Personal Capital Review: How It Can Help In Wealth Management

Author: Lilian Smith

Having at least $100,000 in assets might be overwhelming to manage, especially if your wealth is a fruit of hard work. If wealth management is your current dilemma, Personal Capital can help by connecting you with competent financial professionals. 

With the help of an advisor, you can set up comprehensive and efficient wealth management plans to work with your financial goals. 

Additionally, you can ensure that your wealth management plans will work according to your advantage because they are tailored and planned particularly for your needs. Personal Capital believes that one size doesn’t fit everyone, after all. That’s why it combines automated features with the financial advisor experience, promoting a unique robo-advisor space. 

Ironically, some people believe that Personal Capital’s biggest flaw is its high fees. Yet, the premium service for wealth management somehow justifies it. 

How does Personal Capital work? 

While Personal Capital can be efficiently helpful in wealth management, it is not for everyone. As a matter of fact, it only works best for people with at least $100,000 in investment savings and in need of a financial expert or advisor.

Personal Capital also offers an application that can help you visually keep an eye on your wealth. When you link your financial accounts to the app, you will have access to a real-time report dashboard that displays your budget and cash flow. With that, you can closely monitor your financial status and changes by knowing how much money you earn and spend. 

As for the investment accounts, you can monitor them by accessing the investment review feature and the interactive investment planning dashboard. At the same time, Personal Capital employs a combination of low-cost exchange-traded funds to maximize the return on investments. 

Personal Capital Fees and Costs

Personal Capital wealth and financial management services offer three service tiers with minimum balances and varying fees. They are: 

• Investment Services

In investment services, the minimum balance must be $100,000 – $2,000. The payment is 0.89% with access to retirement planning from their advisory team. You will also have access to unlimited financial advice and a professionally managed ETF portfolio. 

• Wealth Management

This wealth management tier is for people with $200,000 to $1 million in asset. This package attracts a 0.89% fee for a portfolio that will include individual stocks, tax optimization, and two dedicated financial advisors. 

• Private Clients

People under the private client service, you will have priority access to Personal Capital specialists and investment committee. It is limited to people with more than $1 million and can have a decrease in fee, all the way down to only 0.49% once you hit $10 million in assets. 

Like the other tiers, it has two dedicated financial advisors and offers in-depth support for wealth and retirement planning. 

Pros of Personal Capital

• User-friendly website
• Offers free budgeting and portfolio management tools
• Access to live financial planners
• Sophisticated portfolio construction
• Access to competent human financial advisors

Cons of Personal Capital

• High account balance minimum
• The sign-up process can be complicated
• High management fees

Final Thoughts

As for requiring higher-than-average management fees, there is no doubt that Personal Capital services is not ideal for people that are just getting started with their financial journey. Instead, it is best for group and individuals with high-net-worth.