Betterment for Advisors Automates Custom Model Portfolios

Betterment for Advisors will automatically harvest losses for portfolios of taxable accounts if advisors want the service and estimate the tax implications of portfolio changes. Advisors can design taxable and nontaxable accounts on the platform.

Within the next month or so, Betterment for Advisors expects to allow advisors to input their own capital market expectations into their model portfolios on the platform rather than use Betterment's.

The digital advisory firm is also "very interested" in offering access to cryptocurrencies on its platform, but wants to make sure it has "the right way to deliver that to investors," said Mauney, noting that the offering should be low-cost and efficient.

When Betterment CEO Sarah Levy disclosed the firm's interest in crypto last summer, she spoke about "crypto with a guided wrapper." To date, the ETF wrapper that Betterment uses for all its investments is not available for direct investments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, although at least a dozen Bitcoin ETFs are awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. There are, however, ETFs on the market that invest in companies involved in the crypto market and in blockchain.