Betterment Acquires Rowboat Advisors

Betterment has announced an acquisition that strengthens its offering to advisors. Known by the masses for automated investing capabilities, Betterment as we know them has developed a quite powerful all-in-one custodial and technology solution, leading to a unique asset: a large base of retail clients, a growing segment of premium clients, as well as a deep tech infrastructure trusted by 600+ RIAs.  

The acquisition of Rowboat Advisors, a provider of direct indexing and tax-optimization infrastructure sharpens this strategy. Direct indexing not only brings tax efficient customization to the advisor platform, but it also opens the door to future personalization for retail clients as their needs evolve.  

Betterment’s platform now spans the full investor lifecycle: 

• Robo-advisor automation – Child-proof model 

• Self-Direct trading – Soon to launch 

• Premium planning service (starting at $100k) offering tax, trust, estate & more 

• Advisor equipped platform with PMS, onboarding, and now DI Capabilities 

This progression isn’t an accident, it’s a pipeline. 

As these investors accumulate wealth and complexity, the transition to premium planning or an RIA on the Betterment for Advisors platform becomes seamless, with account history, preferences and the relationship going forward.  

Even if DI remains an advisor-only feature today, it’s not hard to imagine a future here a simplified version of DI is offered to self-directed users, especially if they’ve already shown interest and Betterment can automate the tax optimization behind the scenes.  

Congratulations to the teams at Betterment and Rowboat for an exciting future! If you’d like to learn more about our self-directed theme, or our other themes, click here.