Personal Capital Review: Wealth Management, Budgeting, Advisor, Negative Reviews, & More
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Looking for a holistic view of your personal finances? Personal Capital gathers all of your finances into one easy-to-use service. Personal Capital specializes in two things: personal financial aggregating and advisory services to manage your money. The free service specializes in investment planning, which it does a great job at. With the ability to track every aspect of your finances you get (what Personal Capital calls) a 360° View of Your Financial Life.
Visit Personal Capital’s Website
Personal Capital
Pros
- Email, phone and FAQs support
- Integrates all of your investments so you can see them in one central location
- Great for tracking your retirement information and planning it out
- Access through your browser or app
- No software to install
- Automatically updates your accounts when you sign in
- Easy to add accounts
- Great reporting features
Cons
- Cannot create your own categories
- Not the best budgeting tool
- Spending feature is only available on the mobile app, not through the web browser
- Predetermined asset allocation models
Key Features
- Dashboard shows your net worth, cash flow, portfolio balances, portfolio allocations, key holdings, top gainers and losers, account balances and transactions, spending by account and category, income reports, spending reports, upcoming bills, investment returns, and projected investment fees
- Personal Capital app (iOS, Android) has high reviews on the App Store and on Google Play
- Keep track of your finances including checking and savings accounts, investment and IRA accounts, mortgage, home equity loans, and credit cards
- Fee Analyzer shows you the fees for your mutual funds, investing, and retirement accounts, so you know where you’re losing too much money
- Investment Checkup tool suggests where you can maximize returns while minimizing risk
- Apple Watch functionality
- Daily or weekly email notifications of your finance summaries
- Report of upcoming bills and their due dates
- Retirement Planner helps you see if you’re on target for retirement
Fees
Want to know what Personal Capital costs? The personal financial aggregator is free but there is a fee associated with the advisory service to manage your money. The fee is paid monthly and is based on a percentage of assets managed with Personal Capital.
- First $1 million: 0.89%
For clients that invest more than $1 million:
- First $3 million: 0.79%
- Next $2 million: 0.69%
- Next $5 million: 0.59%
- Over $10 million: 0.49%
Here are some examples of the fees you would pay:
- $10,000 invested = $89 fee/month
- $100,000 invested = $890 fee/month
- $1,500,000 invested = $11,850 fee/month
- $6,000,000 invested = $35,400 fee/month
Customer Reviews
Positive Personal Capital Reviews
Personal Capital is a great resource I check it daily. I appreciate the ability to get real time info on my investments and plan what I have for retirement and how long it is projected to last. Of course the recession has tweaked it somewhat. Most of my assets are in Fidelity Plan to establish a money market account after liquidating some of stocks (brokerage) first and use this money to supplement my social security and small pension while living in retirement. – Carl R., Trustpilot, 5/10/2022
Personal Capital assigned Matt to my account and the portfolio has done nicely during the 2019 year and has fared pretty well during the Covid19 Pandemic with only minor drops followed by gains. I rolled over my IRA to a Roth which then offset the Taxes in short order. Hugh, Consumer Affairs, 12/4/2020
Complaints
As most people familiar with their tools will tell you, their free tools are great and they incessantly market their investment advisory services to you. They recently ran a promotion for their Private Client Wealth Management where they would create a “personalized wealth management strategy” after a discussion and review and a $200 credit. – Harry, Consumer Affairs, 11/19/2021
The free tools have been great for me, so when I saw a promotional free 6 month offer I thought I’d try out the services. Everyone I talked to was nice, although unreliable as far as following up on questions I had. A few months into what I though was my promotional period, my advisor left the company and I got a new one. Coming up on five months, I asked my new advisor when my promotional period ended (multiple times) and found out that I had actually been charged the entire time. According to them, I didn’t meet the $250k account balance to get the promotional offer. Terrible communication on their part. – Sam, Trustpilot, 6/1/2022
Is Personal Capital Safe?
Below are some precautionary measures Personal Capital takes to keep your information safe.
- Personal Capital security requires you to authorize each device you use to log in to your account. You will be sent an email or phone call to verify each device.
- Personal Capital has a version of two-factor authentication. On iOS devices with fingerprint scanners, you are required to scan your finger when you log in. Your account information isn’t stored in plain text instead, it is stored in a one-way encryption token.
- The information on Personal Capital’s website is read-only — meaning you cannot withdraw or transfer any funds.
- Account information is not displayed anywhere.
Why Do You Need Personal Finance Software?
It’s easy to put off planning for retirement or telling yourself you’re just gonna “wing it.” But the math always shows that the earlier you start, the more you’ll end up with in the long run. It’s not lost on me that the rising costs of home ownership, rent, gas, student loans, and of course unexpected costs can create a difficult environment for saving (in fact, a study by NBC shows that 40% of millennials aged 28 to 38 carry student loan debt that is greater than 40% of their income).
Is Personal Capital for You?
We think Personal Capital’s services are great for those of you who want to track your retirement and plan it all out. Its reporting features help you see if you’re on track or need to step it up. If you’re looking for a budgeting tool, we feel like there are better options out there. See how Personal Capital compares to Mint and also where it stands in our overall financial software comparison.
