A friend who works for a retirement plan administrator wrote to me this week saying that his firm was expanding its relationship with Mint. Last year I announced that I was expanding my affiliation with Balance Financial. Both are personal financial management tools available online either directly to consumers or though a financial advisory firm. Both are fabulous. So what is the difference from a consumer’s perspective?
Mint is owned by Intuit, the accounting software company. The intent is to cross sell services like online tax preparation and other financial services. Balance caters to the clients of professional advisers who presumably already have a source of tax preparation and other services. That does not mean that Balance will never offer products and services, but this is not happening now.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that Balance allows advisers to collaborate online with a client account where Mint does not.
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