SoFi Invest Reviews

Stanford business school students founded SoFi in 2011. It was originally a tool that connected students with alumni but has grown substantially since then, making its way into the finance space.

While SoFi offers a range of products (including personal loans and mortgages), SoFi Invest is its online investing platform that can help you manage your investments. You can choose to do so actively, picking your own stocks and ETFs, or you can opt for a more automated approach where SoFi picks your investments for you.

Although SoFi is a relatively new company in the investing world, it offers a large number of investing options. The only products absent from SoFi’s lineup are mutual funds and cryptocurrency, which the company recently stopped offering, migrating all its customers to Blockchain.com.

Here’s the long list of investments SoFi does offer:

Active investing

SoFi offers an active investing option, which puts you in the driver’s seat of your portfolio. You can buy and sell stocks without an advisor, and you can even invest in fractional shares of the companies that allow it.

As an active investor with SoFi, you’ll have access to SoFi’s curated investment news and data, which you can use to inform your investment strategy.

Automated investing

At the center of SoFi’s automated investing option is its robo-advisor, which can build you a portfolio based on your investment goals, risk tolerance and timeline.

A more hands-off approach to investing, SoFi Invest’s automated investing automatically rebalances and diversifies your portfolio for you. Simply set up recurring deposits so your account gets funded every month.

SoFi ETFs

SoFi offers its own suite of ETFs investors can pick from. ETFs are like baskets of different investments, such as stocks and bonds. The ETFs SoFi offers include:

• SoFi Select 500 ETF: This ETF contains the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.
• SoFi Next 500 ETF: Made up of 500 mid-cap U.S.-based companies, this ETF determines each company’s contribution to the ETF based on how quickly the company is growing. 
• SoFi Social 50 ETF: This ETF invests in the top 50 widely held stocks on SoFi Invest.
• SoFi Enhanced Yield ETF: This ETF combines U.S. Treasury bonds and options into one ETF, often resulting in a higher yield than others.

IRAs

SoFi can help you save for retirement, offering traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs), Roth IRAs and simplified employee pension plan (SEP) IRAs. With these, you’ll have the option of directly managing your account or using SoFi Invest’s automated investing.

As of publishing, SoFi is offering a 2% IRA match through Tax Day to help investors increase their retirement contributions.

IPOs

Those involved in active investing through SoFi can invest in initial public offerings (IPOs). When companies announce they’re going public and joining the stock market, SoFi members can invest with no minimum requirements.

SoFi’s investing products come with minimal fees and requirements. To get started with an active investing account, you simply need to commit $5 to the process. Automated investing is even more affordable, requiring just $1 to get started. There are no commission fees on trades.

Each ETF through SoFi, whether you’re investing on your own or with SoFi’s robo-advisor, charges its own management fees that you can see through your account. SoFi promises that these fees are low compared to its competition.

SoFi differs from its competitors in numerous ways. It's not necessarily better or worse than other investment platforms — it’s simply right for particular investment styles. For example, investors looking for low-cost investing will appreciate SoFi’s rock-bottom minimums, particularly compared to high-minimum competitors. Or those seeking financial advice may appreciate SoFi’s free financial planning services.

Here’s a look at how SoFi Invest compares to two major investment competitors: Vanguard and Robinhood.

SoFi Invest is a legitimate investment platform that has been servicing investors since 2019. It’s registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the securities market and works to protect investors.