As part of its continuing effort to grow assets and client base, Betterment announced Wednesday a name change to its platform for advisors as well as an expanded list of ETFs offered on that platform.
Betterment Institutional becomes Betterment for Advisors (B4A) and the array of ETFs it offers will expand beyond those on Betterment's retail platform to include a suite of additional strategies from Vanguard as well as ETFs from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), beginning Oct. 17, 2016.
The name change provides "more clarity to the market about what we do and who we partner with," said Tom Kimberly, managing director of the automated portfolio service. The new name makes clear that the platform serves independent advisors rather than insurance companies and other institutional firms, explained Kimberly.
The expanded list of ETFs responds to the "consistent feedback about the need for greater portfolio flexibility," according to the Betterment press release.
"This is the first step we're taking to create that flexbility on that platform," Kimberly told ThinkAdvisor. "We intend to work with more partners to make additional investment strategies available."
Advisors will soon be able to choose among Betterment's existing portfolio of 12 ETFs – six for stocks and six for bonds (though technically there are seven bond ETFs since IRA accounts substitute a high quality bond index ETF for a muni ETF) and additional ETFs from Vanguard's and from GSAM.
