Researching online for investments, looking up banks offering great interest rates, and working in your job can not go hand in hand. Hence, various wealth management portals have sprung up to fill the void and help busy professionals like you manage their money and investments. However, it takes a lot of research to select one wealth management tool from thousands available in today’s market. We have done extensive research and found the Personal Capital wealth management service tool is promising by features, functionalities, flexibility, and security. Read this article until the end to find everything you should know about Personal Capital and why you should choose to subscribe to this money management platform.
What Is Wealth Management?
Wealth management is a financial service product. Such service providers offer personalized money and investment management, investment ideas, tax planning, legal assistance, estate planning, etc. Since investing money comes with risks, you must research the market before putting the money into a bank, equity, fund, or bond. But, if you are a busy professional, investing time in financial research is inefficient. Here come wealth management services. It is the most advanced and personalized form of financial advisory service. Wealth management agencies hire finance experts to manage the portfolios of their clients. These managers create tailored portfolio suggestions for the clients based on their risk appetite. In a nutshell, wealth management is a financial consulting business to help you grow your money. Such services are usually for high net-worth individuals who can invest millions of US dollars.
How Do Wealth Management Services Help Users?
Analyze existing investments, returns, losses, etc. Perform market research of stocks, money market securities, bonds, debentures, savings accounts, etc., to find the most profitable investment options Diversify your investments in different industry sectors, commodities, and markets to reduce the risks behind your investments Analyze the tax rates and tax reliefs to help you save on tax by investing in tax-saving financial products Help you with legal issues should you get legal notices from financial institutions and regulators Functions as your power of attorney for stock market trading Takes real-time investment and disinvestment calls when the market is correcting its course
To cut a long story short, a wealth management service assists you in beating the growing inflation rates and multiplying your money.
What Is Personal Capital?
Personal Capital is a wealth management agency for business persons, professionals, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). Its specialty lies in an exclusive financial service that is a mix of investment experts and technology. The agency started its business in 2009 as a digital investment management platform for busy professionals. Later on, Empire Retirement acquired the agency in 2020 and made it one of the best options for money management in the USA. At the time of writing, Personal Capital is managing $20.50+ billion assets in different financial instruments. Over 33,500 clients trust the Personal Capital Wealth Management platform for paperless investments across asset classes. Not to mention, over 3.40 million individuals are planning their financial lives on this technology-driven platform.
How Does Personal Capital Help You With Wealth Management?
#1. Free Financial Tools
Personal Capital offers you some outstanding financial tools for free that you otherwise would have to buy from wealth management software developers. All you need to do is sign up with some basic and valid details about yourself on its Get Free Tools portal. You can get a range of money management tools like the followings:
Calculating your net worth Savings planner Financial budgeting Cash flow analysis
#2. Long-Term Financial Planning Service
The long-term planning service helps you plan retirements, children’s education, buy real estate, and so on. That is not all! It also helps you to check your investment strategy for the long term. If there are any shortcomings, you will get expert suggestions. Not to mention, a fee analyzer service helps you to look for fees in your investment accounts that leak your savings.
#3. Centralize all Money and Investment Accounts
You can bring all the financial accounts in one place. Then, you can monitor the growth of your savings from one simple financial dashboard.
#4. Tax Optimization
It helps you to minimize the tax burden according to IRS rules and regulations. For example, the tool places your high-yield securities in several tax-sheltered accounts to minimize the tax on interest and capital.
#5. Dynamic Allocation of Assets in Portfolio
Your financial life changes with time. The asset allocation strategy of 2022 will not stay relevant in the upcoming years. Personal Capital looks at the holistic view of your investments and earnings. It dynamically adjusts your portfolio assets according to your life goal changes, the local securities market, and global financial activities.
#6. FDIC Insurance
You get Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guaranteed insurance for up to $1.5 million when you invest or save money with Personal Capital.
#7. Cash Account for Zero Fees With Great Returns
Your money in the Personal Capital Cash account earns up to 2.70% annual percentage yield (APY) and is accrued daily. You see the credit of interest on the first business day of a month in your Program Account.
#8. Smart Investment Strategy
Personal Capital tools and financial managers create the best money-making strategy for your savings to grow exponentially.
Personal Capital Benefits
Have experts look into your investment portfolio and optimize it for better yield Use free finance and wealth management tools FDIC insurance on savings account Convenient wealth management on mobile and web applications Access your money management dashboard anywhere online to buy or sell investment products according to market movements Save money from leakages like buying high-fee financial products, paying penalties for non-compliance, paying more in taxes, and more
Next, we will look at the features of Personal Capital.
Personal Capital Features
Free Financial Dashboard
The Personal Capital Dashboard is a financial aggregator for all monetary accounts like checking, savings, loans, investments, credit cards, insurance, mortgage, pension plan, etc. Once you have imported all of your investment accounts, you can use the following functionalities within your dashboard:
Monthly and annual budgeting Cash flow monitoring Analyzing your 401(k) Tracking cryptocurrencies Getting personal financial advice Calculating net worth
Investment Strategies
Personal Capital has built its investment methodology on risk minimization, sector and style weighting, and tax optimization. The advisors usually build a customized portfolio based on your unique financial goals and situation. The investing principle involves the following key elements:
Personalization Dynamic portfolio allocation Rebalancing Tax optimization Smart weighting
Investment Account Management
Personal Capital offers various investment accounts. You can choose from options like taxable investment accounts, joint investment accounts, simplified employee pension (SEP), trusts, rollover IRAs, 529 Plans, 401(k), and more. You can also add account custodians, dedicated financial advisors, and investment protection.
Personal Capital Mobile Apps
There is also a mobile app for both iOS and Android users. The home screen shows the followings:
A graph showing your net worth Liability and assets Balances in different accounts
Download: Personal Capital for Android | iOS
Wealth Management Tiers
This wealth management service is open for US citizens who plan to invest their savings and retirement funds through managed services for $100K and more. Hence, you can call Personal Capital a premium financial advisory platform. The followings are the prevailing money management tiers of Personal Capital:
Investment Service
If you bring in $100K to $200K worth of investment assets or start investing with this minimum ceiling amount, you fall into the Investment Service tier. This tier comes with essential financial services but limited ones, as mentioned below:
Financial Guidance via free tools and a common advisory team Advisory Services via investment review and financial & retirement planning Investment Services through Smart Weighting and Personal Strategy services Tax optimization, portfolio rebalancing, and portfolio monitoring Portfolio Implementation by exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
Wealth Management
This tier is for clients who will let Personal Capital manage $200K to $1M in investment assets. Find below the services in this tier:
Financial Guidance: Finance specialists, two dedicated advisors, and tools Advisory Services: Financial planning, retirement planning, investment review, financial decisions on products like stocks, insurance, home, compensation, etc. Investment Services: Smart weighting, personal strategy, portfolio management like monitoring, rebalancing, tax optimization, etc. Portfolio Implementation: ETFs and individual stocks
Private Client
It is the highest tier of Personal Capital that enjoys all the services of this platform without any limit. To enter this highly prestigious tier, you must invest or manage $1M+ investment assets. Here are the exclusive services that you can expect:
Financial Guidance: Specialists, dedicated advisors, investment committee, and tools Advisory Services: Retirement planning, financial planning, investment review, financial decisions, wealth planning, private equity review, hedge fund review, and private banking services Investment Services: Smart weighting, personal strategy, portfolio management like monitoring, rebalancing, tax optimization, etc., along with legacy portfolio construction Portfolio Implementation: ETFs, individual stocks, private equity investments ($5M and more), and individual bonds (certain situations only)
Personal Capital Pricing
Its pricing model offers you unmatched savings compared to all other wealth management services apps. First of all, you should know that it does not charge you the following that its competitors do:
Application or software subscription fee Upfront set-up fee for apps and tools One-time fees for financial software Hidden fees Trade commissions or brokerages Monetary transaction fees Trailing fees
Personal Capital charges annual money management fees. The fee is in sync with the assets-under-management (AUM) fee suggested by federal and state financial regulatory agencies in the USA. Here is a tabular representation of the annual account management fees (all-inclusive):
Personal Capital Security Features
Since the platform deals with live monetary transactions in savings, investments, and securities accounts, Personal Capital utilizes the IT industry’s best security features. It uses multiple layers of digital security in its data centers. Not to mention, a robust security team always monitors every activity with its server farms. Key security measures of this platform are:
Multi-factor authentication at the login step to a computer or mobile app through an SMS-based code, PIN, and fingerprint scanning AES-256 encryption offers enterprise-grade ciphering of data in transit or at rest Multilayer key management Personal Capital does not sell user data to third-party data miners Dedicated cybersecurity research team to deal with the newest online financial scams A Security Bounty Program for freelance ethical hackers Partnered with the global leaders of the cybersecurity companies like VeriSign, Norton, and Envestnet Yodlee
Personal Capital Alternatives
So far, you have gone through the financial tools, features, functionalities, and fees of Personal Capital wealth management services. Now, it is time to figure out how powerful Personal Capital is by reviewing its competitors below:
Comarch Wealth Management
Comarch is a wealth management software for relationship managers, wealth managers, analysts, and end-clients. It is just a tool without any service offered by experts. You will need to hire a wealth manager to operate this tool on your behalf. Organizations and employee associations primarily use this tool to manage money and investments since these entities have in-house finance experts.
Addepar
Addepar helps financial advisors and wealth managers to assist their clients in a modern approach with the following features:
Visualize and analyze portfolio data Branded reports Portfolio rebalancing and trading Customized rebalancing for select assets Financial forecasting and modeling
This tool does not directly offer wealth management but is used by financial managers and executives in this industry. Hence, Personal Capital should be your first choice since you get wealth management software and services through one subscription.
Final Thoughts
In today’s world, wealth management is the need of the hour. Wherever you work and earn, your money constantly loses its buying power. Hence, you must invest your money in the right financial products to overcome inflation. Not to mention, you need to invest wisely in safe financial products for long-term and short-term wealth-building goals. Personal Capital offers everything you need for smart and profitable investments from the comfort of home or work. Moreover, the portal uses state-of-the-art security measures to protect your money, securities, bonds, and more. You can sign up now to enjoy its great benefits and save for a car, home, child’s education, or retirement. Save big and be rich! Next, you can check out personal finance tools and apps to manage wealth.
