Automated Investor FAQ

You must invest a minimum of $1,000 when opening an Automated Investor account.

Our robo-advisor, Automated Investor, may be a smart choice if you:

• Have at least $1,000 available to invest, in addition to an emergency fund
• Are seeking a way to get started growing your potential wealth, investing for retirement or reaching other goals 
• Want an investment strategy created by experts
• Are comfortable investing online, with automated investments and the robo-advisor approach
• Can accept market risk
• Prefer to have your accounts automatically monitored and rebalanced
• Would like a low-cost investment approach

To open an Automated Investor account, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident
• Be at least 18 years old
• Have $1,000 or more in investable assets
• Have a valid Social Security number or Tax Identification number
• Be a customer of U.S Bancorp Investments or our affiliate U.S. Bank
• Be enrolled at usbank.com

Depending on your financial circumstances, objectives and needs, another advisory program may be more appropriate for you. Discuss your financial needs with a USBI Financial Advisor by calling 866-758-8655 before enrolling in Automated Investor.

A 0.24% annual advisory fee, billed quarterly, is charged on all assets under management by our robo-advisor, Automated Investor. That means that for every $1,000 invested, you’ll pay $0.60 every three months (based on rate of $0.20 per month). That’s just $2.40 a year on a $1,000 minimum investment.

This fee, billed quarterly, covers all transactions, trades, rebalancing, advice and account administration. No additional fees are charged to buy or sell securities. Fund-level fees go directly to fund providers. Neither U.S. Bancorp Investments nor our affiliate U.S. Bank receives any part of these fees. Please review our Robo-advisor fees page for more details.

Yes, you can open a traditional IRA, Roth IRA or SEP IRA with our robo-advisor. You can also rollover³ a 401(k) account from a previous employer. To rollover a 401(k), please call us at 866-758-8655 and we’ll walk you through the steps.

Yes, you can open a joint Automated Investor account. There can be one primary account holder and one joint or co-applicant for the joint account, both holding equal ownership rights. Two types of joint accounts are available: tenants in common or tenants with rights of survivorship.

Either of the named account holders can manage the joint Automated Investor account.

Investments chosen by experts

• We invest and manage your money for you. As a fiduciary, it’s our responsibility to make automated investment decisions that are in your best interest.
• The strategies behind the smart technology of Automated Investor come from our affiliate U.S. Bank Asset Management Group, that has more than 40 years of experience managing money.

Low minimum investment and low fees

• Our low-cost investment advice, low fund fees, dividend reinvesting and tax efficient investing methods could potentially mean more money for your goal. 

Convenient and easy for all levels of investors

• Automated Investor is an easy robo-advisor tool to use. You don’t need to have any investing experience or knowledge.
• You can track progress toward your goal right on your account dashboard and easily move money between accounts. Access all your accounts together at usbank.com or on any mobile device.  

Adjusts as the markets change

• Our always-on automated trading system typically monitors your investments every business day when U.S. markets are open.

• Investing with a robo-advisor, including Automated Investor, comes with investing risk.  As with any investment, you’ll experience ups and downs in the market that will be reflected in your account value. Sometimes the value of your account will be up and sometimes it will be down as the market fluctuates.
• Limitations exist if you need immediate access to your money. Automated Investor should not be a replacement for a cash reserve or emergency fund. Requests to withdraw cash could take two to three business days to complete. To maintain your Automated Investor service, you’ll need to keep at least $1,000 in your account.
• Like any robo-advisor, Automated Investor is dependent on technology and utility providers. The robo-advisor could be impacted by issues and outages at both our site and 3rd-party provider sites, such as power outages, software and system issues, cyber-attacks or other internet-related failures. For more information, please refer to the Automated Investor Investment Advisory Agreement.
• Please see these charts on historical returns for stocks and bonds for additional information.

Historical gains and losses

Here are examples of the best and worst market returns based on market indices for the past 20 years⁴

You can apply for an Automated Investor robo-advisor account in about 10 minutes.

• You’ll start by answering a few questions about your main goal and your comfort with risk. We’ll use this information to show you an investment mix tailored to your goal.
• Then, you’ll complete our brief application and fund your account from your checking, savings or brokerage account.
  
• If you’re opening an Automated Investor IRA and want to roll over funds from a previous employer, call us and we’ll walk you through the steps.
• Once you transfer money to your new automated investment account, we’ll start investing for you, usually on the next business day. You’ll receive a welcome email and you can check your progress on your mobile app or online.
  
• If at any point along the way you have questions or need help, call us at 866-758-8655.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a goal in mind when you are getting started with Automated Investor. Just choose Grow my money when prompted to select goals. This is a broad goal that allows you to focus on growing your potential wealth for anything that may come up in your life.

You can open more than one Automated Investor account, each with its own goal. But no more than one goal can be associated with each Automated Investor robo-advisor account.

During the enrollment process, we’ll ask you to answer three questions about your comfort with investing risk. This helps you choose the right amount of risk for your goal. You can adjust your risk comfort level at any time by going to your Automated Investor dashboard.

You can setup a one-time transfer or recurring transfers at any time. To set-up automatic transfers, log in to your Automated Investor account and select Transfers. You will be able to select the frequency and amount of the transfers that work best for you.

While your initial investment can build over time, making regular contributions to your Automated Investor account may help you get there faster.

If you’d like to roll over a 401(k) from a previous employer, call us at 866-758-8655.

Yes, you can add beneficiaries for your Automated Investor account. You can add beneficiaries for an Automated Investor IRA during the account opening process. For all other account types, you can call 866-758-8655 to add or update your beneficiaries.

When you log in to usbank.com you’ll see a link to your Automated Investor account and goal from the usbank.com dashboard. From there you can view your balance, track your goal progress, make transfers, view your transfer streak and see the trades that we’ve made for you.

You can review your robo-advisor account as often as you’d like. However, it’s a good idea to review it on a regular basis to know how your account is performing and to see if you are on track to your goal.

To easily see how your account is performing, your investment details and progress towards your goals, log in to your usbank.com account and choose your Automated Investor account. You will be able to see if you are on or off track towards your goal and make any changes to help stay on track.

In addition, we send you an annual  email reminding you to review your account and ensure your situation has not changed.

Yes. You can request a transfer of funds from your Automated Investor account at any time by going to the Transfers area in the Automated Investor dashboard or from usbank.com . When you request a withdrawal, we’ll automatically sell some investments in your account to provide the cash for your transfer. However, you should be aware that taking money out of your account before your goal date may affect your ability to reach your goal, and some retirement accounts will have penalties and tax implications for early withdrawals.

Keep in mind that the more years you have to your target date, the more likely you are to stay on track. This is because you have a greater chance to recover from any market declines and volatility. 

If you have questions or need assistance, call to speak with an Investment Consultant at 866-758-8655.

Choose Update once you’ve logged into your Automated Investor account and you can update your goal name, target amount, target date and risk level. Then, you can see your new projections and how your goal progress changes.

Once you’ve made the changes you want, choose Continue to see your investment mix and view how the changes impact your investments. Choose Confirm changes to save your new choices. Automated Investor will manage your investments to align with the updates you’ve made to your goal. Updates will generally take effect the following day.

Automated Investor uses computer technology and other factors to make trades in your account. Our system compares each of your investments to a target weight and rebalances investments to maintain the appropriate mix of investments based on your risk level, type of goal, and goal target date. If you make changes to your plan, such as your target date or risk tolerance, or if you add or withdraw any money, your account will be automatically adjusted.

We invest in exchange-traded funds or ETFs. ETFs are SEC-registered and offer investors a way to invest their money in a fund that makes investments in stocks, bonds, other assets or some combination of these investments.  

You can learn more about ETFs from the SEC (Securites and Exchange Commission) or FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).

SEC – Mutual fund and ETF guide for investors

FINRA – Investment funds: Exchange-traded funds

Our experts guide Automated Investor’s philosophy by selecting investments from thousands of choices when designing portfolios – from which yours is chosen – based on five factors:

• Due diligence – The ETFs we use for our portfolios go through a research and evaluation process. We don’t receive money from revenue sharing or any additional compensation for the investments we select.
• Market outlook – We choose your portfolio and set your asset allocation based on an analysis of the market by our investment strategists.
• Your investment goal and time horizon – We factor in your goal and target date, automatically decreasing your risk level over time if you have a retirement or large purchase goal.
• Risk comfort level – We help you assess how much risk you are comfortable taking in your portfolio and take this into account when selecting your portfolio.
• Tax efficiency – We use tax-efficient strategies when applicable, to help you potentially save on taxes.

Your Automated Investor account is typically monitored by our robo-advisor daily when U.S. markets are open.

Portfolio rebalancing is the process of buying and selling investments in your account to help keep your overall investment mix aligned with your goal. It also assists you in maintaining the proper risk tolerance for the financial goals you have set for yourself and your portfolio.

• Portfolio rebalancing is essential for keeping you on track toward your investment goals. Your target allocations are restored by selling some of your asset classes that have overperformed in the short-term and purchasing others that have underperformed in the short-term.
• It also manages your risk by helping to reduce the volatility of your portfolio.

Yes. When your account is rebalanced, trade confirms are generated and distributed to your when trades occur in your account.

Yes, it’s possible to earn dividends on your investments. Dividends you may receive will be deposited as cash into your account. Over time, this cash will be used for additional purchases when appropriate as part of the management of the account.

Not at this time. You cannot specify the securities in which the account may not invest or specify different investment objectives, goals, or risk tolerance levels for different portions of that account. However, if you want to impose reasonable restrictions on the sale of certain securities currently held in your account, you are welcome to "lock" up to 10% of the account value. 

If you want to have even more control over your investment mix, consider opening a self-directed brokerage account where you can choose your own investments.

The Monte Carlo simulation is a statistical model used widely for portfolio management and financial planning. Our model runs thousands of possible outcomes to simulate market volatility, which helps us to project which outcome has a reasonable probability of success. This is a projection, and your actual outcome will vary with each use over time.

The simulations don’t consider taxes, which will reduce the performance of taxable accounts. The simulations assume that your account will be rebalanced each year and don’t consider the impact of a significant investment loss or gain.  

On track vs. not on track

To gauge if a portfolio is on track, not on track, ahead of schedule or complete, we provide an educational tool that reviews the difference between your current portfolio value, and the simulated projected value at the 50th percentile based on the years remaining to your target date, your repeating transfers, your risk comfort level and goal. 

To account for possible short-term market risk as you approach your goal date, we apply weak market conditions (15th percentile) to the simulator when you are one year or less to your goal date. This means that the on-track message may sometimes prompt you to have more than your goal target amount, as a cushion against any potential losses in the final year before your target date.  

The simulated potential outcome does not reflect your account’s actual future performance and is not a guarantee of a future outcome.   

You can read more about the Monte Carlo simulation and on track notifications on our Methodology & assumptions page.

We research thousands of ETFs to select those which are well suited for your goals. The list below represents a recent list of the ETFs that we use. Primary ETFs are listed first, followed by an alternate.

Fixed income   

• SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond – SPAB | Vanguard Total Bond Market – BND
  
• Vanguard Tax-exempt Bond – VTEB | iShares National Muni Bond - MUB
• iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond – HYG | SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond – JNK 

U.S. equity

• The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 – SPLG | Schwab 1000 – SCHK
  
• Vanguard Extended Market – VXF | iShares Russell Mid-cap – IWR

International equity 

• SPDR Portfolio Developed World ex-US – SPDW | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets – VEA
• iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets – IEMG | iShares MSCI Emerging Markets – EEM 

Real estate

• Schwab U.S. REIT – SCHH | Vanguard Real Estate – VNQ

Tax-loss harvesting is a standard strategy used for larger taxable portfolios to help reduce taxes on gains. The good news is that Automated Investor is among the few robo-advisors and other automated investing algorithms that now make it possible to use tax-loss harvesting without a high minimum-balance requirement.

• Automated Investor typically monitors your portfolio daily, when U.S. markets are open, for tax-loss harvesting opportunities.
  
• Losses are used to realize tax benefits by offsetting taxes on gains from other investments.
• Your portfolio will remain on target, as account proceeds are usually invested in ETFs already in your portfolio. In some cases, the proceeds may be temporarily held in your portfolio as cash.
  
• Losses can be used to offset taxes that you would pay on gains or income. You can also carry forward losses to future tax years.

Note: Tax-loss harvesting is not relevant for tax-advantaged accounts such as traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs, 401(k)s and 529 plans.

• Let’s say your Automated Investor portfolio consists of $50,000 invested in ETF X. Then, in a year where the market declines, the value of that holding decreases to $45,000.
• Automated Investor would sell the $45,000 holding in ETF X and either invest it in an alternate ETF that is similar but not identical to the one sold or hold the proceeds of the sale in cash for 30 days to prevent a wash-sale. After 30 days, the cash proceeds would then be used to repurchase shares in ETF X. In either case, you have “harvested” the $5,000 loss for tax purposes.
• Now, because you have a $5,000 capital loss from the sale of ETF X, at tax time, you can apply this loss against capital gains elsewhere in your portfolio, thereby reducing the amount of capital gains tax owed. In a year when your capital losses outweigh gains, you may be able to apply the losses against your other income, and to carry over the remaining losses to offset income in future years.
• This example is for illustration purposes only. Any benefits of tax-loss harvesting could be impacted by activity in other investment accounts, and this does not suggest that Automated Investor’s tax-loss harvesting strategy will have any tax implications. Consult with your tax advisor to learn more about your specific situation.

At times when we harvest a loss, we may leave the cash from the sale in your account to avoid a wash sale. The wash-sale rule is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation that prevents a taxpayer from taking a tax deduction for a security sold in a wash sale. The rule defines a wash sale as one that occurs when an individual sells or trades a security at a loss and, within 30 days before or after this sale, buys a “substantially identical” stock or security. Please check your tax advisor for more information on the tax implications.  In most cases, the proceeds from the sale will be invested after 30 days.