Hey Anon, I've been investing with AutoWealth since July this year and the current time-weighted return stands at 12.93%. In my opinion, AutoWealth is an underrated and one of the lesser-known robo-advisor simply because they do not splurge on marketing as compared to StashAway or Syfe, be it Facebook/YouTube/Google or even MRT advertisements. Another reason could be the higher minimum investment amount of S$3,000 as compared to the other robo-advisors in the market, which might be a turn-off for some. However, all these are for good reasons. On a side note, I always look forward to seeing Tai Zhi's (CEO of AutoWealth) message where he shares that there is a market discount, which presents an opportunity for a lump sum deposit.
1) Sustainability and personal custodian account
AutoWealth is the first robo-advisor to turn profitable, so you can rest assured that your hard-earned money and savings are in good hands in the years to come as investing is a long-term thing. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in a situation where the robo-advisor becomes insolvent and decides to cease operations, as in the case of Smartly. Honestly, I can't imagine the amount of frustration their clients must have felt when they had to liquidate their holdings during the March sell-off/crash, possibly having to realise their paper loss. Of course, nothing is certain and in the unlikely event of AutoWealth deciding to cease their operations, you do not have to worry because your holdings are held in a separate custodian account with SAXO, under your own name (legally) as opposed to StashAway or Syfe where it's co-mingled together with other clients. This means that you have the option of being able to continue holding onto the ETFs, instead of being forced to sell (automatically).
2) Minimum investment amount
The reason why AutoWealth requires a minimum investment amount is that they need to buy the whole unit of an ETF, i.e. doesn't support fractional shares. I once asked Tai Zhi if they would consider supporting fractional units so that there will be lesser cash left uninvested in the account or being able to DCA a smaller amount (<$200). He left me with an intriguing food-for-thought, I quote
"I generally don't like to comment on particular roboadvisors.
You got to ask yourself when you own a fractional unit, how can you have clear ownership of the one unit when you only owns a part of that one unit and someone else owns the other part of that same one unit? What happens if one party who owns part of the one unit needs to sell in a portfolio rebalancing whilst the other party who owns the other part of the same one unit does not need to sell?
Therefore, we have no intention of creating ambiguity in ownership. Personally, I can share bicycle, share a Grab trip (without COVID). But I would certainly not want to risk sharing ownership of my personal investments, because these are hard earned savings & wealth." You can clearly see that AutoWealth priorities the safety/security of your money to prevent the same situation as Smartly. If you're looking to begin your investing journey with AutoWealth, do sign up with my full name, which can be found on my profile description and you'll be able to enjoy a one-time top of S$20 into your account.
To end off, here's the current performance of my portfolio - 
Hey Anon, I've been investing with AutoWealth since July this year and the current time-weighted return stands at 12.93%. In my opinion, AutoWealth is an underrated and one of the lesser-known robo-advisor simply because they do not splurge on marketing as compared to StashAway or Syfe, be it Facebook/YouTube/Google or even MRT advertisements. Another reason could be the higher minimum investment amount of S$3,000 as compared to the other robo-advisors in the market, which might be a turn-off for some. However, all these are for good reasons. On a side note, I always look forward to seeing Tai Zhi's (CEO of AutoWealth) message where he shares that there is a market discount, which presents an opportunity for a lump sum deposit.
1) Sustainability and personal custodian account
AutoWealth is the first robo-advisor to turn profitable, so you can rest assured that your hard-earned money and savings are in good hands in the years to come as investing is a long-term thing. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in a situation where the robo-advisor becomes insolvent and decides to cease operations, as in the case of Smartly. Honestly, I can't imagine the amount of frustration their clients must have felt when they had to liquidate their holdings during the March sell-off/crash, possibly having to realise their paper loss. Of course, nothing is certain and in the unlikely event of AutoWealth deciding to cease their operations, you do not have to worry because your holdings are held in a separate custodian account with SAXO, under your own name (legally) as opposed to StashAway or Syfe where it's co-mingled together with other clients. This means that you have the option of being able to continue holding onto the ETFs, instead of being forced to sell (automatically).
2) Minimum investment amount
The reason why AutoWealth requires a minimum investment amount is that they need to buy the whole unit of an ETF, i.e. doesn't support fractional shares. I once asked Tai Zhi if they would consider supporting fractional units so that there will be lesser cash left uninvested in the account or being able to DCA a smaller amount (<$200). He left me with an intriguing food-for-thought, I quote
"I generally don't like to comment on particular roboadvisors.
You got to ask yourself when you own a fractional unit, how can you have clear ownership of the one unit when you only owns a part of that one unit and someone else owns the other part of that same one unit? What happens if one party who owns part of the one unit needs to sell in a portfolio rebalancing whilst the other party who owns the other part of the same one unit does not need to sell?
Therefore, we have no intention of creating ambiguity in ownership. Personally, I can share bicycle, share a Grab trip (without COVID). But I would certainly not want to risk sharing ownership of my personal investments, because these are hard earned savings & wealth." You can clearly see that AutoWealth priorities the safety/security of your money to prevent the same situation as Smartly. If you're looking to begin your investing journey with AutoWealth, do sign up with my full name, which can be found on my profile description and you'll be able to enjoy a one-time top of S$20 into your account.
To end off, here's the current performance of my portfolio -