Our feedback on the robo-advisors that we have accounts with would be the most useful because we are actually users of the interface as investors. The first part of your question - "Apart from your own", is an exclusion that serves no purpose other than to confuse people trying to answer your question. Just stick to the second part of your question on which Robo-Advisor do we prefer and why. It's more useful to you. I like StashAway the most because of its ever-improving user interface, consistent customer engagement, varied ETFs selection and higher returns along with the higher risk. But I have a soft spot for Smartly because while it's not as good in every aspect, it gives me a certain number of days of management fee waiver every month for investing regularly.

I can see why no one answered your question but I will do you a favour. Read up on what robo-advisors are and do first. Once you work that out, you will understand why the likelihood of StashAway, AutoWealth and Smartly introducing dividend stocks as a new portfolio option is very low.

Hi Anonymous, this is Chuin Ting, CEO/CIO of MoneyOwl. Thank you for your question. I will try to describe the value-add that MoneyOwl brings and let you decide how it compares with the other companies mentioned here. First, MoneyOwl is not really a pure roboadvisor but a bionic financial advisor - meaning we combine human wisdom and tech - we have an investment robo but we also have a substantial team of well trained (fully salaried) client advisers. We believe that good advice helps to bring about a successful investing experience and that such advice must involve a human element. Advice includes asset allocation, risk profiling, fund selection, monitoring, rebalancing and very importantly risk coaching to help investors stay invested through turbulent market times. There are many reports that show that investors lose out on market return because they panic and sell too early. An adviser adds value when he or she can help investors understand how markets work and stay invested over the long term to capture market return, rather than time the market. Because it involves connecting the head and the heart, we need technology to do the quantitative parts but we also need human wisdom and empathy. Hence sometimes I hesitate actually to say we are a roboadvisor! Second, in terms of scope of advice, MoneyOwl is not only an investment (robo)advisor, but a comprehensive financial adviser. The investment robo module is our third - after insurance and wills - and soon we will launch comprehensive planning where we integrate both CPF planning and investments for retirement planning, plus introduce retirement withdrawal concepts. Third, we are confident to be this bionic, comprehensive financial advisor because of our DNA and parentage. MoneyOwl is not a pure start-up in that we are a JV between two home-grown Singapore corporates, NTUC Enterprise and Providend, who have been serving Singaporeans for decades. From the NTUC side, we inherit our inclination to serve the ordinary folk through fit-for-purpose solutions, hence our investing quantum starts from $100 lump sum/ $50 monthly. From the Providend side of our parentage, we inherit deep expertise and experience in best-in-class, conflict-free and holistic financial advice. Fourth, we believe that our investment philosophy and expression of it through the way we construct and manage portfolios - when coupled with advice - give clients a very good chance of a successful investing experience. Because we are at our core advisors, more than fund managers, (even though we have a full fledged fund management licence), we do not define successful investing as being about maximising return or even maximising risk-adjusted return. Rather, we want to advise and structure investments for clients in such a way as to give you the best odds of meeting your goals. From a combination of evidence we have examined and experience including across the GFC, we know that the keys to successful investing lie in 4 areas: being globally diversified; aiming for market-based return, rather than trying to beat the market through "active management" (either by adjusting asset allocations tactically in response to reading of economic conditions, forecasts or events); keeping costs low; and staying invested over the long term. I hope that this gives you a good picture of how MoneyOwl thinks about its journey with Singaporeans in putting their money to work towards greater financial security. Thank you again for your question!

Dear Anonymous, Sin Ting here from Endowus. We will definitely continue to work hard to lower your all-in costs. As we grow in scale, we want to try to lower our advisory fees as well as work with the fund management companies to lower their expense ratios. Also as Gabriel mentioned below, we have a referral program as well where you can get a fee discount if you refer friends. The fees for our cash portfolios are tiered (not stacked), and advisory fees are lower for larger AUM sizes.

To answer your first question, yes your dividends are re-invested back into the portfolio. It will go back into your account and it will be whon in the transaction statement monthly. In fact, I think most robo advisors witholding tax will all apply. If you transfer that amount into your Robo-advisor account (it is basically their bank account) the total amount will be managed by them (usually they will keep a small % as cash) but almost 95% or more will be invested based on your risk preference and appetite. Hope this helps!

I don't work at any of the roboadvisors/digital wealth management platforms but have attended enough meetups where the StashAway or Endowus teams answer these questions when people ask. It's usually confidential and something they can't disclose because it's private business information that could be sensitive for their clients and also poses competitor analysis risk.

Since 2001 when world data was first available. This would have covered many market cycles and crises including the 2001 Dot-Com bubble, 2003 SARS epidemic, 2008 GFC, 2010 Euro Debt Crisis I, 2011 Euro Debt Crisis II, 2015/16 China meltdown. The backtesting is carried out to provide scientific basis for our return & risk projections. That said, we strongly urge you to assess our actual investment returns which are published and updated on our website https://www.autowealth.sg/strategy.php This practice of publishing investment returns is a reflection of our confidence to deliver superior returns and also a reflection of our values to provide transparency. We note that we are the first in the robo-advisory space and the only one to do this.

Dear Anonymous, This is a great question and Endowus has reviewed the pros and cons of accessing various products and we believe that the most efficient way to access certain asset classes or funds is through a third option - Irish UCITS Funds(Unit trusts). I have seen many comparisons but nobody has really delved into the key issues in detail. Because they normally compare the US ETFs vs Irish UCITS ETFs or UCITS ETFs vs UCITS funds. I will review the pros and cons of the respective fund vehicles below; 1. US ETFs on the surface look good as they have lower fees and have narrow bid-ask spreads but this is more than offset by the huge witholding tax that it is subject to (For example, if dividends are 3% then you will be charged 1% which dwarfs any benefits of lower fees/narrow bid ask spreads). Recouping taxes is notoriously difficult as the money is co-mingled (meaning the dollar invested is not in your name and the tax refund is not specific to you) - you only get partial refund and you have to wait a long time after the money has been deducted to get a refund and God forbid you take your money out from the platform before the refund comes through as you may never get it back. 2. Irish UCITS ETFs simply solves the tax issue but on the other hand you have less choice in terms of ETFs, the bid-ask spread is quite wide as liquidity is poor, and finally the fees are higher as they tend to be smaller in scale and scale vs cost is directly and inversely correlated. However, you can bypass the bid-ask spread issue by accessing them through market makers at a small fee at NAV (this is the actual price/value of the fund = and please remember ETFs are funds as well but they are just listed to provide intraday liquidity and readily tradeable. This is a key point I elaborate on later). 3. UCITS Funds. Apart from the fact that these funds are tax-efficient like the UCITS ETFs, they also have no bid-ask spread. NONE AT ALL. This is because you can buy/sell it at the actual NAV. Even US ETFs have bid-ask spreads and some US ETFs are very wide at times. The whole point of ETFs and the reason they have bid-ask spreads is because it is exchange traded. If we trade US or UCITS ETFs from Singapore then we normally trade only once a day so it defeats the whole purpose of using ETFs which is supposed to provide live intraday liquidity. They trade once a day and provide liquidity once a day. So there is no benefit to ETFs other than the other factors focused on cost, which on balance including tax and FX risk, they lose out on. We are not taking advantage of the most important aspect of why ETFs exist. Furthermore, for UCITS funds, because you are buying at NAV at daily liquidity there is no additional cost of transaction and no need to inefficiently fractionalize shares(llike ETFs) as you can invest to the cent at NAV price. Finally, these funds have a broader choice than UCITS ETFs and they tend to be at scale much cheaper in terms of total costs. There is also another important factor that many people don't discuss as much as taxes, and that is the impact of FX on risk and returns. We pursposefully build and access UCITS funds denominated in SGD or Singapore dollar hedged products in the case of fixed income products. Whereas you are taking FX risk with US or other ETFs, which involves additional costs. This is a big additional benefit to accessing the products through Irish UCITS fund structures. So if you combine all of that, UCITS Funds from the likes of PIMCO and Dimensional that Endowus uses, are in fact the most cost-efficient, tax-efficient vehicles and removes completely any FX risk. Thereby allowing you to invest your Singapore dollar savings as a Singapore based investors with peace of mind. Thank you! Yours Sincerely, Sam

HI Zhirong, I didn't have a chance to answer your question at the live question session yesterday night, partly because it gave me pause and actually a little moved -- that you would ask us robo/bionic advisers, coming to market a relatively new business model, about our ideal customer; when surely it is our job to ask you, what you wish to see in your advisor and how we can journey with you in a way that really adds value to your life. For MoneyOwl, our purpose is really getting advice right for the ordinary man in the street so that every family can have a plan for sufficiency in retirement, adequant protection against the things that can destroy this plan, from a holistic viewpoint, and enough buffers for peace of mind and give the stretch to that hard-earned dollar. For some customers, this would mean investing in a way that has little guesswork. For others, it could mean just sorting out or saving through CPF without having to buy any products or even invest with us. Yet for others who need it, just budgeting advice and saving into instruments like the Singapore Savings Bond. Perhaps our perspective is a little different because we are not just doing investing, but comprehensive advice.

A robo adviser is alway removing human emotions and helping you to diversify in a low-cost way. I don't see the point of diversifying if your capital or monthly amount is small. You should probably lump into one for easy checks. (Do NOT check daily, investment should be long term, check once or twice per year... easier said than done thouhg) Stick to one. Find the best that suits you and stick to it. Any small disadvantages or advantages that crops out later probably is insignificant.