Choosing a robo-advisor
A robo-advisor sells convenience, and convenience is worth paying for if the price is right. The question is what the total annual cost buys you compared with a simple index fund held directly.
What we assess
The all-in annual fee
Add the advisory fee to the underlying fund charges. An 0.25% advisory fee on top of 0.15% fund costs is 0.40% a year - reasonable. Anything approaching 1% needs to justify itself against a two-fund portfolio you could run yourself.
Portfolio construction
Look at what you would actually own: the asset classes, the home-market bias, and whether the equity and bond split matches your horizon. Ask to see the model portfolio before opening an account.
Rebalancing and automation
Automatic rebalancing and automatic contributions are the features that genuinely earn the fee for most people, because they remove decisions during volatile periods.
Tax features
Where available, tax-loss harvesting and tax-efficient placement across accounts can offset a meaningful part of the fee. Their value depends heavily on your country and balance.
Human access
Some services include access to a human planner at certain balances. If you value that, price it in - it is usually the main difference between tiers.
Exit terms
Check whether you can transfer holdings out in kind or would be forced to sell, which may create a tax event you did not plan for.
Common mistakes
- Paying an advisory fee for a portfolio you could replicate with two index funds.
- Overlooking the underlying fund charges and comparing only the headline advisory fee.
- Choosing an aggressive risk setting in a rising market and changing it after a fall.
- Assuming tax features apply in your country when they are jurisdiction-specific.
Our current picks
We are not recommending providers in this category yet. We only list a provider once we have checked its costs, protections and terms ourselves, and we will not publish a comparison table we cannot stand behind. The criteria above are what we assess against, and they work just as well if you are comparing on your own today.
Want to know when this table goes live? Join the list below.
Run the numbers first
Before choosing a provider, it helps to know what you are actually aiming at.
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