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Jason Zweig: Going Robo: What Schwab’s Move Means For You
I have a hard time differentiating between this type of service and something like Fidelity's Portfolio Advisory Service (PAS), where it seems you get put into one of a handful of portfolios, depending on your profile.
Sure each of the portfolios itself is managed, but for the masses - it's not something customized for you. With PAS do get handholding, which might help (as the article points out), but that's not money management and you're paying a high premium for that service.
So these robo services seem like a reasonable, cheap alternative if you feel more comfortable knowing there's some "intelligence" (albeit artificial) behind your portfolio.
This is attractive to younger investors for the most part and to those who don't want to mess with or think about their portfolios. For most of us here at MFO, it is something not of interest as we watch our own.
Comments
Sure each of the portfolios itself is managed, but for the masses - it's not something customized for you. With PAS do get handholding, which might help (as the article points out), but that's not money management and you're paying a high premium for that service.
So these robo services seem like a reasonable, cheap alternative if you feel more comfortable knowing there's some "intelligence" (albeit artificial) behind your portfolio.