SigFig – Make Smarter Investments

Hidden fees and poor investment choices can make a significant impact on the average person’s retirement savings. Unfortunately, it can be difficult for the layperson to determine the quality of his investment choices without paying steep fees for a financial advisor’s perspective.

SigFig is a tool that analyzes the portfolios of everyday investors and pinpoints areas for improvement. Sync SigFig with your 401K, IRA, brokerage, and advisor accounts, and the web-application will automatically pull your investment data into a simplified accounting dashboard. View the performance of your investments in real time, and get unbiased advice on how to reduce unnecessary fees and improve your investments based on SigFig’s automated analysis. SigFig can also create detailed charts that show how your investments stack up against those of your peers.

Just because you’re not in front of a computer doesn’t mean you have to lose track of your investments. SigFig offers mobile tools that people can use to track the performance of their financial accounts on the iPhone, Android, or Windows 8 Tablet.

Practical Uses:

• Eliminate unnecessary brokerage fees
• Find out if your portfolio is performing better or worse than your peers’ portfolios
• Get advice on how to improve the performance of your IRA
• Assess the risk in your retirement portfolio

Insider Tips:

• Sign up to receive weekly portfolio reports
• SigFig can be used on an iPhone, Android, or Windows 8 Tablet
• SigFig aggregates expert financial commentary from more than 500 sources

What we liked:

• SigFig delivers stock market quotes in real time
• Users can compare the performance of their investments to every major index
• SigFig never sees the personal sign-in data provided by its users
• Financial advice is given out in a way that is easy to understand
• SigFig’s advice is completely unbiased

What we didn’t like:

• Some people might not feel comfortable handing over their banking passwords to a relatively new company
• SigFig doesn’t currently offer an iPad app

Alternatives:

• BlackCamp – http://blackcamp.co
• Personal Capital – https://www.personalcapital.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2012 (Public Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Parker Conrad and Mike Sha
• Web site: https://www.sigfig.com

Costs:

• Free