A Closer Look at Betterment's Climate Impact Portfolio

Learn more about how Betterment manages your portfolio with an eye towards protecting the environment and investing in clean energy infrastructure.

What is Betterment?

Betterment is a financial advisory company that provides robo-advising and cash management services. It is primarily known for its intuitive, user-friendly mobile platform and goal-specific portfolio building through ETFs. Betterment determines each user’s portfolio strategies by asking a series of questions about time horizon, investment preference, and goals.

 

Betterment is now differentiating itself from other investment platforms by focusing on “Socially Responsible Investing”. They currently offer three different impact investing options:

Open a Betterment Climate Impact Portfolio

Greening your portfolio just got easier! Rely on Betterment to choose investments that support renewable energy for you.

How does Betterment's Climate Impact Portfolio work?

According to Betterment, their Climate Impact Portfolio “lets you support areas of the economy that are working to mitigate climate change while maintaining a diversified portfolio with low expenses.”

 

The Climate Impact Portfolio consists of four different ETFs and a bond fund:

 

If you invest in Betterment’s Climate Impact Portfolio, only a small portion of Betterment’s Climate Impact Portfolio will end up directly resulting in renewable energy production. However, if you are looking for a diversified portfolio that minimizes, but may not eliminate, fossil fuel investments while also holding bonds investing in renewable energy – this is a pretty good fit.

Join our mailing list.

Sign up to learn about what's next in renewable energy investing.

Performance of Betterment’s New Sustainable Products

In October 2020, Betterment announced "two additions to its socially responsible portfolio offering…with a Climate Impact portfolio and a Social Impact portfolio.” Betterment’s sustainable investment strategy focuses on “environmental controversies related to energy and climate change, land use, biodiversity, toxic spills and releases, water stress, and/or operational waste.”

 

Betterment recognizes that investors are concerned about both the performance and cost of SRI portfolios compared to typical portfolios. When this article was written, the fees for sustainable portfolios are equivalent to those for traditional investment mixes.

 

These products are new to this investment platform but because they hold external funds with longer track records, it is still possible to examine the performance of these products through something called a backtest. This is only available for these products since 2018, but an analysis by Betterment found that the Climate Impact Portfolios has outperformed the Betterment Core portfolio. For the last period they analyzed, November 28, 2018 to September 16, 2020, The Climate Impact Portfolio had a cumulative return of 22.3% versus 15.9% for Betterment Core Portfolio.

 

Investors can enable the Clean Impact Portfolio in the Betterment app by adding a new goal or updating their current goals strategy. It is a good option for people looking for green diversification without having to manage their investments day to day on their own.

Disclaimer:  GreenPortfolio aims to keep all information on the site current and accurate. However, you may find differences between information listed here and information listed on a financial product provider’s website. Opinions expressed here are not those of any bank, credit card issuer or financial institution, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please complete your own due diligence before making any financial decisions.

Advertising Disclosure: This article/post may contain references to products or services from one or more of our advertisers or partners. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products or services but this compensation does not influence our reviews or opinions. Read about our methodology to learn how we choose financial products to include on our platform.

©2023 GreenPortfolio Inc.