss harvesting services through the efforts of a human advisor. Clients can link external accounts, so that the advisor can consider the Schwab Intelligent Portfolio performance as well as similar funds the client holds elsewhere.
This allows the advisor to recognize that if any of the client’s funds are in a net negative position at the end of the year, they can sell the position, take a loss, and reestablish a similar position in another fund, so that the client can take advantage of the fluctuation by reducing taxes. This is a big reason why the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios performs as well as it does and why the list of selectable ETFs includes a redundant grouping of Schwab funds with external funds.
How We Review Robo-Advisors
Providing readers with unbiased, comprehensive reviews of digital wealth management companies, more commonly known as robo-advisors, is a top priority of Investopedia. We used our 2023 consumer survey to guide the research and weightings for our 2024 robo-advisor awards. To collect the data, we sent a digital survey with 64 questions to each of the 21 companies we included in our rubric. Additionally, our team of researchers verified the survey responses and collected any missing data points through online research and conversations with each company directly. The data collection process spanned from Jan. 8, to Feb. 9, 2024.
We then developed a quantitative model that scored each company to rate its performance across nine major categories and 59 criteria to find the best robo-advisors. The score for each company’s overall star rating is a weighted average of the criteria:
- Account Services: 10.00%
- Account Setup: 5.00%
- Customer Service: 5.00%
- Fees: 15.00%
- Goal Planning: 21.00%
- Portfolio Contents: 17.00%
- Portfolio Management: 17.00%
- Security & Education: 5.00%
- User Experience: 5.00%
Additionally, during our 2023 research, many of the companies we reviewed granted our team of expert writers and editors access to live accounts so they could perform hands-on testing.
Through this all-encompassing data collection and review process, Investopedia has provided you with an unbiased and thorough review of the top robo-advisors.
Read more about how we research and review robo-advisors.
Separately, our research team conducted a survey of 205 U.S. adults aged 18 to 72 who are current clients of one of 18robo-advisors. While the information collected did not influence the development of our ratings model, it was instrumental in gathering the valuable insights published inInvestopedia's 2023Robo-Advisor Consumer Survey.
Participants in our 2023Robo-Advisor Survey opted-in to an online, self-administered questionnaire from a market research vendor. Data collection took place between Aug. 30, and Sept. 15, 2023, with 11 video interviews conducted with volunteer respondents from Sept. 7, to Sept. 17, 2023. Multiple quality checks, including screeners, attention gauges, comprehension evaluations, and logic metrics, among others, were used to ensure only the highest quality responses were included.
