By: Jeremy Biberdorf
March 31, 2022
4.8/5
In a Nutshell:
Blooom is a robo-advisor automated investment app that helps you manage retirement. It works with your company-sponsored 401ks and with some IRAs as well. What’s different about Blooom is that it centers around retirement management, a niche some other platforms lack.
Blooom Plans | Essentials | Standard | Unlimited |
|---|---|---|---|
$45/month | $120/month | $250/month |
Blooom 401k is best for:
- Retirement account management
- No minimum investments
- Reasonable fees
- A more hands-off approach
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Manages your 401k
- No account minimums
- Free analysis on your profile
- Manages most types of retirement plans
- Professional management with access to advisors
Cons
- More limitations on IRA plans
Blooom 401k - What is It?
Blooom 401k is a robo-advisor that specializes in retirement plans - even corporate-sponsored ones. Blooom can work seamlessly with what your company has going on and it is one of the only platforms out there that can do this.
Blooom has slowly expanded its reach to include IRA accounts. Once you sign up for your account and fill in the relevant information, you will need to log into your retirement account. Blooom will then conduct a free analysis of your investment profile and provide you with suggestions.
The free analysis is very helpful because it can help uncover any hidden fees that you have been paying and eliminate them, or at the very least, reduce them. The results of your analysis will take into account your age, the age you plan to retire, and your risk tolerance to determine the best investment approach.
Blooom 401k Features
What exactly does Blooom retirement management offer?
Fees
Fees are at the forefront of everyone’s mind for services, and you’ll be happy to know that Blooom’s fees are quite affordable compared to some other robo-advisor plans. Instead of charging you a percentage of your assets annually, Blooom just takes a flat fee. How much it is will depend on the plan you select.
You get your choice of 3 different plans - Essentials, Standard and Unlimited for $45, $120 and $250 respectively.
Naturally, what you get with each plan is different. The Unlimited plan opens access to all of Blooom’s features including personalized accounts, auto-optimization and priority advisor access.
The Standard plan has everything the Unlimited plan does except for priority advisor access - just regular services. Lastly, the Essentials plan is the most basic, which only gets you a personalized portfolio.
Available Accounts
Blooom 401k supports a variety of accounts. In terms of employer-sponsored accounts, there are 401k, 403b, 457, 401a and TSP.
For IRAs, Blooom available IRA accounts include traditional, ROTH, SIMPLE, SEP, spousal, and non-deductible IRAs.
Financial Advisors
Blooom is a robo-advisor platform that gives certain clients access to real-person financial advisors. There is no debate about the convenience of a robo-advisor, but getting advice from a real human will give a level of interaction you won’t get with an A.I.
You will not get access to advisors with the Essentials plan, but you will with the Standard and Unlimited plans. However, you will only get priority service with the Unlimited plan.
Protection
Don’t worry, Blooom doesn’t have direct control over your retirement account. The power still lies with a custodian. Blooom is merely the fiduciary and has the duty to put your interests first.
Automated Rebalancing
One of the most reliable ways to offset market unpredictability is with reallocation. The automatic rebalancing feature will monitor your investments to make sure you keep to the target.
What’s great about Blooom is they take an active approach. The platform will review your account every 95 days just to make sure if any such changes are necessary.
Customer Support
If there is one drawback to Blooom 401k, we would have to say it is customer support. Why? Because Blooom does not offer phone support. When compared to other platforms, many of which have 24/7 customer service via phone, it really shines a light on the platform’s inaccessibility.
Even without phone support, Blooom still offers efficient email and live chat options during their business hours, which is Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm central time. Hopefully, Blooom will integrate phone services in the future.
Conclusion
Being one of the only services that offer 401k management, Blooom’s review is very favorable. If you do not have the time or know-how to manage your own retirement account, then Blooom is for you. It is compatible with many types of accounts and can allow you to take a hands-off approach. Find out more about Bloom here.
We don’t recommend Blooom if you have less than 20K in your account because the annual management fee (depending on the plan), may not work out in your favor.
