What is a good robo-advisor fee?
Funds' expense ratios: The robo-advisor will invest your money in various funds that also charge fees based on your assets. The fees can vary widely, but across a portfolio they typically range from 0.05 percent to 0.25 percent, costing $5 to $25 annually for every $10,000 invested, though some funds may cost more.
For traditional advisors, this fee typically ranges from 1% to 2% of assets under management. So for a $100,000 portfolio, the fee would be $1,000 to $2,000 each year. A robo-advisor, on the other hand, will typically charge 0.25% to 0.89% of assets under management.
Five-year returns from most robo-advisors range from 2%–5% per year. * And the performance of these automated investment services can vary based on asset allocation, market conditions, and other factors.
Expense ratios for most of the ETFs provided by robo-advisors can range from 0.05% to 0.25% each year, which is between $0.50 and $2.50 for every $1,000 invested.
Robo-advisors make money through annual fees, primarily management fees called a wrap fee. The wrap fee covers a percentage of the assets under management (AUM). Compared to a traditional financial advisor, robo-advisors charge lower advisory fees, typically around 0.25%.
Robo-advisors often charge fees, which will vary depending on your account balance. For example, Betterment charges a monthly fee of $4 for accounts with low balances. This fee automatically switches to 0.25% annually once the account grows to above $20,000 or if there are monthly recurring deposits of $250 or more.
The industry typically refers to this as an investment management fee and averages between 1-2% of assets (i.e. A $100,000 investment could cost you between $1,000 - $2,000 annually). In recent years, thanks to technology and higher overall awareness, these fees have fallen closer to an average of 1%.
High-net-worth investors exited robo-advisor arrangements at the highest rates. Here's how the data broke down along asset levels: $50,000 or less: A drop from 23.6% to 20.6% in 2022, which translates to a decrease of 3 percentage points.
Learn more about how we review products and read our advertiser disclosure for how we make money. According to our research, Wealthfront is the best overall robo-advisor due to its vast customization options, fee-free stock investing, low-interest rate borrowing, dynamic tax-loss harvesting, and other key features.
Robo-advisors often build portfolios using a mix of various index funds. But depending on the asset class mix and the particular index funds selected, a robo-advisor may underperform or outperform a broad equity index like the S&P 500.
What makes a good robo-advisor?
The best robo-advisors charge low portfolio management fees and offer a range of services, including tax strategies, access to human advisors and a variety of portfolio options.
At their heart, robo advisors are money managers and have the same revenue model as other money managers. Robo advisory firms draw the majority of their revenue from account fees. Like traditional firms, robo advisors charge an annual management fee that is usually a percentage rate of current assets under management.
Target Demographic
For robo-advisors, these include Millennial and Generation Z investors who are technology-savvy and still accumulating their investable assets.
Markets can be unpredictable, and no form of investing is immune to potential losses. Robo-advisors, like human advisors, cannot guarantee profits or protect entirely against losses, especially during market downturns—even with well-diversified portfolios.
Some robo-advisors will manage small amounts of money for free, while others don't charge a management fee at all. Keep in mind that you'll typically still pay fees for the funds that are used to build your portfolio.
Suppose you're starting from scratch and have no savings. You'd need to invest around $13,000 per month to save a million dollars in five years, assuming a 7% annual rate of return and 3% inflation rate. For a rate of return of 5%, you'd need to save around $14,700 per month.
- Vanguard Personal and Digital Advisor Services. $118.99 billion. 348,113. 12/31/2022.
- Empower (Formerly Personal Capital) $99.8 billion. 188,081. 6/14/2023.
- Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. $66.08 billion. 495,347. 12/31/2022.
- Betterment. $36.63 billion. 1,023,431. 05/01/2023.
- Wealthfront.
Robo-advisors offer clients an investment service driven by algorithms and digital tools which automatize your investments based on your preferences. Because a person doesn't actively manage your investments, robo-advisors charge significantly lower fees than financial advisors.
The frequency of portfolio rebalancing by a robo-advisor is ongoing and automatic. This is one of the many benefits of using a robo-advisor like Daffy. Unlike most investors who only rebalance their portfolio idiosyncratically, maybe once a year or every couple of years when they remember, robo-advisors never forget.
Many financial advisers charge based on how much money they manage on your behalf, and 1% of your total assets under management is a pretty standard fee.
What is a good management fee?
Understanding Management Fees
Management fees can also cover expenses involved with managing a portfolio, such as fund operations and administrative costs. The management fee varies but usually ranges anywhere from 0.20% to 2.00%, depending on factors such as management style and size of the investment.
Many may ask “Is 1.5% too much?” and the answer is that it depends. While 1.5% is on the higher end for financial advisor services, if that's what it takes to get the returns you want then it's not overpaying, so to speak. Staying around 1% for your fee may be standard but it certainly isn't the high end.
Last year, roughly 30 million Americans used robo-advisors to grow their assets. Statista expects another 20 million people in the US to start using their services in the next four years, pushing the total user count to nearly 50 million.
For core investing and planning advice, a robo-advisor is a great solution because it automates much of the work that a human advisor does. And it charges less for doing so – potential savings for you. Plus, the ease of starting and managing the account can't be overstated.
Some would diversify across multiple platforms to minimise platform-specific risk. It's a good consideration but if you understand how the platform handles your money and can sleep at night knowing that your funds are safe, there's no need to diversify across platforms just for the sake of it.
