Can Robo-advisors be cheaper than brokers?
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My favorite way of investing is through a broker, directly in ETFs. I find this the most efficient way of investing. For many people, the alternative is using a Robo-advisor.
I have always claimed that brokers are cheaper than Robo-advisors. But is that really true? To find out, this article will compare multiple brokers and multiple robo-advisors and see whether Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers.
Scenarios
To compare brokers and Robo-advisors, we will compare them in multiple scenarios.
Our main scenarios will be based on varying investments amounts and varying portfolio amounts. Both parameters are essential because generally robo-advisors have no transaction fees but higher custody fees. On the other hand, brokers have transaction fees but lower (or even zero) custody fees.
I obviously cannot compare every single monthly investment value and every single portfolio value because this would make this article infinite. But I hope that by comparing some standard values, you can get an idea of where are the breaking points.
We will also consider the tax efficiency on US dividends. Not all brokers and Robo-advisors are equal in that. This can make a significant difference on total fees, since you cannot always reclaim the US dividend withholding.
I also need to choose a portfolio itself. Indeed, the portfolio will make a significant difference in how much currency exchange will be necessary. And currency exchanges are often a good comparison factor between brokers. In each case, we will use two ETF, one world ETF (either VT or VWRL, depending on broker) and one Swiss ETF (CHSPI). The weights will be 75% world and 25% Swiss.
For the sake of simplicity, all dividends will be kept as they are received. They will not be reinvested, nor converted to the base currency (CHF).
In these results, I will compare the total costs of each scenario. So, I will not only compare the fees of the brokers or Robo-advisors, but also the TER of the funds being used, and the taxes lost to US dividends if the service is not efficient in that matter. Most people forget these when doing comparison, but they are important because brokers often allow you to have a cheaper portfolio than a Robo-advisor.
In some cases, we could also compare the case of simply holding the ETFs. This will simply compare the custody fees of the two alternatives. This is not always interesting because some brokers have zero custody fees, so they will win regardless of the amount in the portfolio. But this can give an idea of how much we can save with a broker.
I will only use my favorite brokers and Robo-advisors. The reason is that a bad broker would simply look bad. If you want me to compare against other brokers or Robo-advisors, please let me know in the comments below, and I will see what I can do.
With all the setup done, we can now try to answer whether Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers.
Swissquote vs Robo-advisors
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We will start with Swissquote as the broker. Swissquote is the most used of the Swiss brokers, so it makes sense to include it. It is not the cheapest of them, but it is relatively affordable.
Swissquote has custody fees with both maximum and minimum. And there is an unbound custody fee for portfolios above one million CHF. The fees for the transactions are following a progressive tiered system. Since Swissquote is a Swiss broker, you will have to pay Swiss stamp duty.
For the comparison, it is important to note that Swissquote has access to US ETFs. So, it will have an advantage against Robo-advisors without US ETFs.
Swissquote vs Selma
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We can start our comparison with Selma, a Robo-advisor mostly aimed at beginners, by being simple to use. It is not the cheapest Robo-advisor, but it has reasonable fees. They have degressive custody fees that are going down rapidly, the minimum is already reached at 500’000 CHF.
Selma uses European ETFs, so we lose the US dividend withholding. Swiss stamp duty is also due on each transaction, and currency conversion is not included in the custody fee.
Here are the results for 100 CHF per month investment.
For a small portfolio, Selma can be significantly cheaper than Swissquote. These results are already starting to say that Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers. In this case, the minimum custody fees of Swissquote are weighing heavily in the balance. And for small portfolios, the transaction costs of the broker are larger than the custody fees of the Robo-advisor.
We can see what happens if we raise the monthly investment to 1000 CHF.
Again, as the port/folio grows, the advantage grows in favor of Swissquote. The reason is that custody fees of Robo-advisors have no maximum, while Swissquote has a relatively good maximum. Moreover, the higher TER and lost US dividends withholding is starting to weigh on the balance.
Nevertheless, Selma still manages to be cheaper than Swissquote with a portfolio of 10’000 CHF.
Finally, we can raise the investment to 5000 CHF per month.
Even at this level of investment, Selma can be cheaper than Swissquote at the 50’000 CHF. This is mostly because of the high currency conversion of Swissquote, which adds high fees.
However, after this, the differences can become quite significant. For the biggest portfolio, you could save 8000 CHF per year.
So, overall, Selma can be cheaper than Swissquote if you do not have a large portfolio. If you want to invest low amounts and do not plan to reach a large portfolio, it may be best to opt for Selma. But for a large portfolio, Swissquote may be much cheaper. This already paints a picture that Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers with small portfolios but become expensive as the portfolio grows.
Swissquote vs True Wealth
TrueWealth is an excellent Swiss Robo-advisor with very affordable prices, making it the best Robo-advisor for serious investors.
We can continue our comparison with True Wealth. It is the most mature Swiss Robo-advisor. It has very affordable fees, a high level of customization and a good level of features. True Wealth has degressive fees, but they decrease very slowly. You would need 8’000’000 CHF in your portfolio to reach the minimum fees.
Since True Wealth uses European ETFs, you cannot get back the US dividend withholding. Furthermore, since it is Swiss, you will pay Swiss stamp duty (not included in the custody fee). The currency exchange fee is also not included.
Here are the results for 100 CHF per month investment.
We can see that True Wealth can be significantly cheaper than Swissquote up to 25’000 CHF in portfolio. And even at that level, both are relatively comparable. For a tiny portfolio, True Wealth can be more than 10 times cheaper.
Here are the results for 1000 CHF per month investment.
Again, we can see that as the portfolio gets bigger, Swissquote gets a strong advantage. At the biggest portfolio, Swissquote can be almost four times cheaper than True Wealth.
Finally, here are the results for 5000 CHF per month investment.
In this case, True Wealth still manages to be competitive on the first two levels of portfolios. However, at the highest levels of portfolios, the difference in fee is quite large. With the maximum portfolio, you would pay 6900 CHF per year more at True Wealth than at Swissquote.
True Wealth can be cheaper than Swissquote for small and medium portfolios. It may be an interesting option if you do not have high financial goals. But for a large portfolio, you would pay a very significant premium for using True Wealth.
Swissquote vs Finpension Invest
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Finally, we can also compare Swissquote with Finpension Invest. Finpension Invest is the most efficient Swiss Robo-advisor. It has extremely low fees and at this point, it is the only Robo-advisor that allows to reclaim US dividend withholding. Therefore, it does not have any withholding disadvantage compared to Swissquote. With both, we will need to pay Swiss stamp duty.
Finally, our Robo-advisor manages to be cheaper than Swissquote at each portfolio size. For a small monthly investment, Finpension Invest is very effective thanks to its low custody fees.
Once we increase the monthly investment and portfolio sizes, Finpension Invest is still quite competitive, up to 100’000 CHF. Subsequently, the custody fees will start to weigh heavily.
With a very high monthly investment, the results are quite interesting. Even at 250’000 CHF of portfolio, Finpension Invest manages to be on the same level as Swissquote. But then, it has the same fate as other Robo-advisors. In the worst case, it would be costing 3900 CHF more than Swissquote.
Finpension Invest is significantly cheaper than the other Robo-advisors we have seen. However, with a considerable portfolio, the custody fees will still cost more than Swissquote. But I am positively surprised into how it can compete with Swissquote. This is an excellent example of how a Robo-advisor can be cheaper than brokers.
Saxo vs Robo-advisors
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Saxo is not a new broker, but they only became affordable in 2024. Most of their brokerage fees are very affordable, especially for currency exchanges.
I will note that Saxo has access to US ETFs. And since it is Swiss, you will pay Swiss stamp duty on the operations.
Saxo vs Selma
We will start comparing Saxo and Selma now. They both incur Swiss stamp duty. Saxo has the advantage of having access to US ETFs and having no custody fees.
Saxo is cheaper than Swissquote for transaction fees, so Selma has a hard time comparing with it. Even at 5000 CHF portfolio, Selma is already more expensive than Saxo. And the difference grows with higher portfolio.
We can see what happens with a higher monthly investment.
In this case, Saxo is always cheaper than Selma. The low transaction fees of Saxo makes it compare really well. And as the portfolio grows, the custody fees of Selma start to add up quickly.
Finally, we can increase again the monthly investment.
Again, Selma is always much more expensive than Saxo. The differences at high portfolios are higher than it was with Swissquote since Saxo has significantly lower fees. In the worst case, Selma is 8000 CHF pricier than Saxo.
Overall, Selma does not compare well with Saxo. Saxo is almost always cheaper than Selma. Saxo has low transaction and currency conversion fees. With very large portfolios, the lack of US ETFs for Selma makes it difficult for it to play on the same level.
Saxo vs True Wealth
We now compare Saxo and True Wealth. Both have to pay Swiss stamp duties and True Wealth lacks US ETFs.
We can start again with 100 CHF per month.
Even with small portfolios, True Wealth has a hard time comparing with Saxo, which has very low fees.
When we use a higher monthly investment, True Wealth quickly becomes more expensive than Saxo. The weight of the custody fee starts to come up as the portfolio size increases. At 250’000 CHF, True Wealth is already five times more expensive than Saxo.
At the smallest portfolio level, True Wealth can still compare to Saxo. However, as the portfolio grows, so does the gap between the broker and the Robo-advisor. In the worst case, we would pay 6200 CHF more with True Wealth than with Saxo.
Overall, True Wealth can meet the prices of Saxo with small portfolios. But the difference is not that significant. Robo-advisors are usually cheaper at low portfolio because we pay lower custody fees than transaction fees. But since Saxo has lower transaction fees, it makes it difficult for a Robo-advisor to compete. And finally, once the portfolio grows large, the custody fees dwarf the transaction fees and the difference is exacerbated by the lack of US ETFs for True Wealth.
Saxo vs Finpension Invest
We can now compare Saxo and Finpension Invest. They are both efficient for US dividends. Both services will have Swiss stamp duties.
Finpension Invest manages to beat Saxo on only the two smallest portfolio size. The custody fees of Finpension Invest are really low but since Saxo has no custody fees, it is difficult to beat them.
Once we increase the monthly investment, the differences between the two services decrease. Finpension Invest does not manage to beat Saxo anymore for the two smallest portfolios.
Even on the highest portfolio size, the difference is not as significant as I expected. In the worst case, Saxo is 3600 CHF cheaper than Finpension.
Overall, Finpension Invest, as the cheapest Swiss robo-advisor, can sometimes be a little cheaper than Saxo. However, as the portfolio grows, the advantage goes to Saxo.
Interactive Brokers vs Robo-advisors
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Finally, we will pit Interactive Brokers (IB) against Robo-advisors. Interactive Brokers is my favorite broker for Swiss investors and the broker I use. It is a broker from the US.
Interactive Brokers has access to US ETFs. Since it is a foreign broker, Swiss stamp tax is not due, so we can save money here.
Some people may think that this is not a fair comparison, since they do not obey the same regulations. However, there are many foreign brokers available to Swiss investors. It would be inefficient to not use them if they are better (and they are) than Swiss brokers. Furthermore, I currently do not know any foreign Robo-advisor. If that changes, I will definitely include a foreign Robo-advisor to see how it compares.
Interactive Brokers vs Selma
We can start by comparing Interactive Brokers and Selma. IB has US ETFs and no Swiss stamp duty. Selma has no US ETFs and has to pay Swiss stamp duty.
Only at the 1000 CHF portfolio level could Selma compare with IB. Subsequently, the differences become considerable. In the worst case here, Selma is already 5 times more expensive than Interactive Brokers.
If we increase the monthly investment, the differences become very significantly. In the worst case, Selma is an order of magnitude more expensive than IB. This will make a huge difference to the final returns.
At the final level of investment, the differences are all about 10 times cheaper for IB. In the worst case, you would save 9700 CHF by using IB rather than Selma.
Selma cannot compete with Interactive Brokers. The Swiss stamp duties, the high custody fees and the lack of US ETFs really play against Selma.
Interactive Brokers vs True Wealth
We can redo the same comparison but with True Wealth, that is slightly cheaper than Selma in most cases.
Even though it is slightly better, it cannot compare with Interactive Brokers either. The worst-case scenario is already four times pricier.
At a 1000 CHF monthly investment, even the smallest portfolio is more expensive to hold at True Wealth than it is with Interactive Brokers.
On the highest level of investment, IB is between 9 and 10 times cheaper than True Wealth. In the worst case, you would lose 7900 CHF per year using True Wealth.
Again, True Wealth cannot compare with Interactive Brokers.
Interactive Brokers vs Finpension Invest
Finally, we can compare our best broker with our best Robo-advisor, Finpension Invest.
Finpension Invest does slightly better than our two previous candidates against Interactive Brokers. However, it only manages to compare well for the smallest portfolio. Then, the fees of Finpension Invest increase much faster than those of Interactive Brokers.
Once we increase the monthly investment, even Finpension Invest has a hard time against Interactive Brokers. In the worst case, the fees would already be 1000 CHF higher.
The same conclusion stands for the highest level of investment. Even though Finpension Invest is more efficient than other Robo-advisors, it cannot compare with Interactive Brokers. In the worst case, you would still pay 5000 CHF more per year at Finpension Invest.
Overall, Finpension Invest is significantly more expensive than Interactive Brokers. At small level of investments and portfolio sizes, it does a good job, but then it becomes significantly more expensive. We saw that Finpension Invest could be cheaper than brokers before, but that seems to be only the case for Swiss brokers.
Robo-advisors cheaper than brokers?
We can try to summarize the results to answer the question of this article: Can Robo-advisors be cheaper than brokers?
Yes. As we have seen in this article, there are many cases where Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers. Before doing the computations, I was not expected that many cases where this would be the case.
Of course, Robo-advisors are not always cheaper than brokers. In, fact, they have the potential of being much more expensive than brokers. The main reason for these differences is custody fees. Robo-advisors have custody fees without a maximum (all good brokers have maximums). So, as your portfolio increases, your custody fees increase significantly. With a broker, only the fees of the ETFs increase after some point.
So, when you have a small portfolio, you have an advantage because you will pay low fees with a Robo-advisor. On the other hand, a broker will be based mostly on transaction fees, which can be expensive.
The second difference is about tax-efficiency. Currently, I only know one Robo-advisor that can be tax-efficient regarding US dividends. This can weigh heavily on the total costs.
Finally, when we add a foreign broker to the mix, Swiss Robo-advisors cannot be cheaper than brokers. As we have seen in these results, no Robo-advisors comes really close to Interactive Brokers once the portfolio grows beyond a certain level.
So, yes, Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers, but only for small to medium portfolio sizes. And there are significant differences between Robo-advisors and brokers.
Conclusion
In this article, I compared the total fees of Robo-advisors against brokers. And there are some interesting results.
When we compare Swiss brokers against Swiss Robo-advisors, we can see that Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers. If you are investing small amounts each month and are not targeting a large portfolio size, Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers and the difference can be quite significant. The best Robo-advisor can even be competitive at relatively high portfolio levels. For instance, I am quite surprised by how well Finpension can be cheaper than brokers.
However, when we compare our Swiss Robo-advisors against foreign brokers, the comparison falls short. Robo-advisors simply cannot compare with Interactive Brokers. The differences are very significant.
If these comparisons interest you, I was thinking of writing an online calculator to compare these scenarios with multiple brokers. Please let me know in the comments below if you are interested.
These results should not discourage you from using Robo-advisors because they are not cheaper than brokers. In practice, not everybody wants or can invest by themselves in ETFs. In these cases, Robo-advisors are perfectly fine as long as you are aware of the differences.
If you want to run more scenarios, you can use my calculators:
In these comparisons, I have focused solely on the costs to see if Robo-advisors can be cheaper than brokers. But the choice also boils down to the level of control between brokers and Robo-advisors.
What do you think about these results?
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Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for your great work (as always)!
What would the comparison look like if one didn’t buy US ETFs (Swissquote vs Finpension and Saxo vs Finpension)?
Also, Saxo now has AutoInvest, where you can invest monthly in (some) ETFs for free. What do you think of that?
Thanks,
Markus
Hi Markus
Without US ETFs, both Selma and True Wealth would look better, but I do not have the numbers.
It would not make a difference for Swissquote/Finpension/Saxo since they all have access to US ETFs (or are efficient with them, like Finpension Invest).
If you can build a good portfolio with the ETFs from Saxo Autoinvest, then you should use it. But if your portfolio cannot be made from these ETFs, you should not force it.
Thanks Baptiste!
I use SSAC and CHSPI with Saxo. They seem fine to me, but SSAC is an Ireland ETF, not US…
Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for the great article! As always good work. I use the Hargreaves Lansdown App (swipe left to sell and right to buy :) ) but thats only usefull if the protfolio is with GB or US assets. An online calculator would be helpful, if only to see whats available when working with EU and Swiss assets.
Hi Marcus
I had never heard of this broker, are you happy about this system?
I now have two calculators, one for broker and one for Robo-advisors: https://thepoorswiss.com/best-money-calculators/
Hi Baptiste,
First of all, thank you for the comprehensive review. Great work with interesting conclusion. Personally I’m waiting for “VIAC Invest” as expecting it to be competitive in comparison to the existing robo-advisor. An online calculator would be helpful of course. Thank you.
Hi Franztoni
Thanks for your feedback!
I will soon have a comparator for brokers and another one for robo-advisors. I may add an option to compare the two sets as well.
Because I do not know how to manage my portfolio are there any kind of robo-advisors alternative on interactive brokers, where the fees are lowest (diversified portfolios, automatically managed, like Selma)
You may try Interactive Advisors. I plan to review it soon, but haven’t had the time yet.
Fantastic article, thanks a lot!
An online calculator would really help the average investor. What I would also append is that finpension and truewealth provide tax reports that you can then almost automatically import into your tax declaration. IB delivers a report you have to type into your tax declaration manually 😯(maybe a couple of hours of work, depending on your portfolio). No idea about Swissquote, but Saxo is also offering currently the automatic tax report.
Great stuff, tks a lot!
Hi Zoltan
Thanks for your feedback!
If you have a simple portfolio, it should take about an hour for tax declaration with IB. Compared to how much you save in fees, this is definitely worth it.
Swissquote also has the e-tax I believe, but they charge 100 CHF per year for it.
Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for the great overview/comparison!
Are there no reasonable foreign Robo-Advisor options that can be used by Swiss citizens? I personally do not know of any, but would assume if there are no legal hurdles, there must exist a product with lower fees than our local Swiss products?
Hi Peter,
I have not yet reviewed it in detail, but I believe that Interactive Advisors can be used. It’s a Robo-advisor by Interactive Brokers. There may be others as well, but it’s the only one I know that is open to Switzerland.