Walnut vs Merrill Guided Investing: Which Is Better in 2026?

Figures and features are point-in-time and change; treat the table as a starting map, not a live quote.

The AI that knows your portfolio. Ask anything in plain English, research any stock or fund, and get an honest second opinion, on the broker you already use. Read-only by default, you approve every trade, and it never holds your money. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

How it works: You connect the brokerage you already use through a secure, read-only link, so your login stays with your broker and Walnut sees positions rather than credentials. You then analyze and manage that portfolio by talking through Claude or ChatGPT, and you can group holdings into thematic baskets built around a thesis. When you decide to act, Walnut prepares the trades and routes them back to your own broker for you to approve.

In practice, Walnut’s AI conversational + thematic baskets + trade. It falls under chat-driven management of your own brokerage, which makes it best suited to talking to your own brokerage with ai. On connecting an account it is “Yes (your own broker)”, and on execution it is “Read + you approve”. It is priced as free tier.

One honest limitation: It sits on top of your broker rather than being a broker itself, so you connect an existing account.

Merrill's automated investing service, built on Bank of America research, with an optional tier that adds an advisor.

How it works: A questionnaire sets a goal and risk level, and Merrill invests in model portfolios built by its investment office, rebalancing automatically. A higher-priced tier adds access to a financial advisor. Preferred Rewards status at Bank of America can reduce the fee, which is the main reason existing customers choose it.

In practice, Merrill Guided Investing’s AI automates a research-driven model portfolio. It falls under hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors), which makes it best suited to bank of america customers who want managed portfolios in the same app. On connecting an account it is “No (holds your money at Merrill)”, and on execution it is “Automated”. It is priced as percentage of assets, higher with an advisor (verify current).

One honest limitation: Priced above the cheapest automated services, and the portfolios lean on Merrill's own research and funds.

The honest framing: Merrill Guided Investing is about fully automated, hands-off investing where the platform builds and manages a diversified portfolio for you, while Walnut is about keeping your own brokerage and staying in control of what you hold, with an AI you talk to. Merrill Guided Investing holds your money and invests it for you, whereas Walnut sits on top of the broker you already use and leaves you in control.

Every tool gives something up for what it does well. Here is the honest give-and-take on each, so you can weigh the specific strengths against the limitations that come with them rather than judging on the headline category alone.

For AI investing tools, the distinction that matters most is whether the tool works from your actual, connected positions or reasons from something else: a separate account it manages for you, or the tickers and numbers you feed it. It decides how personal the answers can be, and where your money physically lives.

• Walnut: reads your real connected holdings. Walnut connects your real brokerage (Yes (your own broker)) and works from your actual positions, so its answers reflect what you genuinely own rather than a generic model.
• Merrill Guided Investing: manages a separate account it holds. Merrill Guided Investing does not read the brokerage you already use. It opens and holds a new account, then invests the money you move into it, so its view is limited to what sits inside Merrill Guided Investing.

This is where they diverge most. One works from your real, connected account while the other does not, so if you want an assistant grounded in the exact positions you already hold, that gap is the thing to weigh first. This holdings-aware angle is the one Walnut is built around: it connects the brokerage you already use and reasons from your live positions, read-only by default, with any trades left for you to approve.

There is no universal winner here; the right pick depends on the job you are hiring the tool for. Match the category to your intent rather than chasing a single “best.”

• Choose Walnut if you want talking to your own brokerage with ai. Its AI conversational + thematic baskets + trade, it is priced as free tier, and it fits chat-driven management of your own brokerage. It is built for hands-on investors who want an AI layer on the broker they already have, without moving their money. Keep in mind that it sits on top of your broker rather than being a broker itself, so you connect an existing account.
• Choose Merrill Guided Investing if you want bank of america customers who want managed portfolios in the same app. Its AI automates a research-driven model portfolio, it is priced as percentage of assets, higher with an advisor (verify current), and it fits hands-off automated investing (robo-advisors). It is built for an existing Bank of America customer whose rewards tier makes the pricing competitive and who values everything in one app. Keep in mind that priced above the cheapest automated services, and the portfolios lean on merrill's own research and funds.

Because they sit in different categories, this is not strictly either-or: some investors use one for talking to your own brokerage with ai and the other for bank of america customers who want managed portfolios in the same app, and just watch for overlapping costs.

Cost is easy to misread when two tools charge in different shapes, so compare the model, not just the number. Walnut is priced as free tier, while Merrill Guided Investing is priced as percentage of assets, higher with an advisor (verify current). A percentage-of-assets fee scales with your balance, a flat subscription does not, and a “free” tier usually earns elsewhere (on cash, order flow, or premium upgrades), so the cheapest headline is not always the cheapest outcome for your situation.

Pricing and tiers change often. Confirm the current numbers on each provider’s own site before you decide; the framing above is point-in-time.