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A powerful, feature-rich robo-advisor that comes with relatively high fees
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- Account Minimum: $1,000, or $20,000 with an advisor
- Fee: Annual 0.45% of assets under management, assessed monthly. With advisor—0.85%. Discounts available for Bank of America Preferred Rewards participants.
Top Rated For
- Best for Education
Our Take
Merrill Guided Investing deviates from the typical market-matching index fund portfolio with its distinct asset allocation and hands-on investment strategies created by the company’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Merrill Guided Investing fees are higher than those of its competitors, but the company is banking on its reputation as a storied wealth management firm to justify the premium. However, users can reduce costs through the Preferred Rewards program with Bank of America and Merrill. While Merrill Guided Investing hasn't added new features or assets to keep up with competitors, a company representative has informed Googlawi they plan to roll out tax-loss harvesting capabilities in late 2024. We’ll take an in-depth look at Merrill Guided Investing to help you decide whether this is the robo-advisor for you.
Aside from this Merrill Guided Investing robo-advisor review, we've also reviewed Merrill Edge's traditional brokerage services.
Pros and Cons
- Actively managed portfolios strive to outperform market returns
Actively managed portfolios strive to outperform market returns
- The 24/7 phone customer service available
The 24/7 phone customer service available
- Accounts are integrated with Bank of America products and services
Accounts are integrated with Bank of America products and services
- Superior educational resources, calculators, and tools for beginners through advanced investors
Superior educational resources, calculators, and tools for beginners through advanced investors
- Fees are higher than average
Fees are higher than average
- Base plan has no access to financial advisors
Base plan has no access to financial advisors
- No tax-loss harvesting
No tax-loss harvesting
- No access to cryptocurrency
No access to cryptocurrency
Account Overview
Editor's Note
Merrill offers a few different types of discounts. Preferred Rewards is a tiered, account value-based program where total Bank of America and Merrill investing account balances of $20,000 to $49,999 unlock gold rewards of 0.05% off the Merrill Guided Investing annual fee, bringing it to 0.40%. The platinum tier, starting at $50,000, will get you 0.10% off the annual fee and the platinum honors tier, starting at $100,000, is good for 0.15% off. These reward tiers offer a full set of discounts on other services outside the Merrill Guided Investing program as well. Merrill Guided Investing also has a current promotion for six months free for new accounts. You need to enter the code 6FREE when you open your account.
Account Setup
Account setup with Merrill Guided Investing is a breeze. As is customary, investors answer basic investment questions that deal with goals, financial contributions, and timelines. They can include outside accounts in Merrill's analysis for a comprehensive picture of their finances and their ability to reach their stated goals. Investors can either choose their risk tolerance or answer a few questions that will allow the platform to suggest a level.
Next, investors choose a goal from among eight selections and provide a customized name for the goal. They then pick either a market-tracking or sustainability-focused portfolio. Before completing the sign-up, they receive a targeted asset allocation, ranging from conservative to aggressive, based on their questionnaire answers.
Finally, they choose the account type and fund the account with the required $1,000 minimum (or more). Chat and phone customer service are readily available throughout the setup process.
Merrill Guided Investing clients can choose from a variety of account types:
- Individual and joint brokerage accounts
- Custodial: Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) and Uniform Gift to Minors Act (UGMA) accounts
- Retirement: Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, simplified employee pension (SEP), SIMPLE IRA, 401(k) to IRA rollover
Source: Merrill
Goal Planning
Merrill is specific and clear in the goal-planning department. Clients can choose from the following eight goals:
- Retirement
- General Investing
- Home
- Education
- Family Support
- Travel
- Special Occasion
- Other Large Purchase
Simulations are built in to demonstrate the likelihood that clients can reach their goals. Clients then have the opportunity to adjust their assumptions.
The tools and calculators enable users to plan for most major financial decisions, including retirement, college planning, and basic personal finance scenarios. The personal retirement calculator is great for those nearing or already in retirement, while the personal finance calculators encompass cash flow and education planning tools.
Ongoing goal monitoring updates client progress and the probability of success. This gives investors the opportunity to adjust assumptions and/or contributions toward the goal. These prompts to do more can make a positive difference in the likelihood you will actually reach your goal. For more accurate goal tracking, you can add additional income sources and external accounts and track contributions.
INVESTOPEDIA ROBO-ADVISOR SURVEY
According to Googlawi's 2023 Robo-Advisor Consumer Survey, when asked to choose from a list of up to three top investment goals that they are most likely to use their robo-advisor to plan for, the majority of respondents chose large purchases like houses, vehicles, and travel.
Account Services
The online-only version of Merrill Guided Investing is fine for those who are younger and don’t yet require in-depth financial planning advice. It charges an annual 0.45% of assets under management (AUM) fee and has a minimum investment of $1,000.
However, investors seeking a robo-advisor plus financial planner may benefit from the option to add an advisor to their online investment management account. The advisory model requires a $20,000 minimum deposit and charges an annual 0.85% AUM fee.
Do-it-yourself (DIY) investors can also set up a self-directed investing account through Merrill Edge as a complement to their Merrill Guided Investing account.
For Bank of America customers, one login enables the integration of banking, self-directed investing, and Merrill Guided Investing robo-advisory services. Auto deposits and transfers are seamless. The approximately 3,800 Bank of America financial centers are also available for any account-related question.
Cash Management
Merrill Guided Investing allocates some percentage of your portfolio to cash. Even if you select high-risk tolerance, a small percentage of your managed funds will be held in cash. This differs from other robo-advisors, which tend to invest all of your managed funds in the investment account and offer separate cash management accounts similar to bank accounts. With Merrill Guided Investing, interest paid on the cash balance is 5.17%. Obviously, Bank of America offers a variety of cash accounts.
Portfolio Construction
Merrill Guided Investing portfolio construction goes beyond creating a portfolio of market-matching index funds. Direct investment in stocks, let alone assets like cryptocurrency, is not part of the Merrill Guided Investing repertoire. The company also involves a CIO who uses both proprietary and external investment research to build portfolios that strive to outperform passive index fund portfolios.
All portfolio models are offered in a range of three risk levels: low, medium, and high. The online version of Merrill Guided Investing includes either market-tracking or sustainability-focused portfolios.
Investment portfolios are constructed and managed using strategic and tactical asset allocations, which vary based on the user's specific goals, risk tolerance, financial situation, timeline, and expected returns, as well as current and predicted market conditions.
In order to avoid conflict of interest, the company does not use any proprietary funds. This shows concern for transparency and ethical management.
Available Assets
Portfolio Customization
Clients have a limited ability to customize their portfolios with Merrill Guided Investing. While they cannot select specific assets, they can specify restrictions to exclude a particular fund.
Portfolio Management
Merrill Guided Investing strategies differ from the typical robo-advisor management in that they are actively managed. Portfolios are not rebalanced according to a schedule but rather based on market conditions and the chance to take advantage of higher-return or lower-risk investment opportunities.
Accounts are also monitored for adherence to the client’s preferred asset allocation and rebalanced when appropriate. Outside accounts are considered when managing the account, so clients can integrate their entire investment portfolio asset allocation and goals with their Merrill Guided Investing account. This advantage is still uncommon among robo-advisors.
The personal dashboard displays clients' progress toward their financial goals. The graphic shows how much they've contributed to the goal, how much remains, and whether they're on track or not.
Merrill requires that the client complete a periodic review to ensure that their portfolio remains aligned with their goals. As goals, timelines, and risk tolerance change, so will their asset allocation.
User Experience
Desktop
The user experience with Merrill Guided Investing is excellent. The desktop platform is easy to navigate, and the tools, insights, information, and resources are among the best. The dashboard shows goal progress, account value, activity, market outlooks, asset allocation, and investment returns, and offers easy access to all the platform resources. The platform is easy to navigate and any questions are handled with chat or 24/7 customer service.
Mobile
The mobile app, available for iOS and Android, is a rare find, given all of the desktop features included in the app. Additionally, clients can access their Merrill accounts from either the Bank of America or the Merrill app. The planning tools are accessible on mobile, as is the Guided Investing dashboard. Robo-advisor users can track account details, strategy, activity, performance, and goal progress.
The robust in-app features include all of the previously discussed desktop features, plus:
- Market news
- Check deposit
- Fund transfer
- Spending and budgeting
- Guidance and retirement planning
Source: Merrill
Customer Service
Merrill Guided Investing shines when it comes to customer service, thanks to its integration with Merrill Edge and Bank of America. With 24/7 phone customer service, you can count on dedicated human assistance.
Although trained customer service representatives are available, only Premium Merrill Guided Investing clients can speak with a financial advisor. However, the website Help and Support page consists of FAQs and other comprehensive sources of information that are a useful addition to the 24/7 phone customer service.
- The 24/7 phone support (wait times of three minutes or more at peak periods)
- Comprehensive FAQs and support center
- Premium Merrill Guided Investing clients can speak with a financial advisor
Security
As a member of the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch families, users can expect bank-level security:
- Two-factor authentication
- Encrypted messaging for communications with advisors
- Cash in bank accounts insured up to the legal limit by the FDIC
- Securities insured by SIPC and additional coverage with Lloyd's of London
Education
Merrill Guided Investing is highly regarded for its strong educational offering. This resource includes white papers, calculators, and courses, as well as high-quality webinars, videos, and articles.
The educational topics are categorized from beginner to advanced. Topics range from platform-specific to investment asset information and strategy. Investment topics include investment risk, tax-efficient investing, growth vs. value, socially responsible investing, and many others. The calculators for retirement, tax planning, and more can answer nearly all client questions.
Commissions and Fees
Similar to most robo-advisors, there are no trading fees. The annual investment management fee for the online-only plan is 0.45% of AUM, assessed monthly. The online-plus-financial advisor annual charge is 0.85% of AUM.
The Preferred Rewards program can lower fees if you qualify. The higher your account balance with Merrill and Bank of America, the larger the discount on the annual fee. The tiered Preferred Rewards program goes far beyond the Merrill Guided Investing fee discounts and includes preferential rates on loans and other perks. In addition to the annual AUM account management fee, all mutual funds and ETFs charge expense ratios, which are paid to the specific investment fund companies.
In contrast, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios offers an option that is free of any management fees. Customers only pay the fund expense ratios. It also offers a premium version with access to a certified financial planner that does charge a one-time planning fee of $300, as well as a monthly management fee of $30.
Customer Reviews*
“I'm gonna say the fees are fair because the return is phenomenal. At this point, I don't mind the fee.”
* Customer reviews were collected from an independent Googlawi survey of 205 current robo-advisor platform users.
The Bottom Line
Merrill Guided Investing is among the more feature-rich robo-advisors we have reviewed, but it hasn't changed much in recent years. Tax-loss harvesting is still absent, as is crypto as an asset class. That said, Merrill Guided Investing is great for existing clients of Bank of America because of the add-on benefits associated with having all accounts in one financial ecosystem. The balances of your accounts with Merrill and Bank of America count toward the Preferred Rewards program, which can lower the cost of Merrill Guided Investing and open up other perks. Merrill Guided Investing offers a hybrid model with access to a human advisor for a higher fee (0.85% AUM versus 0.45%), but its basic online offering is quite powerful and does an excellent job of taking external accounts into consideration for goal planning and tracking.
Merrill Guided Investing will also be attractive to investors seeking extensive education resources. The 24/7 customer service is a plus that will be appreciated by those investors seeking a human touch within their robo-advisory. Human customer service is available even if you don't opt for the higher-fee, higher minimum balance hybrid version. Overall, however, the Merrill Guided Investing fees are on the high side and investors will need to decide if the fees are worth the value that the platform offers.
How Merrill Guided Investing Helps You Save Money on Taxes
Although Merrill Guided Investing does have access to "tax-aware" portfolios that use tax-exempt components like municipal bond indexes, tax-loss harvesting is still notably absent from the platform in 2024. Tax-loss harvesting looks for unrealized losses that can be realized by selling an investment and replacing it with a comparable one to offset gains elsewhere in the portfolio.
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 Googlawi. 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 and 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, Googlawi 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 18 robo-advisors. While the information collected did not influence the development of our ratings model, it was instrumental in gathering the valuable insights published in Googlawi's 2023 Robo-Advisor Consumer Survey.
Participants in our 2023 Robo-Advisor Survey opted into 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.