Integration is used loosely in marketing. In practice it covers four distinct things, and only the first two are common:

• Single login and unified view — your deposit accounts and managed portfolio appear together. Near-universal among bank robos, and the main reason people choose one.
• Instant internal transfers — funding the portfolio from checking settles same-day rather than waiting on an ACH cycle. Genuinely useful for recurring contributions and for raising cash quickly.
• Cash-management sweep — idle cash routed to a higher-yield vehicle automatically. Quality varies enormously and is worth checking closely, because it is where banks most often keep the spread.
• Shared relationship pricing — balances in the robo counting toward fee waivers, rate tiers, or credit-card bonuses elsewhere in the bank. Less common, but the most valuable when it exists.

Ask about the third and fourth explicitly. An account that merely appears on the same dashboard is a display feature, not an integration.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

Deeply integrated with Schwab brokerage and Schwab Bank, with a broad ETF lineup and no advisory fee on the base tier. The catch is structural: portfolios hold a required cash allocation, and Schwab earns on that cash. Best for investors who already bank and brokerage at Schwab and want a no-advisory-fee option, provided they are comfortable with the cash requirement. A Premium tier adds unlimited access to certified financial planners for a flat monthly fee.

Fidelity Go

Tightly linked to Fidelity’s brokerage, cash management account, and workplace retirement plans — which is its strongest integration story, since many users already hold a 401(k) there. Portfolios use Fidelity Flex funds with no underlying expense ratio, and the account is free below a stated balance threshold, then charges a straightforward percentage. Larger balances gain access to coaching calls. No tax-loss harvesting, which limits its appeal for large taxable accounts.

Vanguard Digital Advisor

Low all-in cost and Vanguard’s index portfolios, integrated with Vanguard brokerage and its retirement accounts. Integration outside Vanguard is thin — there is no meaningful banking layer — so this is a fit for people whose assets are already at Vanguard rather than for people seeking a bank relationship. Vanguard Personal Advisor adds human advisers at a higher tier.

Merrill Guided Investing (Bank of America)

The strongest example of relationship pricing. Balances count toward Bank of America Preferred Rewards, which can reduce the advisory fee and improve credit-card cash back, interest rates, and mortgage pricing elsewhere in the relationship. For an existing Bank of America customer with meaningful balances, that cross-account benefit frequently outweighs the higher headline advisory fee. An adviser-guided tier is available at additional cost.

Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor

Integrated with Wells Fargo banking and reduced for customers in its relationship programme. Includes access to financial advisers, positioning it as a hybrid rather than a pure robo. Portfolio construction is conventional; the appeal is the banking tie and adviser access rather than the investment engineering.

Citi Wealth Builder

Aimed squarely at existing Citi customers, with a straightforward goal-based flow and integration into Citi’s banking app. A reasonable convenience choice for Citi clients; investors without a Citi relationship have better options elsewhere.

J.P. Morgan Automated Investing (Chase)

Sits inside the Chase mobile app alongside checking, savings, and cards — the most seamless day-to-day banking integration of the group, given Chase’s deposit footprint. Investment features are basic compared with independent robos, so it suits smaller, simpler portfolios where convenience dominates.

The most important thing to check on a bank robo is how much of your portfolio it holds in cash, and who earns the yield on it.

A “free” robo that keeps a fixed slice of every portfolio in cash is not free — the bank earns the spread between what it pays you and what it earns on those deposits, and in a long-term equity allocation that uninvested slice also costs you expected return. That can quietly exceed the advisory fee you avoided.

Two practical checks before opening an account:

• Find the stated cash allocation for the risk level you would actually be assigned — not the aggressive extreme quoted in marketing.
• Compare the yield paid on that cash with what you could earn in a money market fund yourself, and multiply the gap by your intended balance.

If the answer is a meaningful annual number, a low-fee robo with fully invested portfolios is usually the better deal even without the banking integration.

Bank robos are generally more willing than independents to put an adviser in front of you, because the bank is already selling a relationship. Three models exist:

• Flat-fee planner access — unlimited planning calls for a fixed monthly charge, independent of balance. Best value for larger accounts.
• Balance-gated coaching — adviser access unlocked above a stated threshold. Common, and usually adequate for straightforward planning questions.
• Full hybrid tiers — a dedicated adviser at a higher advisory fee, which begins to compete with traditional advice rather than with robos.

If you expect to want a human for retirement timing, equity compensation, or a business sale, the hybrid tier is the honest comparison to price — not the base robo fee.

• Most of your money is at one bank — start with that bank’s robo and check relationship pricing before comparing anything else. The cross-account benefits are often worth more than a fee difference.
• Large taxable account — prioritise tax-loss harvesting and full investment of cash. That usually points away from bank robos and toward the independents in our robo-advisor platform comparison.
• Retirement accounts dominate — tax-loss harvesting is irrelevant in an IRA or 401(k), so integration with the provider holding your workplace plan becomes the deciding factor.
• You want a human occasionally — compare flat-fee planner tiers rather than headline advisory fees.
• Smaller balance, simple needs — convenience wins. The robo inside the banking app you already open every day will get used; the theoretically better one you have to log into separately often will not.

For the year’s full ranking including independent providers, see our best robo-advisor 2026 rankings.