Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge Guided Investing is Bank of America's automated investment platform, launched in 2017 under the Merrill Lynch wealth management umbrella. It charges a 0.45% annual advisory fee — above the robo advisor industry average — but drops to 0.30% for Platinum Honors members of BofA's Preferred Rewards program (those maintaining $100,000+ in combined BofA and Merrill assets). Portfolios are built from low-cost ETFs across seven risk profiles and managed using BlackRock's institutional Aladdin risk platform, which handles continuous monitoring and rules-based rebalancing automatically.

The platform requires a $1,000 minimum investment across taxable and retirement accounts. Users get full integration with the Bank of America mobile app and online dashboard, plus on-demand access to Merrill financial advisors — a meaningful differentiator over pure-play robo competitors. An upgraded Merrill Guided Investing with Advisor tier is available at 0.85% annually with a $20,000 minimum, adding dedicated human advisor access. The most notable gap at the base tier is the absence of tax-loss harvesting, which competitors Betterment, Wealthfront, and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios all offer.