The Motley Fool is the oldest and best-known online peer community for serious investors and traders. Founded in 1993, it caters to almost everyone interested in the equities markets, from sophisticated day traders hoping to compete with deep-pocketed high-frequency trading shops to retirees and near-retirees seeking stable, predictable income in their later years.
And it offers a dizzying array of premium subscription options to match. Many investors know about its flagship, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor program. However, that’s just one of about 20 packages serving up premium market insights, stock recommendations, and investing help from expert teams led by Motley Fool co-founders Tom Gardner and David Gardner.
Premium insights and recommendations don’t come cheap at The Motley Fool. Premium packages cost anywhere from about $99 to more than $2,000 per year with the firm, depending on the product. But the consistent market-beating returns of the Gardners’ investment portfolios speak for themselves and, for subscribers who follow their recommendations faithfully, could more than justify the subscription cost.
Motley Fool Subscriptions: What They Offer and Who They’re For
Each Motley Fool subscription has a particular mix of offerings and delivers value for specific types of investors and traders.
That said, all feature exclusive stock picks and insights from the Gardner Brothers or Motley Fool market experts working under their supervision. Picks and insights are often hidden from open-source investor resources like Yahoo! Finance or Google Finance, or even the free corners of The Motley Fool itself.
Is a Motley Fool subscription worth the cost for you? If you’re truly devoted to doing your research and coming up with your own stock ideas — rather than paying a wealth manager to do it for you or contenting yourself with the average returns of the typical robo-advisor’s passive portfolio — chances are good that the answer is yes.
Which Motley Fool subscriptions are right for you is a different and more interesting question.
What follows is a comprehensive list of Motley Fool subscription programs. When evaluating historical performance data, remember that past performance does not guarantee future results and that Motley Fool subscribers must act on the platform’s recommendations in a timely fashion to replicate its results.
1. Motley Fool Stock Advisor
Motley Fool Stock Advisor is The Motley Fool’s flagship premium subscription product.
Priced at $199 per year for new subscribers and built around frequent investment newsletters with exclusive stock tips and recommendations, its highlights include:
- Two handpicked monthly stock recommendations from the Motley Fool Stock Advisor team
- Best Buys Now, a collection of 10 timely buys each month from 300 candidate stocks
- Starter Stocks, or portfolio-building stock recommendations that have stood the test of time
- Access to dozens of bonus research reports with additional market insights
- A risk-free 30-day trial period with a membership-fee-back guarantee (full refund)
The Stock Advisor’s track record speaks for itself. Since its inception in 2002, the Stock Advisor team has “3x-ed” the S&P 500 — appreciating 468%, about three times the S&P’s increase during the same period (124%). Nearly 200 Stock Advisor recommendations have risen by more than 100% since they first came on the subscription service’s radar, an impressive achievement in a world with nearly as many investment losers as winners.
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor team also prides itself on doing the heavy lifting for subscribers. According to The Motley Fool, Stock Advisor subscribers can act on its recommendations and tune up their portfolios in as little as five minutes per month, leaving plenty of time for other income-generating activities — or kicking back and doing nothing.
For more information about the Stock Advisor subscription, read our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review.
Who It’s Best For
Motley Fool Stock Advisor is for hands-off investors looking to build diversified, market-beating portfolios without extensive research or backtesting. Its moderate price point is ideal for relatively inexperienced subscribers who want to try The Motley Fool before investing in higher-priced subscription products, as well as investors without large sums to commit to the recommended stocks and strategies.
2. Motley Fool Rule Breakers
Cut from the same cloth as Motley Fool Stock Advisor, Motley Fool Rule Breakers surfaces handpicked growth stocks that the Motley Fool team believes will dominate tomorrow’s markets — think Apple in 2005, Amazon in 2008, Netflix in 2011, Facebook in 2012.
Priced at $99 for the first year, Rule Breakers features:
- Two new Motley Fool stock picks each month
- Best Buys Now, a collection of five timely buys each month from 200 candidate stocks (subscribers who also subscribe to Stock Advisor get 15 total Best Buys Now each month)
- Access to about 10 free bonus research reports
- A 30-day money-back guarantee
Rule Breakers has tripled the S&P 500’s gains since its inception, appreciating 266% compared to the benchmark index’s 120%. Like Stock Advisor, it has an outsize collection of big winners, with 178 stock recommendations gaining more than 100% since their first appearances. (Shopify and Tesla, two early Rule Breakers recommendations, have gained 3,709% and 8%, respectively.)
Rule Breakers is available in a package deal with Motley Fool Stock Advisor. While there’s no discount associated with buying the Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers as a package deal, managing a single subscription is marginally more convenient for time-pressed users — delivering more monthly stock picks and a more comprehensive array of insights in one place.
Who It’s Best For
Like the Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers is built for investors seeking market-beating returns without devoting hours to research each week. Because its recommendations focus on high-growth companies in emerging industries, it’s ideal for investors with healthy risk tolerance. And thanks to the popular Rule Breakers Investing Podcast, Rule Breakers content is available to subscribers who prefer to consume market insights on the go.
3. Motley Fool Rule Breakers: Industry and Trend Packages
Not content with the same old Rule Breakers recommendations? Motley Fool offers a handful of higher-priced Rule Breakers stock-picking services tailored to specific industries, trends, or investor strategies.
These packages open and close to new members regularly, so check Motley Fool’s services page to confirm that the one you want is still available. Unless otherwise noted, each costs $1,999 per year.
Blast Off
Blast Off is a starter kit for growth investors. Its goal is to surface little-known stocks with extremely high growth potential — which will be fundamental components of growth investors’ stock portfolios in five, 10, or 15 years. Previous Blast Off portfolios have dramatically beaten the market, with Blast Off 2019 appreciating 250% since inception.
Trend-Spotter
Trend-Spotter aims to uncover what the Motley Fool team calls “genesis trends,” or era-defining supertrends with life cycles far longer than the typical five-to-seven-year business cycle. Not that it always takes that long to produce results: A Trend-Spotter portfolio heavy on work-from-home and e-commerce plays returned 1,031% over just 134 days in 2020, according to Motley Fool.
Marijuana Masters
Should you invest in cannabis? Sure — but it helps to pick the right stocks. Marijuana Masters mixes and matches pure-play cannabis stocks and derivative plays (like distributors, retailers, and equipment manufacturers) to create a durable, diversified portfolio for the cannabis connoisseur.
Marijuana Masters also includes recommendations of cannabis stocks to avoid and exclusive expert investment ideas for investors navigating the emerging industry’s complex regulatory environment.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Beyond
The Motley Fool is highly bullish on augmented reality — enough to devote an entire Rule Breakers subscription package to startups and established companies (including Apple) riding the AR wave. Like Marijuana Masters, AR and Beyond mixes pure plays — companies focused exclusively on AR — with derivative plays like sensor manufacturers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another emerging tech trend that The Motley Fool is all-in on. In addition to an ever-changing list of top stock recommendations in the AI space, this package includes two proprietary guides to investing in artificial intelligence companies.
Future of Entertainment
The Future of Entertainment package includes eight foundational stock recommendations and about 15 additional recommendations, all of which stand — in The Motley Fool’s estimation — to profit from where the entertainment industry is headed.
Bear in mind that this portfolio bets on plenty of upside left for the streaming industry, so if you disagree with that thesis, you should steer clear.
Fintech Fortunes
Online banks, personal budgeting apps, cryptocurrencies, next-generation payment apps — the fintech space is busier than ever, and The Motley Fool has a Rule Breakers package built to help investors exploit it.
Because fintech changes so fast, Fintech Fortunes comes with an added layer of value: quarterly reevaluations of every pick in the portfolio. That ensures subscribers stay one step ahead of the curve in an industry where fortunes can change dramatically from one month to the next.
Platinum
This package includes all current Rule Breakers industry and trend packages. Because specific packages come and go, its makeup varies over time, but it’s always a better value than purchasing three or more packages a la carte. (At $3,999 per year, it costs about the same as two Rule Breakers packages.)
Who They’re Best For
These Rule Breakers packages are built for investors seeking greater exposure to industry- and trend-specific market opportunities with outsize growth potential. Due to their cost and specificity, they’re best for well-capitalized investors who can afford to devote significant sums to very narrow stock market segments.
If you’re interested in two or more Rule Breakers packages, consider Rule Breakers: Platinum instead. It’s the same price as two packages and offers far more content.
4. Motley Fool Options
Motley Fool Options is a beginner-friendly service for options traders. In the aggregate, its recommended options trades are profitable a staggering 86% of the time, although (as always) past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Motley Fool Options also has a comprehensive education platform called Options U. It’s designed to prepare investors who may or may not be absolutely clueless about options trading to more than hold their own in the field, regardless of whether stock prices rise or fall.
All this for $1,000 per year.
Who It’s Best For
Motley Fool Options is clear that it’s made for novice- to intermediate-level options traders looking to use options to boost their stock market earnings without committing huge sums of money to the practice or using sophisticated, high-risk strategies.
That said, all options trading involves significant risk, so Motley Fool Options is not for investors more comfortable with a buy-and-hold-only investment strategy, nor for new investors in general.
5. Everlasting Stocks
Everlasting Stocks is a newer stock picking service built to mimic the personal portfolio of Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool co-founder. Priced at $299 a year, it’s overseen by the same team behind the Motley Fool Stock Advisor service and touts the same eye-popping 3x returns over the S&P 500 since that service’s inception.
New Everlasting Stocks members get immediate access to 15 top Motley Fool stock picks, plus new stock picks every month. Tom Gardner owns every stock in the portfolio, giving subscribers confidence that he and his team have skin in the game. And Everlasting Stocks has the same risk-free 30-day trial period that eases investors into Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers.
Who It’s Best For
Everlasting Stocks is ideal for Motley Fool subscribers who want the added conviction of investing in companies Tom Gardner owns. The modest pricing is beginner-friendly too, regardless of investing strategy.
6. Everlasting Portfolio
Everlasting Portfolio is another Gardner-validated portfolio, albeit considerably more expensive at $1,999 per year than Everlasting Stocks. Backed by $12 million of The Motley Fool’s own money, the portfolio contains the only individual stocks Gardner himself owns (some of which also make an appearance in the Everlasting Stocks service).
Each stock pick comes with a recommended allocation as a total percentage of the investor’s portfolio, plus periodic buy and sell recommendations to keep subscribers’ holding in line with Gardner’s own.
In other words, Everlasting Portfolio is the closest regular Motley Fool subscribers can get to profiting directly from a co-founder’s money moves.
Who It’s Best For
Everlasting Portfolio is not cheap, so it’s best for well-capitalized investors aiming to replicate the investing success of a Motley Fool co-founder.
7. Everlasting: Industry and Trend Packages
Like the Rule Breakers industry and trend packages, Tom Gardner’s Everlasting packages drill down on specific trends and opportunities for buy-and-hold investors in the 2020s and beyond.
In keeping with the theme of Everlasting Stocks and the Everlasting Portfolio, these services’ stock picks are potential game-changers for their respective industries — and names that Gardner feels good about owning himself. Be sure to check Motley Fool’s website to confirm that your desired Industry and Trend packages are available.
Global Partners
This package surfaces high-potential stocks trading on equities markets inside and outside the United States.
Rising Stars
This package targets small- and micro-cap stocks with market capitalizations under $6 billion. That’s about one-twentieth of the $145 billion market capitalization of the average Stock Advisor pick, according to The Motley Fool. The original Rising Stars portfolio, launched in 2017, outpaced broader small-cap indexes by about 2.5 times since inception.
The Ownership Portfolio
This package is a portfolio made up solely of founder-led companies — that is, companies whose founders remain involved in day-to-day operations. Tom Gardner and his team back it with $250,000 of The Motley Fool’s own money, and the portfolio’s early returns have been impressive: 650%, compared with 95% for the S&P 500 over the same period.
IPO Trailblazers
Tom Gardner and his team built this package to capitalize on the wave of initial public offerings (IPOs).
Pointing to the success of high-profile IPOs like Beyond Meat (up 163% on its IPO date) and Zoom (up 72% on its IPO date and a lot more in the months that followed), IPO Trailblazers invites participants to cash in on what The Motley Fool calls “the Golden Age of IPOs.” IPO Trailblazers is backed by $1 million of The Motley Fool’s own money.
Boss Mode
Boss Mode consolidates every Everlasting package in a single master service with favorable pricing. If you plan to purchase three or more Everlasting services, Boss Mode is a better deal.
Who They’re Best For
Each Everlasting package provides exposure to a different market sector, trend, or investor thesis, all validated by Tom Gardner and his stock-picking team. Because they’re so specific, individual Everlasting portfolios are best used as supplements to diversified investment portfolios rather than the main focus of users’ investments. But the fact that they’re backed by real money from Tom Gardner or The Motley Fool lends confidence and conviction to the picks.
8. Market Pass
Market Pass is a package deal that includes subscriptions to Motley Fool Stock Advisor, Motley Fool Rule Breakers, Rule Your Retirement, Real Estate Winners, and Everlasting Stocks. It also includes the Epic Bundle and Ultimate Portfolio.
The bulk of its $999 annual price tag is borne by Ultimate Portfolio, which is a portfolio based on Stock Advisors and Rule Breakers. As the name suggests, Ultimate Portfolio is a collection of what The Motley Fool calls “the right stocks to buy right now,” from names that have consistently beaten the market to up-and-coming companies poised to take off in the months and years ahead.
Who It’s Best For
Market Pass is built for people who want to profit from the insights and recommendations produced by the Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers teams while adding exposure to an exclusive custom portfolio that The Motley Fool believes has high potential to beat the market over time. Whether the $999 price point is worth it really depends on how well the Ultimate Portfolio performs.
9. Rule Your Retirement
Rule Your Retirement is a modestly priced service ($149 for two years) for the long-term investor looking ahead to a stable, prosperous retirement.
Who It’s Best For
Rule Your Retirement is an excellent resource for investors planning for retirement and for those managing their nest eggs after they’ve left the workforce for good. With a relatively low annual fee and access to a financial planner, it offers very good value for active retirement investors and those who wish they’d asked more questions sooner.
Final Word
The Motley Fool offers a subscription product for everyone. At least, for just about every type of serious equities market participant.
From the flagship Motley Fool Stock Advisor to industry- and trend-specific Rule Breakers and Everlasting packages, The Motley Fool offers more premium services and financial content than just about any other peer-driven investor resource, including Seeking Alpha — its current rival in the space. It’s been doing so for more than two decades and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
The Motley Fool does owe some of its longevity to an enthusiastic and loyal group of core members. But those members wouldn’t keep coming back without its other big differentiator: a seemingly never-ending supply of proprietary wisdom from co-founders Tom and David Gardner and their team of market experts. If you do eventually come to the conclusion that a Motley Fool subscription (or several) is worth the cost, you’ll have them to thank.
