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Comment by argonaut | Hacker News Reader

I think you have things flipped. Since the fee is a percentage, roboadvisors are perfect for someone with relatively low assets. If you have millions you benefit more from spending the time to manage/rebalance everything yourself and also gain access to different investment opportunities/vehicles/services.

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> If you have millions you benefit more from spending the time to manage/rebalance everything yourself

Robo-advisors probably also save a ton of time come tax season. I've never used the traditional ones but if you're doing the management yourself I imagine they don't automate it like the robo-advisors do...

My experience is that they usually complicate your taxes. In particular, past a certain asset threshold, Wealthfront will do something called "direct indexing", which basically invests your money in individual stocks the way an ETF would. It has TLH benefits, but at the cost of a massive 1099-B that you have to deal with every year.

Wealthfront has a turbotax import option. You tax accountant can press it too.

And if you do all your dirty work in an IRA or other privileged account, nobody cares.

> Wealthfront has a turbotax import option. You tax accountant can press it too

Two issues: complexity of return and efficiency of turning pre-tax into post-tax income. Wealthfront is good at the former. It's half decent at the latter for moderate income levels. Above some threshold between $500k and $2mm, it's not the best.

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