Robo advisors are a great tool for investment. The financial services provided by robo advisors are automated and algorithm driven. The human supervision element is minimal to none. Good robo-advisors will feature easy account setup, robust planning, supportive account services, efficient portfolio management, strong security features, attentive customer service, comprehensive investment based information, and low cost.

Here is a list of some of the best robo advisors available today:

Wealthface

Wealthface was founded in July 2018, with the aim to form the planet of finances accessible to everyone. After working for over a decade within the financial sectors of Dubai and Montreal, Bilal Majbour (founder & CEO) developed a priority about the way the investing was practiced by institutions.

Some of the main issues were that the majority of the prevailing companies require hefty minimum fees and there’s always a probability of human error, vested interests and therefore the lack of non-biased professional advisors who would put their clients’ interests before their own. He knew that the answer lies in offering efficient, cost-effective and customer-centric services. The real challenge was in overcoming the fear of adjusting how things are done, but Bilal was ready. He decided to make a replacement wealth management platform that mixes brain power and modern technology. A technology that supports innovative algorithms and user-friendly interfaces on a platform that provides clients unfettered, 24/7 access to their investments from the comfort of their homes.

Betterment 

Betterment is a web investment trust based out of New York City, New York, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the Financial Industry regulatory agency (FINRA). It is also known as Betterment.com. Betterment is also a registered investment adviser (RIA) and a broker-dealer.

The company is an automated, goal-based investing service (also referred to as a robo-advisor). Betterment makes its investments using a portfolio of passive index-tracking equity and glued income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and offers both taxable and tax-advantaged investment accounts, including traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

As of April 2019, Betterment had $16.4 billion of assets under management.

Wealthfront

Wealthfront Inc. is an automated investment service agency located in Palo Alto , California. It was founded by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll in 2008. As of January 2019, Wealthfront had more than $11.4 billion of assets under management. Wealthfront is considered a “robo-advisor” investment service.

SigFig

Founded in 2007, SigFig Financial Management LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nvest, Inc., providing algorithmic advisory services for new accounts opened at TD Ameritrade Institutional and pre-existing funds held at TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, and Fidelity Investments. SigFig is a great tool to manage your long-term portfolio if you’re a current or prospective client of those three brokerages. It is perhaps best thought of as a bolt-on robo-advisor that you simply can access through your broker, in contrast to the stand-alone offerings to individual investors. SigFig also comes equipped with a free portfolio tracker and contracts with other financial institutions. These contracts can be used for co-branding its advisory and management software.

Charles Schwab

The Charles Schwab Corporation was founded in San Francisco, California. It is a multinational company which provides financial services. Headquartered in the Financial District, San Francisco, Charles Schwab is the 14th largest banking institution in the United States with over US$3.3 trillion in client assets (as of 2019). It is the third largest asset manager within the country, behind BlackRock and Vanguard. The firm is known for its electronic trading platforms, investor education, and discount brokerage services, particularly reduced and free trading commission charges.

Ellevest

Ellevest is a robo-advisor that is specifically meant to fulfill the needs of female investors with the goal of closing gender money gaps. The driving force behind the firm, Sallie Krawcheck, felt that most investing firms design portfolios primarily for men, ignoring the special needs of women.

Ally

Ally Invest is part of a diversified financial services company that includes banking, lending, and an options-centric brokerage formerly known as TradeKing. Ally Invest has made large strides towards becoming a better broker for newer investors, but this comes at the detriment to the options-focused customer base it inherited in the TradeKing acquisition. Ally Invest has continued to evolve to serve a larger base of retail investors.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade is a broker that provides an electronic trading platform which allows for the trade of monetary assets such as common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, options, cryptocurrency, mutual funds, and fixed income investments. TD Ameritrade also provides cash management and margin lending services.

The firm was founded in the town of Omaha, Nebraska. It also has important trading centres at St. Louis, Missouri and Southlake Texas.

On November 25, 2019, it had been announced that Charles Schwab Corporation would acquire TD Ameritrade for $26 billion in an all-stock deal.

SoFi

SoFi helps people achieve financial independence and fulfil their ambitions. Its products for borrowing, saving, spending, investing, and protecting give its members fast access to tools to invest their money correctly. Getting a membership with SoFi comes with benefits such as career advisors and access to a community of like-minded and ambitious people. Whether they’re looking to shop for a home, economize on student loans, grow in their careers, or invest within the future, the SoFi community will work towards empowering its members to achieve their financial goals and reach financial independence eventually.

Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple Inc. is a Canada based investment management service which was founded with the main goal of fulfilling millennial investment needs. The firm was founded in September 2014 by Michael Katchen and is located in Toronto. As of August 2019, the firm holds over C$5 billion in assets under management. Power Corporation is the primary owner of Wealthsimple as 83.2% of the investments are made through the holdings in Power Financial, IGM Financial and Portag3.

Merrill Lynch

Merrill Edge Guided Investing fills a spot on the investing continuum between self-directed and completely managed accounts. Customers can also qualify for rewards through their assets held in Merrill Edge Guided Investing accounts. The rewards include free trades and discounts on the management fee.

Merrill says that about three in four of their Guided Investing clients are saving for retirement, therefore the process of defining a goal can include assets held in other financial accounts as well as as an estimate of Social Security income. Guided investing clients can also use the incredible life stage planning tools available on the Merrill Edge website. Portfolios include non-proprietary ETFs selected by the firm’s chief investment officer. 

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo and Company operates the Intuitive Investor program as a part of Wells Fargo Advisors, the brand name for Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates. Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor provides automated management of professionally curated portfolios that lean heavily on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) principles, but you’ll also get to speak with a financial advisor at any time.

Blackrock Robo

Blackrock is the biggest financial management service in the world, with nearly $6 trillion in assets managed. This has led some people to call Blackrock the world’s largest “shadow bank”. 

Blackrock’s FutureAdvisor competes with the pre-established robo advisors. Unlike most competitors, FutureAdvisor isn’t a simple rehash of the service and interface of Betterment. The FutureAdvisor app is quite intuitive and all of its portfolios are created while maintaining consistency with the Modern PortfolioTheory. The free services and personalized advice option really pushes FutureAdvisor ahead of the competition.

Morgan Stanley

Launched in December 2017, Morgan Stanley Access Investing mainly serves as a robo-advisor aimed toward younger investors, particularly millennials. Access Investing provides automated investment advice that leans heavily on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) principles. Morgan Stanley describes the program as an entry tool, allowing financial advisors to “grow their book of business by making connections with prospects earlier and eventually establishing full service relationships when clients are ready.”

New clients can designate narrow portfolio themes, adding socially conscious or emerging tech exposure that will appeal to many younger investors. Account diversity includes 401(k) rollover, individual taxable, traditional IRA, and Roth IRA account types. There are no joint accounts for spouses or partners, no college savings accounts, and no trust accounts.

Fidelity

Fidelity Go has been built with the young investor in mind and features a very simple interface. The all-digital service allows you to manage one goal and that’s the introductory level for Fidelity’s various managed products. As the product has evolved since its launch in 2016, the main target has been on helping young and emerging investors overcome hesitations around investing. With that in mind, a brand new client can open an account without making a deposit, but you’ll need a minimum of $10 to form any investments. Fidelity dropped the investment minimum from $5,000 in spring 2018 to draw in more investors who are just getting started.

Vanguard

Vanguard is definitely a behemoth within the investment management business. With over $51 billion in assets under management, they revolutionised the investment business by offering low cost index funds that took a passive approach to growing wealth. One of their newest service offerings is the Vanguard Personal Advisor. They do not offer a pure robo advisor service, but provide clients with a hybrid human-robo platform that gives personalised advice to create a portfolio that’s then managed by Vanguard using their technology platform.

Wahed Invest

Wahed Invest may be a recent entrant into the targeted robo-advisor field, but this unique robo-advisor claims to be the world’s first automated Islamic investment platform governed by Sharia, a religious law that governs not only religious rituals, but day-to-day aspects in Islam. Wahed qualifies as a wealth advisor that is ethically compliant. Islamic scholars scrutinize all the investments made through Wahed. And the platform is meant to appeal to the two billion Muslims across the world.

Tally Robo

Tally is easy and simple to use. It was founded by Jason Brown and Jasper Platz in 2015. The service was built from the ground up by a team of experts from the banking, credit, and lending industry. The top reasons for credit card complaints are exorbitant late payment fees, misleading reward programs, billing disputes, account closings, and identity theft. Tally will address all those issues by automatically consolidating all of your card accounts into an easy and straightforward format.

Sarwa

Sarwa is among a new wave of low-cost digital investment platforms for young professionals that gauge an investor’s risk tolerance and assign them a tailored investment portfolio of exchange traded funds (ETFs) while charging lower fees than traditional financial advisors and wealth managers.

Founded in December of 2017 by co-founders Mark Chahwan, Jad Sayegh and Nadine Mezher, Sarwa was one of the first players to enter the UAE market and now has 10,000 registered users, following a monthly growth of over 20 per cent since the firm was launched. It received a full operating licence in November 2018 with the help of the DIFC’s Fintech Hive accelerator programme.