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The Robo Report
Get free access to the industry's most comprehensive analysis and see who topped the charts.
Are you curious about which robo advisors are delivering the best performance? We've analyzed over 45 metrics across the industry to bring you the most detailed rankings and insights.
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The Robo Ranking
Highlights
- Vanguard Personal Advisor wins Best Overall Robo, offering stellar performance, low fees, a range of investment options, and robust features.
- The winners of Best Robo for Digital Financial Planning, Empower and Wealthfront, serve as an example of simple yet effective online planning.
- Fidelity Go won Best Robo for First-Time Investors due to its low fees, accessible digital platform, and live operational support.
Performance scores are based on Sharpe ratios using 5-year returns and standard deviations as of 12/31/2024.
Best Overall Robo Advisor
- Winner: Vanguard Personal Advisor
- Runner up: Fidelity Go
Vanguard Personal Advisor is our winner for Best Overall Robo in this year’s Robo Ranking Winter Edition. Vanguard provides investors with two main tiers: Vanguard Digital Advisor, a purely digital solution requiring just $100 to start, and Vanguard Personal Advisor, a hybrid offering that includes live advisor support and requires a $50,000 minimum. Both tiers emphasize Vanguard’s well-known commitment to low fees, with Vanguard Digital Advisor capping its total at 0.20% and Vanguard Personal Advisor charging a competitive 0.30% annually. While the personal advisor service comes with a higher minimum, it gives investors access to comprehensive planning with human advisors. The platform excels in financial planning and offers strong features, scoring high in our assessment thanks to robust goal-setting tools and an intuitive interface.
Performance was another standout factor for Vanguard, with Vanguard Personal Advisor scoring near the top of our tracked universe. Its portfolios typically maintain a balanced target allocation—around 60% equities and 40% fixed income—and it allocates its fixed income segment to municipal bonds. This emphasis on municipal bonds enhances after-tax returns for those with taxable portfolios, and boosted performance as municipals have outperformed corporates recently. Combined with Vanguard’s legacy of low-cost index investing, investors benefit from both cost efficiency and prudent asset allocation. Overall, Vanguard Personal Advisor is an excellent choice for those looking to blend digital convenience with human guidance, offering a trusted brand, solid performance, and a thoughtful, cost-effective approach to portfolio construction.
Fidelity Go is our runner-up for Best Overall Robo in this year’s Robo Ranking Winter Edition. It stands out for its competitive fees and robust features. The platform charges no management fee for balances below $25,000 and imposes a 0.35% fee only once the balance reaches $25,000 or more. There’s no minimum balance required at the base level, but a $25,000 balance is needed to access live advisors. This cost efficiency makes it an attractive option for investors seeking a low-cost robo advisor. Fidelity Go also offers access to live operational support and licensed advisors (series 66 or 65), providing significant advantages to users. While Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) and dedicated advisors are not available at the base tier, the platform excels in financial planning, offering tools to build single and multi-goal financial plans, model various “what-if” scenarios, and determine retirement spending needs. The inclusion of Social Security estimates and the ability to incorporate pension income further enhance its comprehensive approach to retirement planning. Additionally, Fidelity Go delivers a superior customer experience with educational materials, a fully integrated digital advice portal, a mobile app, chat support, and account aggregation for a holistic financial picture.
Fidelity Go achieved exceptional performance scores, making it one of the top performers in our tracked universe. The platform’s significant allocation to municipal bonds and its positioning with a bias towards large-caps have contributed to its strong returns relative to benchmarks and on a risk-adjusted basis. The lack of a cash allocation ensures that the portfolio is fully invested, maximizing potential returns. Over the trailing 5-year period, Fidelity Go’s portfolio managed to outperform its normalized benchmark by 0.67%, showcasing its effective investment strategy. Despite the challenges faced by equities and fixed income in 2022, Fidelity Go’s strategic asset allocation mitigated the effects of the broader market sell-off, resulting in solid performance. Overall, Fidelity Go is an excellent choice for investors, offering a blend of low fees, robust financial planning tools, strong performance, and a user-friendly experience.
Best Robo for Performance at a Low Cost
- Winner: Fidelity Go
- Runner-up: Wealthfront
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Disclosures
In previous reports, the initial target asset allocation was calculated as the asset allocation at the end of the first month after the account was opened. In the Q3 2018 report, we adjusted our method to calculate the initial target asset allocation as of the end of the trading day after all initial trades were placed in the accounts. This adjustment has caused some portfolio’s initial target allocation to be updated from previous reports. These updates did not change any initial target allocations of equity, fixed income, cash, or other by more than 1%.
Prior to Q3 2018, due to technological limitations of our portfolio management system, some accounts which contained fractional shares had misstated the quantity of shares when transactions quantities were smaller than 1/1000th of a share in a position as a result of purchases, sales, or dividend reinvestments. This had a marginal effect on the historical performance of the accounts. The rounding of position quantities caused by this limitation has been resolved, and quantities have been adjusted to reflect the full position to the 1/1,000,000th of a share as of the end of Q3 2018. Therefore, this rounding of fractional shares will not be necessary in the future.
At certain custodians, a combination of the custodian providing us a limited number of digits on fractional share and fractional cent transactions rounding errors are introduced into our tracking. At quarter-end starting 3/31/2020, we implemented a process to enter small transactions to eliminate any rounding errors that have built up to more than a full cent. These transactions are small and do not have an appreciable effect on performance. Sharpe ratios and Standard Deviation calculations are calculated with the assumption of 252 trading days in a year.
This report represents Condor Capital Wealth Management’s research, analysis and opinion only; the period tested was short in duration and may not provide a meaningful analysis; and, there can be no assurance that the performance trend demonstrated by Robos vs indices during the short period will continue. A copy of Condor’s Disclosure Brochure is available at www.condorcapital.com. Condor Capital holds a position in Schwab in one of the strategies used in many of their discretionary accounts. As of 12/31/2024, the total size of the position was 64,818 shares of Schwab common stock. As of 12/31/2024, accounts discretionarily managed by Condor Capital Management held bonds issued by the following companies: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, E*Trade, Citi Group, Citizens Financial Group, Ally Financial, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Bank.