A robo-advisor is an online investment account that leverages smart technology to set up a mix of investments for you based on your goals and preferences. Adjustments are made to your account automatically.
A robo-advisor is an online investment account that leverages smart technology to set up a mix of investments for you based on your goals and preferences. Adjustments are made to your account automatically.
By answering a series of questions, you provide the robo-advisor with information about your investment goals and comfort level with financial risk. Based on your responses, a portfolio of investments will then be selected for you. This portfolio is typically monitored daily by the robo-advisor when U.S. markets are open and trades are made on your behalf to work toward your goals.
Automated Investor is the robo-advisor for U.S. Bancorp Investments. It does the heavy lifting for you during the investment process. Helping you work towards your financial goals more effectively, the algorithm-based program offers diverse portfolios built by our investment experts, which are made up of low-cost ETFs1 across asset classes. As the markets change, your investments will be automatically rebalanced to ensure that you're invested appropriately over time.
Automated Investor was built using the professional expertise and insight into investment strategy that clients of U.S. Bancorp Investments have relied upon for decades.
Automated Investor manages your investments using these criteria:
People enjoy investing with a robo-advisor because they can start investing with less money – just $1,000 – and they get all the benefits of a diversified investment account without needing to make complicated decisions.
When you want to add to your investment, you don’t have to decide which funds to purchase. When it’s time to withdraw money, you don’t have to determine what to sell. Automated Investor makes those decisions for you, keeping your portfolio balanced and in line with your goal.
It’s a set-it-and-forget-it approach to investing, which can be especially helpful during volatile markets that can cause concern for investors who may wonder if their money is allocated properly.
Working with a robo-advisor is like working with an investment advisor. The biggest difference is that Automated Investor provides a digital experience with lower costs. You won’t be charged commission or fees on individual trades, and annual fees are 0.24% of invested assets, billed quarterly.2 Both the human and robo-advisor will build your portfolio and tailor it to your needs.
A tool like Automated Investor is a great way to get started investing in the market. The tool can also provide peace of mind for financially savvy individuals who want to diversify and balance their portfolio with a set of assets that are tailored to help meet their goals.
You must invest a minimum of $1,000 when opening an Automated Investor account.
Our robo-advisor, Automated Investor, may be a smart choice if you:
To open an Automated Investor account, you must:
Depending on your financial circumstances, objectives and needs, another advisory program may be more appropriate for you. Discuss your financial needs with a USBI Financial Advisor by calling 866-758-8655 before enrolling in Automated Investor.
A 0.24% annual advisory fee, billed quarterly, is charged on all assets under management by our robo-advisor, Automated Investor. That means that for every $1,000 invested, you’ll pay $0.60 every three months (based on rate of $0.20 per month). That’s just $2.40 a year on a $1,000 minimum investment.
This fee, billed quarterly, covers all transactions, trades, rebalancing, advice and account administration. No additional fees are charged to buy or sell securities. Fund-level fees go directly to fund providers. Neither U.S. Bancorp Investments nor our affiliate U.S. Bank receives any part of these fees. Please review our Robo-advisor fees page for more details.
Yes, you can open a traditional IRA, Roth IRA or SEP IRA with our robo-advisor. You can also rollover3 a 401(k) account from a previous employer. To rollover a 401(k), please call us at 866-758-8655 and we’ll walk you through the steps.
Yes, you can open a joint Automated Investor account. There can be one primary account holder and one joint or co-applicant for the joint account, both holding equal ownership rights. Two types of joint accounts are available: tenants in common or tenants with rights of survivorship.
Either of the named account holders can manage the joint Automated Investor account.
Investments chosen by experts
Low minimum investment and low fees
Convenient and easy for all levels of investors
Adjusts as the markets change
Historical gains and losses
Here are examples of the best and worst market returns based on market indices for the past 20 years4
Stocks
Best
Worst
1 month
(4/2020)
(10/2008)
3 months
(ended 5/2009)
(ended 11/2008)
1 year
(ended 3/2021)
(ended 2/2009)
3 years
(ended 12/2021)
(ended 2/2009)
5 years
(ended 2/2013)
(ended 2/2009)
10 years
(ended 9/2021)
(ended 3/2012)
Bonds
Best
Worst
1 month
(11/2023)
(9/2022)
3 months
(ended 1/2024)
(ended 10/2022)
1 year
(ended 10/2009)
(ended 10/2022)
3 years
(ended 10/2011)
(ended 10/2023)
5 years
(ended 7/2012)
(ended 10/2022)
10 years
(ended 6/2016)
(ended 10/2022)
You can apply for an Automated Investor robo-advisor account in about 10 minutes.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a goal in mind when you are getting started with Automated Investor. Just choose Grow my money when prompted to select goals. This is a broad goal that allows you to focus on growing your potential wealth for anything that may come up in your life.
You can open more than one Automated Investor account, each with its own goal. But no more than one goal can be associated with each Automated Investor robo-advisor account.
During the enrollment process, we’ll ask you to answer three questions about your comfort with investing risk. This helps you choose the right amount of risk for your goal. You can adjust your risk comfort level at any time by going to your Automated Investor dashboard.
You can setup a one-time transfer or recurring transfers at any time. To set-up automatic transfers, log in to your Automated Investor account and select Transfers. You will be able to select the frequency and amount of the transfers that work best for you.
While your initial investment can build over time, making regular contributions to your Automated Investor account may help you get there faster.
If you’d like to roll over a 401(k) from a previous employer, call us at 866-758-8655.
Yes, you can add beneficiaries for your Automated Investor account. You can add beneficiaries for an Automated Investor IRA during the account opening process. For all other account types, you can call 866-758-8655 to add or update your beneficiaries.
When you log in to usbank.com you’ll see a link to your Automated Investor account and goal from the usbank.com dashboard. From there you can view your balance, track your goal progress, make transfers, view your transfer streak and see the trades that we’ve made for you.
You can review your robo-advisor account as often as you’d like. However, it’s a good idea to review it on a regular basis to know how your account is performing and to see if you are on track to your goal.
To easily see how your account is performing, your investment details and progress towards your goals, log in to your usbank.com account and choose your Automated Investor account. You will be able to see if you are on or off track towards your goal and make any changes to help stay on track.
In addition, we send you an annual email reminding you to review your account and ensure your situation has not changed.
Yes. You can request a transfer of funds from your Automated Investor account at any time by going to the Transfers area in the Automated Investor dashboard or from usbank.com . When you request a withdrawal, we’ll automatically sell some investments in your account to provide the cash for your transfer. However, you should be aware that taking money out of your account before your goal date may affect your ability to reach your goal, and some retirement accounts will have penalties and tax implications for early withdrawals.
Keep in mind that the more years you have to your target date, the more likely you are to stay on track. This is because you have a greater chance to recover from any market declines and volatility.
If you have questions or need assistance, call to speak with an Investment Consultant at 866-758-8655.
Choose Update once you’ve logged into your Automated Investor account and you can update your goal name, target amount, target date and risk level. Then, you can see your new projections and how your goal progress changes.
Once you’ve made the changes you want, choose Continue to see your investment mix and view how the changes impact your investments. Choose Confirm changes to save your new choices. Automated Investor will manage your investments to align with the updates you’ve made to your goal. Updates will generally take effect the following day.
Automated Investor uses computer technology and other factors to make trades in your account. Our system compares each of your investments to a target weight and rebalances investments to maintain the appropriate mix of investments based on your risk level, type of goal, and goal target date. If you make changes to your plan, such as your target date or risk tolerance, or if you add or withdraw any money, your account will be automatically adjusted.
We invest in exchange-traded funds or ETFs. ETFs are SEC-registered and offer investors a way to invest their money in a fund that makes investments in stocks, bonds, other assets or some combination of these investments.
You can learn more about ETFs from the SEC (Securites and Exchange Commission) or FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).
Our experts guide Automated Investor’s philosophy by selecting investments from thousands of choices when designing portfolios – from which yours is chosen – based on five factors:
Your Automated Investor account is typically monitored by our robo-advisor daily when U.S. markets are open.
Portfolio rebalancing is the process of buying and selling investments in your account to help keep your overall investment mix aligned with your goal. It also assists you in maintaining the proper risk tolerance for the financial goals you have set for yourself and your portfolio.
Yes. When your account is rebalanced, trade confirms are generated and distributed to your when trades occur in your account.
Yes, it’s possible to earn dividends on your investments. Dividends you may receive will be deposited as cash into your account. Over time, this cash will be used for additional purchases when appropriate as part of the management of the account.
Not at this time. You cannot specify the securities in which the account may not invest or specify different investment objectives, goals, or risk tolerance levels for different portions of that account. However, if you want to impose reasonable restrictions on the sale of certain securities currently held in your account, you are welcome to "lock" up to 10% of the account value.
If you want to have even more control over your investment mix, consider opening a self-directed brokerage account where you can choose your own investments.
The Monte Carlo simulation is a statistical model used widely for portfolio management and financial planning. Our model runs thousands of possible outcomes to simulate market volatility, which helps us to project which outcome has a reasonable probability of success. This is a projection, and your actual outcome will vary with each use over time.
The simulations don’t consider taxes, which will reduce the performance of taxable accounts. The simulations assume that your account will be rebalanced each year and don’t consider the impact of a significant investment loss or gain.
On track vs. not on track
To gauge if a portfolio is on track, not on track, ahead of schedule or complete, we provide an educational tool that reviews the difference between your current portfolio value, and the simulated projected value at the 50th percentile based on the years remaining to your target date, your repeating transfers, your risk comfort level and goal.
To account for possible short-term market risk as you approach your goal date, we apply weak market conditions (15th percentile) to the simulator when you are one year or less to your goal date. This means that the on-track message may sometimes prompt you to have more than your goal target amount, as a cushion against any potential losses in the final year before your target date.
The simulated potential outcome does not reflect your account’s actual future performance and is not a guarantee of a future outcome.
You can read more about the Monte Carlo simulation and on track notifications on our Methodology & assumptions page.
We research thousands of ETFs to select those which are well suited for your goals. The list below represents a recent list of the ETFs that we use. Primary ETFs are listed first, followed by an alternate.
Fixed income
U.S. equity
International equity
Real estate
Tax-loss harvesting is a standard strategy used for larger taxable portfolios to help reduce taxes on gains. The good news is that Automated Investor is among the few robo-advisors and other automated investing algorithms that now make it possible to use tax-loss harvesting without a high minimum-balance requirement.
Note: Tax-loss harvesting is not relevant for tax-advantaged accounts such as traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs, 401(k)s and 529 plans.
At times when we harvest a loss, we may leave the cash from the sale in your account to avoid a wash sale. The wash-sale rule is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation that prevents a taxpayer from taking a tax deduction for a security sold in a wash sale. The rule defines a wash sale as one that occurs when an individual sells or trades a security at a loss and, within 30 days before or after this sale, buys a “substantially identical” stock or security. Please check your tax advisor for more information on the tax implications. In most cases, the proceeds from the sale will be invested after 30 days.
Start investing toward a financial goal without adding to your to-do list. If you're ready, start here to begin investing with Automated Investor or explore the other types of investment options we offer.
Automated Investor is currently only available to existing clients of U.S. Bancorp Investments and its affiliate U.S. Bank. Not a customer yet? We can help you get started - just call 866-758-8655.