You’ll find the M1 website to be clean and straightforward with easy sign-up instructions, clear performance metrics, and simple navigation. This includes tabs that cover your portfolio activity and holdings; buttons to buy, sell or rebalance; and graphs that break down your allocation in detail. When it comes to working on improvements that make for a better user experience compared to traditional financial sites, M1 Finance certainly delivers.
Similar to the desktop version, the M1 Finance app scores highly for its ease of use. The workflow of the website and the app are nearly identical experiences. You’ll find you’re able to do just about anything on the app that you can do on the website, so it’s just a matter of which experience you prefer.
There are several education resources you can leverage through M1 Finance. You’ll find the blog contains a broad range of articles centered around general investing strategies and overall best financial practices. One notable focus of this content is on empowering investors with information to improve their long-term portfolio mentality. M1’s social media accounts, videos, and “The Investors Mindset” newsletter offer additional ways to access this material.
Since M1 steers away from providing financial advice and recommendations, this information is shared from a high-level perspective with the goal of improving your knowledge base. Beyond that, much of the educational content is about learning to use the platform to the fullest.
M1 Finance doesn’t charge any portfolio management or trading fees. This is a unique aspect of the platform that puts more dollars to work on your behalf. Rather, M1 makes money through interest, lending securities, the Plus membership, and payment for order flow. ETFs purchased through the platform have their own fee that is paid directly to the fund manager, not M1, as is standard industry practice. M1 Plus tier members pay a $95 annual subscription fee (or $10 monthly). There is also a miscellaneous fee schedule for additional account operations. Overall, the low cost of the platform is an attractive feature for investors.
There are, however, IRA termination and outgoing transfer fees of $100, in addition to a $50 fee on accounts of up to $50 where no trading activity has occurred for 90 days.
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Management fees for $5,000 account | $0 |
| Management fees for $25,000 account | $0 |
| Management fees for $100,000 account | $0 |
| Termination fees | $100 for outgoing transfers & IRA closures |
| Expense ratios | Typically 0.06%-0.20% |
| Mutual funds | N/A |
Customer Reviews*
“I like the bucketing feature. It makes it much simpler to talk about with my wife when we're making decisions and planning the rebalancing is super simple. It's a single click to change it.“
* Customer reviews were collected from an independent Investopedia survey of 205 currentrobo-advisor platform users.
Final Verdict
M1 Finance provides a great option for experienced investors who value extensive customization options. Customization is a clear strength of the M1 platform that sets it apart from the competition. Choosing among 80 options or building your own portfolios from scratch is a fundamentally different experience if you are expecting an automated investing platform to simply match you up with an ideal allocation.
Although M1 is more of a self-directed investing platform than it is a robo-advisor, it comes with the ability to automate portfolio management. This allows individual investors who feel comfortable with screeners and strategies to eliminate some of the more monotonous tasks like rebalancing. Your funds in M1 are also accessible through spending and borrowing features, and the cash management rules make it easy to automate your personal finances more widely.
Is M1 Finance Trustworthy?
Yes, M1 Finance is trustworthy as it is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It is also insured against loss of stocks and cash held by customers through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SPIC). All M1 checking accounts are run through Lincoln Savings Bank, which is FDIC-insured and may be protected for up to $250,000. The company also has high-level security with two-factor authentication and military-grade 4096-bit encryption.
What Are the Cons of Using M1 Finance?
M1 Finance focuses on self-directed portfolio selection and then automates the management of your portfolio. Essentially, you choose the mix of assets and then M1 will keep those levels using future contributions to top up underweight assets or withdrawals to sell overweight ones. Beyond this, the platform does not offer human advisors and financial planning. In addition, there is limited access to financial tools, calculators, and goal planning. While M1 doesn't charge fees for account management or trading, tax-loss harvesting and recommended portfolio functions are not available. Users are also unable to link other accounts to see how they're diversified throughout all portfolios.
Is M1 Finance Good for Beginners?
M1 Finance was designed for seasoned investors who are comfortable choosing their own portfolios. Beginners may run into difficulty using the platform due to a lack of access to human consultants, goal planning, and financial calculators. That said, a new investor can easily create a well-balanced portfolio using the curated expert pies, but you have to be aware of your risk tolerance and timelines when making selections.
Is M1 Finance Premium Worth it?
M1 Finance's premium option, called M1 Plus, does have significant benefits. It offers two exclusive trade windows at 9:30 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET. Members are also able to use "smart transfers," which let them move money automatically between their taxable investment accounts and their M1 checking account. In addition, members can open custodial accounts.
M1 Plus also offers margin loans at a rate of 6.95%, personal loans starting at 7.49%, and an M1 checking account with 5.00% APY and 1.5% cash back on all purchases and up to 10% cash back for specific brand purchases.
Methodology
Providing readers with unbiased, comprehensive reviews of digital wealth management companies, more commonly known as robo-advisors, is a top priority of Investopedia. Over a period of two months, our team of researchers, data collectors, and industry experts conducted an exhaustive review process that included in-depth industry research, company survey data collection, and hands-on demonstrations and evaluations of 19 robo-advisor platforms.
We then developed a quantitative model that scored each company to rate its performance across nine major categories and 57 criteria to find the best robo-advisors. The score for each company’s overall star rating is a weighted average of the criteria.
Many of the companies we reviewed also performed live demonstrations of their platforms and services in video calls with our research and editorial teams. Our team of expert writers and editors was also granted 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 our full Methodology for reviewing 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.
M1 Finance is an online financial platform that offers a range of services for investors. It provides a clean and straightforward website with easy sign-up instructions, clear performance metrics, and simple navigation. The platform also offers a mobile app that is highly rated for its ease of use and provides a similar experience to the desktop version. Users can access their portfolio activity and holdings, buy, sell, or rebalance investments, and view detailed allocation breakdowns through graphs.
M1 Finance offers several educational resources to help investors improve their knowledge base. The platform's blog contains a wide range of articles on general investing strategies and best financial practices. The focus of this content is to empower investors with information to improve their long-term portfolio mentality. Additionally, M1 Finance provides educational material through social media accounts, videos, and a newsletter called "The Investors Mindset."
One of the standout features of M1 Finance is its low cost. The platform does not charge any portfolio management or trading fees. Instead, it generates revenue through interest, lending securities, the Plus membership, and payment for order flow. ETFs purchased through the platform have their own fees that are paid directly to the fund manager. M1 Plus tier members have the option to pay an annual subscription fee for additional benefits.
While M1 Finance does not provide financial advice or recommendations, it offers extensive customization options for experienced investors. Users can choose from 80 pre-built investment options or build their own portfolios from scratch. The platform also allows for automated portfolio management, making tasks like rebalancing more convenient. M1 Finance offers spending and borrowing features, as well as cash management rules to automate personal finances.
M1 Finance is considered trustworthy as it is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and insured against loss of stocks and cash held by customers through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). The platform also prioritizes security with two-factor authentication and military-grade encryption.
However, there are some limitations to consider when using M1 Finance. The platform focuses on self-directed portfolio selection and does not offer human advisors or financial planning services. It also has limited access to financial tools, calculators, and goal planning. Tax-loss harvesting and recommended portfolio functions are not available, and users cannot link other accounts to see how they're diversified across all portfolios.
M1 Finance is more suitable for seasoned investors who are comfortable choosing their own portfolios. Beginners may find it challenging to navigate the platform without access to human consultants, goal planning, and financial calculators. However, new investors can still create a well-balanced portfolio using the curated expert pies, but they need to be aware of their risk tolerance and investment timelines when making selections.
M1 Finance offers a premium option called M1 Plus, which provides additional benefits such as exclusive trade windows, smart transfers, custodial accounts, margin loans, personal loans, and a high-yield checking account with cash back rewards.
In conclusion, M1 Finance is an online financial platform that offers a user-friendly experience, educational resources, low costs, and extensive customization options for experienced investors. While it may not be suitable for beginners or those seeking comprehensive financial planning services, it provides a range of features that make it a popular choice among self-directed investors.
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