help moving away from betterment and other fees

[s0198362]

I am looking for advice guidance around y various investment funds.

Current situation:

Retirement accounts
My Roth IRA - Betterment approx $22,000  83% stocks, 13% bonds
Her Roth IRA - Betterment approx $24,000 83% stocks, 13% bonds
My 401(k) approx - $308,000 standard, $130,000 Roth (no longer making Roth contibutions) 83% stocks, 13% bonds
Her 401(k) - approx $80,000 100% S&P stocks
HSA approx $17,000 100% S&P stocks

Taxable accounts
Approx $44,000 in Betterment spread across various goals, with Tax Loss Harvesting, 68% Bonds

The taxable account is primarily an emergency fund (26K) plus various other nice to haves (car replacement, home sinking, vacation), and then about 4K or so aligned with the retirement Roth IRAs so therefore bond heavy.
 
The Betterment accounts are quite complex, as they doe Tax Los Harvesting, in total in the taxable accounts there are 23 different funds!  Obviously there are the usual Betterment fees at 0.25%
My 401K has low fees, but I have got Edelman Financial Engines through work re-balancing every now and again.  They obviously take a cut at 0.25 - 0.45 %  Last quarter was around $360.

All my funds are pretty low fee funds.

in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started and the market dipped, I got very frustrated the Edelman Financial Engines re-balanced right at the bottom.  i.e. sold stocks for shares.  I would never want to sell right now.  They could easily have re-balanced by changing my contributions.

I am leaning ot the following, but do want to take in the advice of this forum.
1.  Move Roth IRA's to Fidelity.  THere should be no cost if I transfer them in?  Is there anything I should be aware of?
2.  Stop paying for Edelman Financial Engines to do not much.  I can re-balance myself thank-you very much.
3.  Get away from Betterement Taxable accounts - can these be transferred to another institution without selling?
4.  Have good re-balancing strategy.  I can look at my total portfolio market exposure %, but curently this is really hard as Betterment has so many funds!  Any advice?

I am not sure exactly what info is useful here, so will provide more detail if requested (currently about 15 years away from FI I estimate).

Thanks 

[FLBiker]

I don't have experience with either Betterment or Edelman, but your plan sounds reasonable.  I have a similar stock to bond allocation, and I just rebalance it myself, typically either by adjusting contributions or exchanging funds in a tax sheltered account (like an IRA or a 403(b)).

In answer to your questions:

1. Some brokerages charge closing / transfer fees, but Google says Betterment doesn't.  I don't have direct experience, though, so you probably want to do a bit more research.  Fidelity did charge me some many years ago when I moved an IRA to Vanguard, but it was pretty nominal.
2. Discontinuing Edelman seems reasonable, but again I have never used them. 
3. To avoid a tax hit when moving your Betterment taxable account, you can do a transfer in kind.  You effectively will just move the shares of whatever you hold to another brokerage.  This won't help in terms of complexity (as it'll be the same holdings) but you can simplify over time and avoid taking the whole tax hit at once.
4. I tally up my investments quarterly, and rebalance as needed.  I only pay attention to the overall asset allocation (meaning I don't balance each account).  And I only rebalance if it's significantly out of whack (like more than 1 or 2%).

I definitely value simplicity over absolute optimization.  You can go nuts looking at tiny differences in fees, or sweating percentage points of allocation, or planning your asset location.  Certainly making an effort to do these things right is worthwhile, but we'll never get them perfect and (in my opinion) the returns on effort are diminishing after a certain point.  It sounds like you have the right idea!

[Telecaster]

Why are you using Betterment in a Roth?  Isn't the advantage the auto tax loss harvesting?   

[DaTrill]

Open brokerage account at large discount broker (Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, TD), do an "in-kind" transfer, rebalance at your convince.  None of these robo-advisers provide any value-added service above mindless index fund ETF.  Tax-loss harvesting requires constant contributions and eventually, the gains in the account cause the account fees to overwhelm the tax loss harvesting. 

Buy index ETFs, rebalance with contributions once a year and you will beat all "Robo-advisers" over a long-term period.       

[s0198362]

Why are you using Betterment in a Roth?  Isn't the advantage the auto tax loss harvesting?

I believe the balancing of tax shielded assets (stocks) in the Roth and lower tax bonds in a taxable account that is also earmarked for retirement is also an advantage.

I started investing with them with a taxable account (emergency fund).  it was really my first foray into investments outside of my 401(k).  They do make it easy for someone who knows little about it to start with.  It was also recommended by a number of financial advice websites (I believe even the great MMM himself blogged about it).  I then later in life had the opportunity to contribute to an IRA.  I went with the financial service provider I was already familiar with (Betterment).  Initially I had thought I was excluded due to AGI, so invested in a tIRA.  My tax preparer quickly told me to re-characterize as a Roth (thank you) which I did.  So basically I have invested 18K in my Roth now over 3 years.

Just wondering if it is worth opening a new account somewhere to whittle down my fees.