My clear answer is a big NO, i.e. one cannot trust a Robo-advisor.
Robo-advisors are nothing but computer programmes or algorithms, which will first take inputs from you in the form of “sets of questions & filters”, and accordingly will populate various scenarios or “desired results”, as defined by the platform provider.
Now the question is, who are these platform providers, their credibility, what logic have they applied towards the programs? etc. No company will share their logic or how they have populated the results, but will have only “tall claims”, that they are the “best & trust-worthy”. One platform provider went to an extent to claim that, they have a “Nobel awarded algorithm”.
I went to some of the know platform providers, comprising of fresh players & traditional players (banks & brokers), all offering or using the term “Robo” & “the best advice”.
The finding was shocking! & I felt like laughing… all of them are offering same portfolio of funds. Even if you go to news or content providers, like money-control or value-research, which are free service providers, they are also populating same funds😉
Only one thing comes into my mind; either they all have the same logic/ computer program, or it’s a big marketing gimmick to acquire customers.
This is what one needs to understand, Robo-advisors (any platform) are meant only for people:
- who doesn’t want to speak to anyone,
- loves to do things on their own (DIY)&
- loves their smart phone.
For the Rest, like myself, we want to speak to someone first… to debate, evaluate, probe, question &most important, prefer the person spoken-to, to be a qualified, trained & process oriented.
When we started Moneyfrog, we also wanted to build the “Robo-advisory” platform, but mid-way realised that advisory without a “personal-touch”, is just transactional & has no value.