Stash Review 2024

There are plenty of low-cost brokerages, mobile-first personal finance apps, and robo-advisor investing platforms out there. Every week, it seems, there’s a new personal finance solution, whether it’s a lightweight automated savings app, mold-breaking brokerage platform for new investors with modest net worths, or new approach to tax-advantaged retirement investing.

Does the world really need another?

The folks behind Stash apparently think so, and their product makes a convincing case for it. The Stash app merges the convenience of online banking and DIY investing with the mostly reasonable fee structure of an automated robo-advisor.

How Stash Stacks Up

How does Stash compare to other automated savings and investing apps? Let’s take a look at a head-to-head comparison with M1 Finance and Wealthfront.

Stash Plans, Pricing & Features

Although it has broad appeal, Stash shines for middle-income couples and families looking for a single money management platform without lots of added baggage. Despite a nice lineup of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to choose from and low investing minimums, it’s not ideal for sophisticated investors or those with meager investable assets.

Stash offers two plans: Growth and Stash+. Each has its mix of features and capabilities. For taxable brokerage accounts, the monthly plan fee, or wrap fee, bundles common fees charged by investing platforms, including advisory and transaction fees. Ancillary fees may apply in certain situations.

1. Stash Growth

The Growth plan offers tools for day-to-day money management and longer-term investing. For $3 per month, it offers a wider range of features geared toward individuals and couples who’ve merged their finances.

Growth includes:

Personal Investing Account

Stash is built around Stash Invest, a taxable personal investment account (brokerage) with no add-on commission fees.

Starting with an initial investment of as little as $1, you can purchase whole or fractional shares of individual stocks on Stash. Most of these stocks are mid- and large-cap firms listed in the Dow 30, NASDAQ 100, and S&P 500 market indexes.

For those seeking other investment options, Stash Invest also offers a couple dozen third-party exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track specific market sectors, entire indexes, or geographic regions. Although these ETFs charge fees (bundled into their expense ratios) that Stash can’t control, most are reasonably priced. And they can help you construct a diversified investment portfolio with an asset allocation that’s appropriate for your risk tolerance.

The Stash investment app is compatible with Apple and Android devices.

Banking¹ Account⁸

All Stash personal investing account holders are eligible to open a Stash Banking account with no overdraft fees, maintenance fees, or monthly balance fees, and there is fee-free ATM access.⁴

Users who set up a direct deposit can get access to their paycheck up to two days early⁵. Like many checking accounts, Stash offers FDIC-insured bank accounts through Stride Bank.

Stash Stock-Back^® Card¹

Each Stash banking account comes with a Stock-Back^® Card  you can use online and at physical points of sale.¹

The Stock-Back^® Card allows customers to earn fractional shares of stock on every eligible purchase. For instance, purchases made through Amazon earn Amazon stock. If publicly traded stock of the merchant is not available on the Stash Platform, the stock reward will be in an ETF of your choice.²

Bear in mind that the Stash Stock-Back^® Card¹ is not a credit card and doesn’t allow users to carry balances.

Auto-Stash

Auto-Stash is a bundle of automated saving and investing products that may reduce the time required to manage your Stash investments.

The scheduling feature allows you to set recurring transactions ahead of automatic stock market investments. The Stock Round-Up⁷ feature rounds every qualifying purchase on the Stock-Back® Card to the nearest dollar and sets aside the difference — your spare charge, essentially — for future investments.

Life Insurance Through Avibra

The Stash Growth plan comes with $1,000 in no-cost life insurance coverage through Avibra⁸.

Retirement Investing Accounts

At this price point, Stash Invest offers two tax-advantaged retirement investing accounts: a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA.

These account types are subject to annual IRS contribution limits and withdrawal restrictions. Otherwise, they’re functionally equivalent to Stash’s taxable investing account and can be used to construct diversified portfolios.

Smart Portfolio

All Stash members enjoy optional access to Smart Portfolio, Stash’s managed investing solution. Using proprietary research and your own input around risk tolerance and investing goals, Smart Portfolio manages your investments with virtually no action required on your end — just deposit cash and Smart Portfolio does the rest. If your holdings drift more than 5% from your target allocation, Smart Portfolio automatically rebalances them quarterly.

2. Stash+

Stash+ is a premium plan that bundles all Stash features into one higher-priced package. For users with substantial investable assets, it’s not a bad deal compared with other automated wealth management platforms. But, at $9 per month, it’s a steep price for beginners.

Stash+ includes all of the features of the Growth plan, plus:

Custodial Accounts (UGMA/UTMA) for Up To Two Kids

Stash lets you open up to two UTMA/UGMA custodial investing accounts for minor children. Custodial accounts work just like Stash’s taxable investing account for adults. Because they’re more versatile than tax-advantaged education savings accounts, they’re great for teaching kids to save and invest at any age.

You control accounts with minor beneficiaries. Once the beneficiaries reach the age of majority, they assume account ownership and can use the funds as they see fit. Before opening a custodial account (UGMA/UTMA) with Stash, check your state’s UTMA/UGMA regulations and IRS guidance on federal income tax liability.

Stash Stock-Back^® Card¹ With 1% Stock-Back^® Rewards⁹ 

Stash+ users receive 1% Stock-Back® rewards on the first $1,000 of purchases that they make each month.³

Monthly Market Insights Report

Stash produces a monthly market newsletter exclusively for Stash+ users. It’s designed to keep savvy investors abreast of market developments and investing strategies.

More Life Insurance Through Avibra⁸

The Stash+ plan comes with $10,000 in no-cost life insurance coverage through Avibra.

Additional Fees

Monthly plan fees aren’t the only fees you may incur as a Stash user. Stash’s ancillary charges include fees for:

• Paper statements
• Paper trade confirmations
• Paper prospectuses
• Automated Customer Account Transfers (ACATs)
• Paper checks

Most fees apply only in one-off situations, such as moving your account from Stash to another broker (an ACAT), or can be avoided by changing customer preferences — for instance, by declining paper communications.

The Stock-Back® Card has relatively low fees for a debit card. However, Stash’s debit card issuer, Stride, may charge account fees that Stash can’t control. These include:

• Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and balance inquiry fees
• Teller cash withdrawal fees
• Cash deposit fees
• Foreign transaction fees

For a complete list of fees banking account fees, see the Deposit Account Agreement for details.

Advantages of Stash

These are among the top reasons to consider managing your money with Stash.

1. Reasonable Management Fees for Most Investors

Stash’s management fees are reasonable by the standards of the discount brokerage and robo-advisor industries. Its flat fee structure regardless of account balance incentivizes new account holders to bring serious money to the table, not merely to dip their toes into Stash’s waters. If you have considerable assets to invest right now, you may make out well with Stash.

2. Stock-Back^® Program Rewards Everyday Transactions

It may be riskier than a traditional cash-back program, but Stash’s Stock-Back^® Rewards program⁶also has a higher upside: It empowers you to double down on the implicit trust you place in every merchant you do business with. This allows you to become not just a customer but a shareholder of the companies you patronize.

3. No Add-on Commission Fees

Stash doesn’t charge add-on trading commissions on individual stock or ETF purchases. That’s a big advantage over popular “discount” brokerages, many of which still charge for individual stock trades.

4. Wider Range of ETFs Than Some Competing Platforms

Stash has a few dozen ETFs in its database, from industry-specific products to broad-based global market index funds essential to diversification. That’s an advantage over true robo-advisor platforms, some of which simply allocate investors’ money across a handful of funds based on reported risk tolerance — a cookie-cutter approach that may not serve investors’ best interests.

5. Custodial Accounts (UGMA/UTMA) for Kids

Stash+ plan holders can open up to two custodial accounts (UGMA/UTMA) for minor children. If you’ve been searching in vain for an investing platform that serves your entire family, you may find it in Stash.

Disadvantages of Stash

Weigh these disadvantages carefully before choosing Stash.

1. Regressive Fee Structure

Stash’s lower-priced plan costs just $3 per month or $36 per year, which sounds like a bargain; the higher-priced plan costs $9 per month ($108 per year).

But because both Stash plans charge flat monthly fees rather than a percentage of the assets under management, customers with lower Stash investment balances pay a greater share of their investment each month. For example, Stash+’s monthly fee works out to 1.08% of assets under management for a customer with $10,000 in their account, which is significantly more than most robo-advisors charge and on par with full-service financial advisors’ fees.

This drawback matters less as your Stash balance increases. Stash+’s monthly fee works out to 0.36% of assets under management on a $30,000 balance, which is in line with many robo-advisors.

2. Few Value-Added Tools and Services for Serious DIY Investors

Stash doesn’t offer the sorts of high-powered market research and analytic tools available at full-service brokerages. It has a rudimentary How to Invest primer, a decent blog covering basic personal finance and investing concepts, and a monthly insights newsletter for Stash+ plan holders. But beyond that, Stash’s knowledge base is pretty thin. If you’re a serious DIY investor or day trader, these resources won’t cut it for you.

3. No Qualified Plans for Business Owners or Self-Employed Investors

Stash doesn’t offer specialized retirement investing options for business owners or self-employed investors. You can’t open a solo 401(k), SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA retirement account here, for instance — only traditional and Roth IRAs, whose tax advantages are suboptimal for higher-income business owners and sole proprietors.

4. Limited Selection of Individual Stocks

While Stash’s stock database includes plenty of well-known blue-chip stocks and growth plays, it’s a small fraction of all U.S. market listings. For DIY investors who prefer to carefully research every single holding for opportunities others might miss, Stash’s selection leaves much to be desired.

Final Word

Stash is a user-friendly banking and investing app that, for the typical middle-income consumer, can plausibly serve as an all-in-one money management tool.

Due to its flat-fee pricing, it’s not great for low-asset customers. And sophisticated investors may prefer investing platforms with more choice, features, and firepower. For everyone else, Stash is worth a closer look.

DISCLOSURES

Paid non-client endorsement. See Apple App Store and Google Play reviews. View important disclosures.

Nothing in this material should be construed as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation to buy or sell any security. All investments are subject to risk and may lose value.

¹ Stash Banking services provided by Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. The Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® is issued by Stride Bank pursuant to license from Mastercard International. Mastercard and the circles design are registered trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated. Any earned stock rewards will be held in your Stash Invest account. Investment products and services provided by Stash Investments LLC and are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value.
² All rewards earned through use of the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® will be fulfilled by Stash Investments LLC and are subject to Terms and Conditions. You will bear the standard fees and expenses reflected in the pricing of the investments that you earn, plus fees for various ancillary services charged by Stash. In order to earn stock in the program, the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard must be used to make a qualifying purchase. Stock rewards that are paid to participating customers via the Stash Stock Back program, are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value.
³ 1% Stock-Back® rewards available only on Stash+ ($9/mo) and only for client’s first $1,000 of Qualifying Purchases in each calendar month program. See Terms and Conditions for details.
⁴ Get fee-free transactions at any Allpoint ATM, see the app for location details, otherwise out-of-network ATM fees may apply. For a complete list of fees please see the Deposit Account Agreement for details.
⁵ Early access to direct deposit funds depends on when the payor sends the payment file. We generally make these funds available on the day the payment file is received, which may be up to 2 days earlier than the scheduled payment date.
⁶ All rewards earned through use of the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® will be fulfilled by Stash Investments LLC and are subject to Terms and Conditions. You will bear the standard fees and expenses reflected in the pricing of the investments that you earn, plus fees for various ancillary services charged by Stash. In order to earn stock in the program, the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard must be used to make a qualifying purchase. Stock rewards that are paid to participating customers via the Stash Stock Back program, are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed, and May Lose Value. What doesn’t count: Cash withdrawals, money orders, prepaid cards, and P2P payment. If you make a qualifying purchase at a merchant that is not publicly traded or otherwise available on Stash, you will receive a stock reward in an ETF or other investment of your choice from a list of companies available on Stash. See Terms and Conditions for more details.
⁷ This Program is subject to terms and conditions. In order to participate, a user must comply with all eligibility requirements and make a qualifying purchase with their Stock-Back® Card. All funds used for this Program will be taken from your Stash Banking account.
⁸ Group life insurance coverage provided through Avibra, Inc. Stash is a paid partner of Avibra. Only individuals who opened Stash accounts after 11/6/20, aged 18-54 and who are residents of one of the 50 U.S. states or DC are eligible for group life insurance coverage, subject to availability. Individuals with certain pre-existing medical conditions may not be eligible for the full coverage above, but may instead receive less coverage. All insurance products are subject to state availability, issue limitations and contractual terms and conditions, any of which may change at any time and without notice. Please see Terms and Conditions for full details. Stash may receive compensation from business partners in connection with certain promotions in which Stash refers clients to such partners for the purchase of non-investment consumer products or services. Clients are, however, not required to purchase the products and services Stash promotes.
⁹ 1% Stock-Back® rewards available only on Stash+ ($9/mo) and only for client’s first $1,000 of Qualifying Purchases in each calendar month program. See Terms and Conditions for details.
Ancillary fees charged by Stash and/or its custodian are not included in the subscription fee.
Stash has full authority to manage a “Smart Portfolio,” a discretionary managed account. Diversification and asset allocation do not guarantee a profit, nor do they eliminate the risk of loss of principal. Stash does not guarantee any level of performance or that any client will avoid losses in their account.