It started with Wealthfront and Betterment. Then the big dogs noticed and now you can find a robo advisor at nearly every major financial firm in the country. Schwab has one. Morgan Stanley has one. Vanguard has one.
I’m a HUGE fan of this trend.
Since the advent of the 401k in the 80’s, you’ve had to make your own investment decisions. Whether you use an advisor or do it yourself, ultimately you are responsible for growing your nest egg.
The danger in that is it’s really easy to do dumb things… Buy all tech stocks. Sell at the bottom. Keep all the stock your company gives you. Or even not invest at all.
Robo advisors are great because they eliminate a lot of those dangers. If you use a robo advisor, you own a well-diversified portfolio of low-cost ETF’s. And they’ll automatically rebalance and harvest tax losses.
Check. Check. And check.
But they won’t stop you from selling at the bottom. They won’t stop you from owning too much company stock. They won’t tell you if you’re holding too much cash.
That’s just a few reasons why robo advisors are not a replacement for a human financial planner. But they can be a compliment.
For that reason, The Financial Zen Group is perfectly okay with you keeping your robo advisor when you work with us. Investing is just one part of a much bigger financial planning puzzle. And although we do both, we’d rather do your financial planning than manage your money.
And that’s why we have a pricing structure unlike 99.6%* of all other financial advisors. Instead of charging you a 1% annual fee on your portfolio, we charge a flat monthly subscription.
If you make over $250k household income and have a kid, you need a financial planner. Full stop. So if you’re not working with someone because you don’t want to hand over your portfolio, then give us a call. We’ll be happy to help (and happy to let you keep your robo).
*Only 1,000 out of the 300,000 financial advisors in the country offer subscription pricing.
