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WHY BETTERMENT SERVICES RESOURCES PRICING FAQS
WHY BETTERMENT SERVICES RESOURCES PRICING FAQS

An intelligent
portfolio, designed for
optimal performance

Built on Nobel Prize-

winning research.
The Betterment portfolio is a globally
diversied mix of stock and bond index
funds, chosen to help provide optimal
returns at every level of risk. Read more
about our selection methodology.

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Smarter than your

average

WHY BETTERMENT portfolio.
SERVICES RESOURCES PRICING FAQS

Lower Costs Tax-Ecient Better Investment

Higher expected take-home
returns over time with
expense ratios well below
the industry average.
Selection
Automatically get the
benets of features like Tax As an independent nancial
Loss Harvesting, once only advisor, we are not
available to the wealthiest compensated to recommend
investors. specic investments.

Benet from broad diversication

in proven asset classes.
When you deposit money, we'll seamlessly and instantly invest
every dollar in thousands of companies. Seeacomplete list of
these stock ETFs and bond ETFs.

STOCKS BONDS

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US Total Stock MarketWHY BETTERMENT Short-Term

SERVICES Treasuries
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US Total Stock Market contains broad This extremely low-risk asset class is a cash
exposure to the historically strong long-term alternative that generates nominal benet
growth of the US economy. through interest payments, and de-risks the
portfolio at saferallocations.

What is an ETF? Frequently asked questions

An optimal allocation
tailored to you.
With Betterment, choosing the right portfolio is
easy, no matter your level of experience. We'll
recommend an allocation for each of your
goals, to help you reach them faster.

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Historically better results.

We don't try to beat the market, but by lowering costs and
minimizing taxes, we optimize your portfolio for the best-
expected investor returns possible. Betterment would have
outperformed the average private client investor in almost all
periods over the last decade.

Select a Betterment stock allocation and date range to see performance data

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Cumulative return from end of Jan 2004...

'04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12

200% more

100% more

Investing start

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Summary
WHY70%
Investing in a Betterment BETTERMENT
stock portfolio since the end ofRESOURCES
SERVICES PRICING
Jan 2004 through FAQS
the end of Dec
2016 would have produced a cumulative return of $114,183, which is the same as an average
annual return of $6,074.
Assuming similar risk, your cumulative return would have diered from the average private client
investor by $45,081.

Additionaldata,options,anddisclosures

View summary based on aninitialinvestmentof$100,000.

View all benchmarks and portfolios at once

Data since Jan 2004

Avg. Annual Cumulative Sharpe Best Worst Last 12
Portfolio
Return Return Ratio month month months

Betterment 70% stock +6.1% +114.2% 0.50 +9.6% -15.2% +8.4%

Avg. private client investor

+4.2% +69.1% 0.40 +6.7% -11.9% +3.5%
60-80% equity risk

About this data

The Betterment portfolio historical performance numbers are based on a backtest of the ETFs or indices tracked by
each asset class in a Betterment IRA portfolio. All percentage returns include the Betterment fee (0.25%) and the
expenses of the underlying ETFs. All values are nominal. More on these calculations can be found here.

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Global
diversication,
maximum
eciency.
Betterment portfolios
benet from growth in
developed and emerging
markets, meaning you're
less exposed to the
economy of any one
country. Read more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an ETF? Will my Betterment portfolio be globally

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a security that
tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of
assets just like an index fund, but trades like a
stock on an exchange. Betterment uses ETFs in
both our stock and bond portfolios because of
diversied?
YesBy using the world's markets as its
baseline, the Betterment portfolio diversies risk
on a number of levels including currency,
interest rates, credit risk, monetary policy, and

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the liquidity, diversication, and low
management fees they oer. Read more.
WHY BETTERMENT
Will my Betterment portfolio beat the
market?
Betterment is a strong believer in passive
investing. The majority of the evidence shows
that active management, whether by individual
investors or fund managers, can cause more
harm than good in net-of-fee returns. We
therefore invest in low-cost, passive
investments which seek to match the market's
performance. Read more.
Will a taxable portfolio be dierent from
a non-taxable portfolio?
YesWe distinguish between taxable and
retirement accounts when allocating bonds for
additional optimization. Taxable accounts
generally hold federally tax-exempt municipal
bonds, providing portfolios more favorable
after-tax return. Tax advantaged retirement
accounts generally maintain exposure to U.S.
investment-grade bonds.
SEE YOUR PERSONALIZED PORTFOLIO
https://www.betterment.com/portfolio/
economic growth country by country. As
economic circumstances
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nation, global diversication helps decrease the
SERVICES RESOURCES PRICING FAQS
risk that one geographic area alone will drag
down your portfolio. Read more.
Can my Betterment portfolio decrease
in value?
YesFar from unusual, downturns are a normal
part of even the highest returning investments.
Investors often worry and react with panic in
response to market drops, even if they are
invested properly for their long-term goals, but
interim losses are to be expected even during
the best investment periods. Read more.
Where can I learn more about the
Betterment portfolio and investing
strategy?
You can read more about the Betterment
portfolio, investment strategy, ETFs, taxes and
more at our Resource Center.
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Questions? Visit the Support Center, or get O Call Us m Email Us b Live Chat
in touch:

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maintained by Betterment
LLC, an SEC Registered
Investment Advisor.
Terms & Legal Privacy Policy
Trademarks
How Betterment calculates
"better returns"
Unless otherwise specied,
all return gures shown
above are for illustrative
purposes only, and are not
actual customer or model
returns. Actual returns will
vary greatly and depend on
personal and market
circumstances.
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WHY BETTERMENT SERVICES RESOURCES PRICING FAQS
Brokerage services provided to clients of Betterment LLC by See how we determine the
Betterment Securities, an SEC registered broker-dealer and largest independent robo-
member FINRA/SIPC. advisor.
Investments: Not FDIC Insured No Bank Guarantee May
The information provided by
Lose Value. Investing in securities involves risks, and there is
Betterment Support is
always the potential of losing money when you invest in
educational only and is not
securities. Before investing, consider your investment
investment or tax advice.
objectives and Betterment's charges and expenses. Past
performance does not guarantee future results, and the
likelihood of investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature.
See full disclosures for more information. Not an oer,
solicitation of an oer, or advice to buy or sell securities in
jurisdictions where Betterment is not registered. Market Data
by Xignite.
Contact: Betterment, 61 W. 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York,
NY, 10010. Tel: (888)4289482
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