I have discussed about three robo-advisors in 2019. Out of the three, I am using MYTHEO and StashAway. Since then, there are a few robo-advisors being launched in the market. Today, I am going to give a brief overview of these newcomers.
The New Robo-Advisors
There are three new robo-advisors since 2019. They are Akru, BEST Invest, and Raiz.
The table below shows the comparison of certain attributes for these three platforms.
| Akru | BEST Invest | Raiz | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origin | Malaysia | Malaysia | Australia |
| Investment vehicles | US ETFs | BIMB unit trusts | ASNB unit trusts |
| Number of ETFs or unit trusts available | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Manager | Akru Now Sdn Bhd | BIMB Investment Management Bhd | Raiz Malaysia Sdn Bhd |
| Minimum deposit (RM) | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| Minimum balance | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Annual Management fee | 0.2 - 0.7% (Tiered, starts at 0.7%) | 0.5 - 1.8% (Depending on the fund) | RM 1.50/month (for account less than RM 6,000) or 0.3%/year |
| Withdrawal time | 5 - 6 business days | Up to 10 business days | Up to 4 business days |
Let me elaborate a bit on each robo-advisor below.
Akru
The exchange traded funds (ETFs) that Akru offers are Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA), iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund ETF (BNDX), and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF (BND).
A salient feature of Akru is that it allows fractional shares, meaning the investor can own less than 1 share of the ETF.
BEST Invest
The unit trusts that BEST Invest offers are BIMB-Arabesque i Global Dividend Fund 1, BIMB-Arabesque Asia Pacific Shariah-ESG Equity Fund, BIMB-Arabesque Malaysia Shariah-ESG Equity Fund, BIMB ESG Sukuk Fund, and BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim.
This platform also allows Do It Yourself approach where the investor can choose specific mutual fund to invest in. All the funds are Shariah-compliant.
Raiz
The mutual funds offered by Raiz are managed by Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB). There are only three funds on Raiz. These are ASN Equity 3, ASN Sara 1, and ASN Imbang 2.
Like Akru, Raiz also allows fractional investing. Furthermore, the investor can connect debit card to automatically invest spare change. It works by rounding up the purchase to invest whenever the debit card is used. However, for the time being, the debit card must be from Maybank.
Conclusion
How should we choose which platform to invest with? Honestly, I cannot give a definite answer. However, I read in an article about robo-advisors where the writer suggests the readers to invest the same amount on the different platforms for a number of years and compare the results after that period. Then the investor may shift the money to the best performing platform. This strategy sounds pretty workable to me. Nonetheless, you have to choose the same risk level for all the platforms. We cannot compare an aggressive portfolio with a conservative portfolio.
This concludes the robo-advisors 2021 update. What do you think of these robo-advisors? Do let me know in the comment section below.
