In its summer edition of The Robo Ranking, Backend Benchmarking provided its listing of top robo-advisors over a two-year period. Best overall robo was Vanguard, followed by runner-up Betterment, with an honorable mention to SigFig. The review judged robos on more than just performance.
For example, one reason for Vanguard's top spot is that, according to the The Robo Ranking, it offered professionally managed accounts, rebalancing, live advisors, full-service financial planning and a two-year annualized return of 9.11%, with a management fee of only 0.30%. The account minimum of $50,000 hasn't been a deterrent as the Vanguard robo has three times the assets under management as its closest rival, according to the report.
However, Vanguard's robo wasn't perfect, according to the paper, as it "lagged in transparency and conflicts of interests category." Further, the online experience is a bit old, the report intimated, stating those seeking more innovative tools might look elsewhere.
On the other hand, Betterment, as runner-up, has continued to be on the "cutting edge of user experience and technology." The robo's two-year annualized return was 8.61%, has no minimum account size for digital-only customers, and $100,000 minimum for its premium service, and charges 0.25% for digital only and 0.40% for premium, which included unlimited chats and calls with advisors.
