finder.com’s rating: 3.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
| Fees | ★★★★★ 3/5 | M1 Finance Standard is free to use. |
| Minimum deposit requirement | ★★★★★ 3.5/5 | A minimum deposit of $100 to $500 is required. |
| Account selection | ★★★★★ 5/5 | Select from individual, joint, IRA and trust accounts. |
| Tax advantages | ★★★★★ 2/5 | It offers retirement accounts but no tax-loss harvesting. |
| Customer support | ★★★★★ 4/5 | Quickly reach support by phone and email. |
| Customer feedback | ★★★★★ 3/5 | Investor feedback is lukewarm. |
| Mobile app | ★★★★★ 4.5/5 | Both Android and Apple users rate the mobile app favorably. |
| Bonus star | ★ 1 | We awarded a bonus star for its preassembled investment pies. |
To learn how our star ratings are calculated, read the methodology at the bottom of the page.
Is M1 Finance worth it? Sure, and here’s why:
What really stands out about M1 is that it strikes an interesting balance between automated investing and self-directed trades. Traditional robo-advisors are like two-wheeler bikes with training wheels: If your investments go sideways, there’s something there to help you course correct.
M1 Finance takes the training wheels off by letting you pick your own investments, but it doesn’t totally abandon you to the pavement — it’s designed to rebalance your portfolio automatically once you choose your investments. Kind of like having an older sibling running alongside the bike.
Ultimately, M1 Finance is a sensible option for investors who want a little more autonomy over their portfolio but aren’t quite ready or don’t have the time for full-blown active trading. The major drawbacks? It only offers access to stocks and ETFs and doesn’t help offset taxes with tax-loss harvesting options.
As far as robo-advisors are concerned, M1 Finance is a bit of an odd duck. It offers automated investing, yes — but with a unique twist: Investors select their portfolio investment slices when they sign up. It doesn’t sound particularly groundbreaking, but it’s different from how most robo-advisors operate.
A standard robo-advisor asks you a bunch of questions when you sign up to determine your risk tolerance. It uses your responses to customize its investment algorithm and pick your portfolio holdings. M1 Finance lets its investors decide.
M1 Finance pies are made up of three or more individual “slices,” which act as the building-blocks of your portfolio. These can be individual stocks, ETFs or other prebuilt portfolios known as custom, expert or community pies.
You select at least three slices and give each a target weight for a total of 100%. If one allocation is more important than the others, you can assign it a higher weight.
Once you’ve built your portfolio, you fund your account to start investing. From there, M1 Finance automatically reinvests funds as they’re deposited into your account.
This is M1 Finance’s core offering: custom portfolio pies that you hand-pick and craft yourself. If this is your first time putting something like this together, don’t panic. The ingredients have already been set out for you.
Granted, you’re spoiled for choice — M1 Finance has over 6,000 stocks and ETFs to choose from — but all you need to do is pick a few slices. Then you’ll be asked to set the target weight of each slice: essentially, how much of your pie would you like to dedicate to that specific ingredient.
Once you’ve picked your stock and ETF slices and assigned each a target weight, M1 Finance executes your strategy as outlined by your investment pie.
Now, let’s say you’re not much of a baker — something about all those carefully measured ingredients feels like a hassle. Enter M1 Finance’s expert pies: over 80 professionally designed portfolios crafted around various investing goals and risk tolerances.
Think of this as your preassembled, prebaked pie. All you need to do is pick one off the rack and get it cooking by funding your account.
M1 Finance’s community pies are value-driven portfolios well-suited to the socially conscious investor. These are preassembled pies that support Black, female, LGBTQ+, Latinx and Asian American companies.
There’s also a pie that focuses on sustainable businesses. M1 Finance plans to add more community pies over time so socially responsible, value-driven investors have plenty of choice in the companies and causes they want to support.
Yes, the M1 Standard account is free to use. To upgrade to M1 Plus, you’ll generally need to pay a $125 annual fee, but you can get a free one-year trial when you sign up today.
Head over to M1 Finance and scroll down to the button that says “Get M1 Plus” to get the offer. Oh, and you’ll need a $100 minimum deposit to get started with either service — $500 if you plan to open a retirement account.
Keep in mind that while M1 Standard is free to use, you may still encounter the odd account fee. For example, outgoing account transfers are subject to a $100 processing fee. And accounts with less than $20 and no activity for at least 90 days will get slapped with a $20 inactivity fee.
At the end of the day, M1 Finance is a business, and businesses need to make money to stay — well, in business. So if the M1 Finance Standard account is free to use and doesn’t charge trading commissions, what’s the catch? How does M1 Finance make money?
M1 Finance has a few different revenue streams. First, it makes money by lending out its investors cash holdings and earning interest on what it lends at a rate set by the Federal Reserve. Numerous investment platforms do this and it’s a pretty common practice.
Next, M1 Finance earns income from M1 Plus membership fees and interest from its M1 Borrow line of credit program.
Finally, like many commission-free trading platforms, M1 Finance earns money from Payment for Order Flow (PFOF). Essentially, M1 Finance routes customer orders to market makers for execution.
Market makers act as middlemen that help execute and fill the trade. In exchange for business, these market makers pay M1 Finance: Payment for Order Flow.
The M1 Standard account is free to use and has almost everything you need to hit the ground running, including unlimited commission-free trades, automated rebalancing and fractional investing. The main difference between M1 Standard and M1 Plus — besides the $125 annual fee — is that Plus gives you an extra trading window, 0.25% discount on borrowed funds and 1% APY on your M1 checking account.
| Plans | Yearly fee | Minimum deposit | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 Standard | Free | $100 for self-directed accounts $500 for retirement accounts |
|
| M1 Plus | $125 | $100 for self-directed accounts $500 for retirement accounts | Everything in M1 Standard, plus:
|
Follow these seven steps to open an account:
To sign up for an M1 Finance account, you’ll need to meet a few eligibility requirements:
You’ll need the following information when you open your account:
Yes, M1 Finance is a legit robo-advisor founded in 2015. It’s registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
And your investments are insured up to $500,000 by the SIPC and your check accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC: So you can feel confident banking and investing with M1 Finance.
As of May 2022, M1 Finance isn’t accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but it has an A- rating. It earns 1.57 stars out of 5 from 37 BBB customer reviews. Reviews on Trustpilot aren’t much better, with a TrustScore of 2.5 out of 5.
Android users are pretty happy with the M1 Finance app — 118,804 users rated it an average of 4.4 out of 5 stars. And M1 Finance has a 4.7 out of 5-star rating based on 40,993 reviews on the Apple App Store.
| BBB rating | A- |
| BBB accredited | No |
| BBB customer rating | 1.57/5 based on 37 customer reviews |
| Trustpilot score | 2.3/5 out of 14 customer reviews |
| Google Play app | 4.4/5 stars based on 18,804 reviews |
| Apple app store | 4.7/5 stars based on 40,993 reviews |
| Customer reviews verified as of | May 2022 |
Many customers enjoy the “pie” concept, which helps investors visualize their finances. The primary complaint is M1 Finance‘s lack of customer service options, including waiting several days to hear back from someone. Reviewers agree that M1 Finance isn’t for active trading, stating that the platform is “really centered around putting your investing on autopilot.”
M1 Finance lets you invest, borrow and manage your cash in one intuitive automated platform. It offers:
To earn 1% cash back on a debit card purchase, you must swipe your debit card in person or enter your debit card number online for goods or services, excluding returns, fees or credits.
ATM transactions, peer-to-peer transactions, fund transfers and loan payments are not eligible for cash back. And purchases made through third-party services like Venmo and PayPal may not be eligible.
There are two ways to contact M1 customer service:
M1 Finance is certainly worth a look for those eager to choose their investments — but it won’t be a practical fit for everyone. Since the platform occupies such an interesting middle ground between traditional robo-advisors and self-directed trading platforms, not all investors will benefit from its approach.
If you want an account that offers full autonomy: Self-directed trading platforms are likely your best bet. Platforms like Robinhood, TD Ameritrade or Webull give investors sole control over their investment decisions and usually offer more investment products too.
If you want a completely hands-off investing experience: Fully-automated robo-advisors like Betterment or Wealthfront will guide you through your portfolio options, help you invest and automatically rebalance your investments so that your portfolio stays on track. Portfolios are built with low-cost, diversified ETFs designed with your risk tolerance and goals in mind.
Information on this page is for educational purposes only. Finder is not an advisor or brokerage service, and we don't recommend investors to trade specific stocks or other investments.
Finder is not a client of any featured partner. We may be paid a fee for referring prospective clients to a partner, though it is not a recommendation to invest in any one partner.
M1 Finance is ideal for long-term investors who want the guidance of a robo-advisor but the freedom to change things up. This platform has zero fees or commissions, plus it comes with unusual features like fractional shares and dynamic rebalancing.
But M1 Finance doesn’t help you set and track goals like other robo-advising platforms. Even if you decide on the automated investing option, you’ll need to know what you want to invest in before you start. If you’re brand new to investing and need extra guidance, keep shopping around for options.
★★★★★ 5/5 — Excellent
★★★★★ 4/5 — Good
★★★★★ 3/5 — Average
★★★★★ 2/5 — Subpar
★★★★★ 1/5 — Poor
Our Top Pick
M1 Finance
