Robo advisors, or fully automated online investment platforms, are springing up quickly, appealing mainly to new and younger investors. But does that mean they’re right for every investor, in all circumstances? Are there times when you might be better off with a traditional investment advisor, rather than a robo advisor? Yes!
Here’s how to tell when a robo advisor or traditional investment advisor is the better choice. Let’s take a look at both sides.
When You Should Use a Robo Advisor
Robo advisors can be a real advantage when at least some of the following apply to your investment situation:
You fully understand the impact that investment fees have on your investment performance. How much you pay in investment fees can have a material effect on your investment performance, especially over the long term. Traditional investment advisors typically charge anywhere from 1% to 3% of the value of your portfolio, while robo advisors charge less than 1%. In fact, you can get robo advisors with investment fees as low as 0.15% per year to manage your investments. All things being equal, this can improve your investment performance dramatically.
You don’t need much in the way of direct contact. Some people like personal contact in connection with their investments, while others have no need for it. If you’re perfectly content turning the job of managing your investments over to someone else — with whom you have little, if any, contact — robo advisors are a good choice. Just make sure you’re okay with not having a human advisor to talk to in the event that the stock market crashes. That’s often when people most want to speak with an advisor or broker directly. If you’re prepared to ride out the downturn and you don’t have a need to analyze it with a person who is intimately familiar with your investments, then the robo advisor route will work for you.
You don‘t meet the minimum requirements for a traditional advisor. One of the major limitations of traditional investment advisors is the account minimum balance requirement. Most require you to have at least $200,000 in your portfolio before they will even consider working with you. Others will look for even higher minimums, such as $500,000 or even $1 million. Robo advisors will provide professional investment management of a portfolio with as little as $5,000. Some will even allow you to open an account with no minimum balance. This is a big part of the reason why robo advisors are more popular among new or young investors.
You’re willing to let someone else do ALL your investing. When you invest in a robo investing platform, the site will handle all of your investment activities for you. All you need to do is fund your account. If you prefer this kind of investment arrangement, a robo advisor will work well for you.
Our Recommended Robo Advisors
| Robo-Advisor | Annual Fees |
|---|---|
| Betterment | Digital – 0.15-0.25%/year; Premium – 0.30-0.40%/year |
| M1 Finance | None |
| OpenInvest | 0.50% (plus an additional 0.22% if you opt for the green bond fund) |
| Swell Investing | 0.75%/year |
| Wealthfront | 0.25%/year |
| Wealthsimple | $0 to $100k – 0.50%/year; $100k+ – 0.40%/year |
Rating:
Ally Invest Managed Portfolios
- Minimum Investment: $0
- Stock Trades: $4.95/trade
- Options Trades: $4.95/trade
When You Should Use a Traditional Investment Advisor
Despite the rising popularity of robo advisors, many people still prefer having a traditional investment advisor. This may be you if any of the following apply:
You’re not comfortable transacting business online. Some people, typically younger generations, are perfectly okay conducting all of their business on the web. But not everyone is this way. If this describes you, then you’re probably better off with a traditional investment advisor.
Direct human contact is very important to you. If you prefer having direct human interaction regarding your investments, you’re best to stay with traditional investment advisors. They will not only manage your portfolio for you, but they’ll also be available to discuss your questions and concerns. Robo advisors typically allow you some form of phone access, but there’s no one at the platform who actually has primary responsibility for, and knowledge of, managing your portfolio. They’re mainly there to answer questions about the system.
You want at least some measure of control over your investments. One of the limitations of robo advisors is that they’re pretty much hands-off activities. The platform will have you complete a brief questionnaire that will determine your risk tolerance, then a portfolio will be designed based on that tolerance. You will not have an opportunity to customize your portfolio in any way. You won’t be able to load up your portfolio with Apple stock as part of the allocation. In fact, most robo advisors don’t hold any individual stocks at all.
You don’t agree with the investment allocation robo advisors use. Beyond the lack of control over your investments discussed above, a robo advisor arrangement may not work for you if you’re not comfortable with the actual allocation that’s assigned to your portfolio. Because they are fully automated, robo advisors simply don’t have the kind of investment flexibility you can get with a traditional investment advisor.
Most of your money is in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Because employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k)s are directly managed by an investment trustee, you cannot put the assets under the control of the robo advisor. The most you can get will be investment allocation recommendations from the platform that you may or may not be able to extend to your 401(k). If most or all of your investment funds are in your retirement plan, a robo advisor will be little use to you.
Summary
Robo advisors can work very well in a lot of situations. But since everyone’s situation and temperaments are different, you still need to weigh the options of whether a traditional investment advisor will work better for you and your investing style.
Readers: Which do you prefer? Do you use a robo advisor or traditional advisor for your investments?
Comments
Have a question. If Robo-Advisors don’t invest in stocks,/bonds/etc., what is the basis for gains/losses/equity?
Also late to the discussion. Robo-Advisors are not just for the newbies or those that have little invested. I’ve made my own financial investment decisions for decades and done very well but now after dipping my big toe into robo-advisors I’m increasing the amount of investments I’m giving to them to control.
At first the robo fees, even though low especially by comparison to a human advisor, bothered me, however I am finding that the robo’s I’ve tried (Future Advisor and Betterment) are doing a good job and beating my own investment decisions by a pretty good margin. So they are worth the fees in my view.
I do think it’s good advice to diversify your robo-advisors just as you would anything else, use more than one on different accounts. Most want you to deposit your money with them but at least one, Future Advisor, will manage existing IRA or Brokerage accounts at Fidelity, meaning you can easily turn it on and off without the hassle of actually moving money.
Great article. thanks.
Sorry I’m late to this discussion. I have to say that I’d suggest that for anyone with a bit of personal finance knowledge you are much better served by organising your own finances rather than paying anyone else, including a robo-advisor. Who/ what else will have your absolute best interest at the forefront?
Agree that a relationship with a human adviser can be messy and involve possible conflicts of interest. But how could a Robo-Adviser possibly not have your interests at the forefront? Clearly a commissioned human adviser can be influenced by self-interest due to sales quotas, trade commissions, bonus programs and so forth. But a computer algorithm doesn’t care about any of that and since it’s owner is compensated strictly on a fraction of a percent of your total portfolio it’s interests are perfectly aligned with yours!
I have shunned human advisers all my life but the Robo firms have professional data scientists and mathematicians focused full-time on building computer models maximizing the efficiency of your investment allocations. I am skeptical that an individual person can match their level of sophistication. Why not leverage that?
Or use both. And why risk all your money with one robo-advisor. None of them have a very long track record.
Nice summary, good advice. But nobody–not you, not the WSJ or any other business pub or site– is doing a quant comparison. Easily done in order to compare returns across advisers. Yes, there is grunt work, but someone needs to do it. Most people invest to make money in line with their risk tolerance. Show them the money
As an adviser to the middle class, I believe that consumers should use robo advisers whenever they can for investment management. They are significantly less expensive and introduce strong discipline into the process. IMHO, the adviser can provide guidance on planning issues – big picture – and helping control behavioral issues for investors. I believe that adviser compensation should not be tied to assets under management at all but should be based upon the amount of time the client requires. Many advisers currently sell their value as managing assets and charge as such and I do not believe that serves the investor well, even if the adviser is a fiduciary.
Asset allocation is headed towards commodity status, but people will still planning guidance in the future.