More Money Podcast - Robo-advisors in Canada & USA - Money Minute with Jessica Moorhouse

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

I get asked all the time "What's a good robo-advisor?" to which I always answer "It depends on what you're looking for." You see, even though I've got my personal preferences, that doesn't mean they are right for you. Instead, know what robo-advisors are out there then do your own research and due diligence to make the right decision for you and your investment needs. That's what this episode is all about, helping you start your research. I share some of the robo-advisors available in both Canada and the U.S., and if you're Canadian I'd also suggest checking out robo-advisor comparison sites like AutoInvest and HardBacon too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another Money Minute with Jessi Morales for this episode. I wanted to talk to you about robo-advisors. So crazy. I was actually just like thinking back to several years ago when I had a guest on, and it was the first time we ever talked about robo-advisors on the show, and they were still very new. I feel like in Canada, specifically, they'd only been around for two years about, and it was kind of a scary thing. We're like, oh, these are just going to stay around, or is this just a fad, or I don't know if I can trust these things, and it's fine. Everything's fine, guys. It's called progress, and technology should not be something that we're afraid of. Though, you know, robots still kind of creep me out. But anyways, robo advisors are nothing to be afraid of. And now they're becoming

a lot more commonplace, which I'm all, you know, all for I'm very excited about because it is, you know, another opportunity to invest with ease, You don't necessarily have to go the traditional route where they have high fees. Robo-advisors have lower fees and you are invested in low-cost index-based ETFs, which yes, who doesn't love that? It's amazing. So there's tons of episodes I have in the podcast, obviously about how robo-advising works and all that kind of stuff. But one common question I get is what robo-advis advisors are out there or what's a good robo advisor. Well, I'm not going to tell you what a good robo advisor is. It really kind of depends on like, for me, I've at least never heard of any terrible robo advisors. Maybe there's probably some out

there, but I just don't know. So what's really important is to know what your options are, who are the players, and then you take the time to do your due diligence and do your research. So I'm going to help you by giving you a list of robo-advisors in Canada and robo-advisors in the US. From the director of The Greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So the story starts. Better Man. Now playing in select theaters. So let's start with Canada. We've got BMO Smartfolio, Inviser, JustWealth, ModernAdvisor, NestWealth, QuestWealth Portfolios, RBC Invest Ease, Responsive, Steady Hand, Wealth Bar, and Wealth Simple. In the US, we've got Acorns, Ally Invest, Axos Invest, Betterment, Bloom, Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, Elvest, Xtrade Core Portfolios,

Fidelity Go, SigFig, SoFi Automated Investing, TD Ameritrade Essential Portfolios, Wealthfront, and Wealthsimple. Now in the US S I think there, there may be some more players because the U S is, it is, I'm not, I'm not American. So like I did my research, but I'm sure there's a few other players out there. I'm sure you'll find them when you're doing your research in Canada. There's like a few, uh, smaller ones that I've just, I've never heard anyone talk about that were listed on, um, hard bacon's website. So hard bacon and, uh, auto invest are two websites I like to kind of check out cause they have some great comparisons between all the Canadian robo advisors. And so a hard

bacon, I don't know if it's, I think it's fine. I kind of like auto invest a little bit better just cause hard bacon. I feel like they haven't updated their website in a little bit, at least the robo advisor comparison. because they still have some old logos for some things. So I'm, that's just, I don't know. I'm just saying it is what it is, but these are basically the biggest players when you're doing your research on like, what are the most popular or what are the best? And there's all these articles. These are the ones that keep on popping up. So I feel like these are the ones to definitely check out first. So I hope this money minute has been helpful for you. No matter what robo-advisor you choose, or maybe you don't want to choose a robo-advisor at

all. Maybe you want to open up a discount brokerage account and invest in one of those amazing Vanguard all-in-one asset allocation ATS, man. Those have been popping up a lot more in forums and Facebook groups, people talking about how great they are. So that's another option. It's not a robo-advisor, but it's kind of similar in that you don't really have to do much of anything. So that's another thing to look into. Maybe I'll do another Money Minute on those in the future, in the future. Anyways, that is it for me. I hope you enjoyed this money minute by Jessica Morehouse, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day, an amazing weekend. You take care of yourself. You treat yourself. You be kind to yourself. You're doing great. You're doing

amazing. I just want you to know I'm proud of you for, I mean, not many people would choose to listen to a podcast about bettering your financial life. So you are awesome. Okay. I feel like I'm also telling that to myself. That's okay. That's okay. I can tell both of us at the same time. Anyways, thanks for listening. I'm back here next Wednesday with another interview. Have a great weekend. I will see you back here very soon. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.