M1 Finance Review 2026: Is It Still Worth It for Long-Term Investors?

Here's a bold claim to start with: most investors are either paying too much for automation they don't need, or grinding through spreadsheets they'll eventually abandon. M1 Finance has been quietly building a fanbase among self-directed investors who want more control than a robo-advisor offers but less chaos than managing a full brokerage account manually. In this M1 Finance review for 2026, I'm going to run the numbers, compare the tiers, and tell you straight up whether it's worth your money — or your time.

TL;DR: M1 Finance is a genuinely solid platform for buy-and-hold investors who want automated investing with a personal touch. It's not perfect. But for the right user, it's hard to beat on value.

Quick Overview: M1 Finance at a Glance

What Is M1 Finance?

M1 Finance launched in 2015 and carved out a genuinely interesting gap in the market — somewhere between a traditional brokerage and a robo-advisor. Chicago-based and now serving well over a million accounts, it's built its reputation on what it calls "Pies": visual, customizable portfolio slices that let you allocate investments exactly how you want.

Here's the deal — most platforms make you choose a lane. Either you pick your own stocks (Robinhood, Fidelity) or you hand everything to an algorithm (Betterment, Wealthfront). M1 Finance says: why not both? You design the portfolio structure, and the platform automates the execution.

It's not a trading platform. There's no real-time trading, no options, no day-trading ambitions. M1 Finance is built for people who think in years, not minutes — and honestly, I think that disciplined focus is one of its most underrated qualities. That philosophy runs through every single feature.

M1 Finance Key Features

1. The "Pie" Portfolio System

This is the centerpiece of the whole product — and it's genuinely clever. You build a "Pie" made up of individual slices, where each slice is a stock, ETF, or another Pie. You set the target percentage for each slice, and M1 automatically buys and rebalances to keep those percentages in check.

You can create a fully custom Pie from scratch, or use one of their pre-built "Expert Pies" covering strategies like dividend growth, value investing, or socially responsible investing. The nested Pie functionality is particularly useful — you can have a "US Equities" Pie inside a broader Pie that also contains international exposure and bonds. Fun fact: some power users build nested Pies four or five layers deep, which is either impressive or excessive depending on your personality type.

2. Automated Investing & Rebalancing

Set up a recurring deposit — daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly — and M1 handles everything from there. New money gets deployed intelligently, flowing toward whichever slices are most underweight relative to your targets. This is a cleaner approach than many platforms that just dump cash into a money market fund and call it a day.

Worth knowing: rebalancing isn't automatic in the traditional calendar sense. It's triggered by new deposits and dividend reinvestment, or you can manually kick one off yourself. There's no scheduled rebalancing every quarter or anything like that, so if that matters to you, factor it in.

3. Fractional Shares

M1 Finance has offered fractional shares for years, and it's still one of the cleanest implementations out there. You can invest in Amazon, Google, or Berkshire Hathaway with literally $1. Every dollar gets deployed — nothing sits in cash waiting for you to accumulate enough to buy a full share. For dollar-cost averaging purists, this is a big deal.

4. M1 Borrow

This one surprises people. Once you hit $2,000 in your taxable account, you can borrow against your portfolio at competitive interest rates (check current rates on the platform — they move around). It's a portfolio line of credit, and used carefully, it's a powerful tool. Used carelessly? It's a margin call waiting to happen. Honestly, I'd only recommend M1 Borrow for sophisticated investors who genuinely understand leverage — this isn't a feature to mess around with casually.

5. M1 Spend (Checking Account)

M1 offers an FDIC-insured checking account called M1 Spend. Premium members get a higher APY on their cash and 1% cash back on debit card purchases (terms may vary). It's a nice integration — your spend account links directly to your investment account, which makes moving cash between them genuinely painless. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to care about this feature, but the frictionless transfers are actually pretty great in practice.

6. Retirement Accounts

M1 supports Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, and rollover IRAs — all with zero management fees. Competing platforms often charge 0.25% annually on retirement assets, which sounds small until you do the math: on a $200,000 portfolio, that's $500 per year you're not paying at M1 versus Betterment. Over 30 years of compounding, that gap gets uncomfortable to look at.

7. Expert Pies & Research Tools

M1 isn't a research-heavy platform — don't come here expecting Morningstar-level data. But the Expert Pies are a solid shortcut for investors who want a sensible starting point. Categories include retirement planning, responsible investing, income generation, and more. They're not perfect — some feel slightly dated in how they're constructed — but they work as a useful compass, especially for newer investors who'd otherwise stare at a blank screen.

8. Crypto Investing

M1 added cryptocurrency support in recent years. Selection is limited compared to dedicated crypto platforms — you're definitely not getting 200 altcoins here. But if you want a small crypto allocation sitting alongside your ETFs inside a single Pie, it works fine. It's clearly designed for allocation and exposure purposes, not trading. If crypto is a major part of your strategy, look elsewhere.

M1 Finance Pricing

Let's put the tiers side by side, because that's how pricing actually makes sense:

Look, the free tier is genuinely usable for most people. One trading window per day is plenty if you're not trying to time the market — and you shouldn't be. The Premium tier makes sense if you want Smart Transfers, you're borrowing at higher balances, or you want that second daily trading window.

One fee worth flagging loudly: M1 charges $100 to transfer your account out (ACAT transfer). That's on the higher end of the industry and worth knowing before you commit. It's not a dealbreaker, but it does feel a little punishing.

Ready to get started? Check out Try M1 Finance and see if the free tier works for you before deciding on Premium.

Pros of M1 Finance

• Zero management fees for investing — genuinely rare at this level of automation
• Fractional shares make dollar-cost averaging seamless and efficient
• Pie system gives visual clarity and portfolio-level control that most platforms simply can't match
• Retirement account support with no fee is a huge long-term cost advantage
• Multiple account types in one place (taxable, IRA, checking, borrow)
• Clean, intuitive mobile app — honestly one of the better-designed finance apps out there, full stop
• Expert Pies give beginners a sensible starting point without requiring hours of research

Cons of M1 Finance

• No tax-loss harvesting — this is a real and meaningful gap compared to Betterment or Wealthfront, especially for high-balance taxable accounts
• Limited trading windows — one per day on the free plan, which frustrates anyone who wants more control over execution timing
• Not a research platform — if you want charts, screeners, and analyst reports, look elsewhere
• No options trading — M1 Finance simply isn't built for that
• $100 ACAT transfer fee — stings if you eventually decide to leave
• Crypto selection is thin — fine for small allocations, not for anyone serious about crypto

Who Is M1 Finance Best For?

Let me be specific here, because "it depends" is genuinely useless advice.

The Buy-and-Hold Index Investor. If your strategy is "deposit money into a diversified ETF portfolio every month and forget about it," M1's automation is excellent. This is exactly what the platform was designed for.

The DIY Investor Who Hates Rebalancing. Build a three-fund portfolio or a factor-tilted portfolio and let M1 handle the rebalancing math. That's the sweet spot — control over the strategy, automation over the execution.

The IRA Maximizer. Zero management fees on a Roth IRA over 30 years is a meaningful edge that most people dramatically underestimate. Run the numbers against fee-charging alternatives — the difference will surprise you.

The Moderate Sophisticate. Someone comfortable picking their own ETFs but not interested in active trading. M1 gives you real structure without stripping away control.

Who Should Look Elsewhere?

Honestly, M1 Finance isn't right for everyone, and I'd rather be upfront about that than have you waste time on the wrong tool.

Active traders. If you want real-time execution, options, technical analysis tools, or the ability to react to news instantly, M1 flat out isn't built for you.

Tax-conscious high-net-worth investors. Without tax-loss harvesting, M1 leaves real money on the table for taxable accounts above $100,000. Betterment or Wealthfront will likely serve you better here, even with their 0.25% fee.

Crypto-first investors. M1's crypto offering is a small side dish. Coinbase, Kraken, and similar platforms are the main course.

People who want deep research. If you want Morningstar ratings, earnings calendars, SEC filings, and screeners, Fidelity runs circles around M1. It's not even close on research depth.

M1 Finance vs. The Competition

Here's where the comparison really earns its keep. I've tracked three main competitors closely:

M1 vs. Betterment (Try Betterment): Betterment wins on tax-loss harvesting and truly hands-off management. M1 wins on customization and zero management fees. Here's a rough rule of thumb: if you're earning over ~$80,000/year and investing heavily in a taxable account, Betterment's tax-loss harvesting may actually offset its 0.25% annual fee. Below that threshold, M1's fee advantage likely wins out.

M1 vs. Fidelity (Fidelity): Fidelity is the everything platform — research, options, retirement, mutual funds, banking. M1 is the elegant automation platform. They're not really competing head-to-head. Plenty of investors use both: Fidelity for research and active positions, M1 for their automated index portfolio running quietly in the background.

Verdict: M1 Finance Review 2026

Overall Rating: 4.1/5

M1 Finance does a specific thing exceptionally well: automating a self-directed, long-term investment strategy with zero management fees. The Pie system is genuinely one of the most intuitive portfolio management interfaces in the industry — and I say that having poked around more investing platforms than I care to admit. The zero-fee structure on retirement accounts is a meaningful competitive advantage that compounds, literally, over decades.

The gaps are real, though. No tax-loss harvesting is a legitimate weakness that I don't think gets flagged enough. The $100 ACAT fee signals a certain confidence that they won't make it easy for you to leave. Research tools are minimal at best.

My honest take? M1 Finance is my top pick for the self-directed, buy-and-hold investor who earns under $150,000/year and doesn't want to pay management fees. For high earners with large taxable accounts who'd genuinely benefit from tax-loss harvesting, Betterment deserves a serious look instead.

Start with the free tier at Try M1 Finance. It costs you nothing to test it, and the Pie system alone is worth a few minutes of your time.

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FAQ: M1 Finance Review 2026

Is M1 Finance safe and legit?

Yes, completely. M1 Finance is a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser with both FINRA and the SEC. Customer accounts are SIPC-protected up to $500,000 ($250,000 for cash). It's a legitimate, regulated financial platform — not some fintech startup operating in a gray zone.

Does M1 Finance charge management fees?

No — and this is honestly one of the biggest things M1 has going for it. There's no percentage-based management fee on your invested assets. The only cost for most users is optionally upgrading to M1 Premium (~$3/month billed annually). There are some account-specific fees, like that $100 ACAT transfer fee, so read the full fee schedule before you open an account. Don't skip that part.

Can I day trade on M1 Finance?

No, and that's entirely by design. M1 executes trades in one daily window (two for Premium members). It's built for long-term, passive investing — not active trading, options, or real-time execution. If day trading is your thing, this platform will drive you crazy.

Does M1 Finance offer tax-loss harvesting?

No, and this is genuinely M1's most significant limitation compared to competitors like Betterment and Wealthfront. If you're sitting on a large taxable account — say, $150,000 or more — the lack of tax-loss harvesting is worth taking seriously before you commit.

What's the minimum to start investing with M1 Finance?

$100 to open a taxable account, $500 for retirement accounts. That's a reasonable entry bar — low enough for most new investors, but high enough that M1 isn't targeting the "invest your spare change" crowd. Which, for what it's worth, I think is the right call.

How does M1 Finance make money if it doesn't charge management fees?

Good question, and one worth asking about any "free" financial platform. M1 makes money through several channels: M1 Premium subscriptions, interest on M1 Borrow margin loans, payment for order flow (PFOF) — which is controversial but extremely common across the industry — and interest on uninvested cash balances. The PFOF piece is worth being aware of if execution quality is something you care deeply about, though for long-term buy-and-hold investors it's rarely a meaningful issue in practice.