Ok, but even if you pick an equivalently risky proposition with a robo adviser you’d inherently make less money due to the fee differential.

Furthermore if robo advisers really could make more money on a risk adjusted basis it would literally make them more money to use their own service than to sell it.

Other than robo advisors, what service exists where I can schedule a weekly transfer and automatically invest across 6-8 asset classes? (Many 401k providers do this, but I’m not aware of any post-tax investment accounts other than robo advisors)

If there’s a single ETF that will do what Wealthfront and others are doing, I’d switch away in a heartbeat if the fees were lower.

I don't know how much the "I can schedule a weekly transfer and automatically invest across 6-8 asset classes" is worth to you.

But if you go from $50k to $500k with them you will be paying ten times as much (depending on the fee structure, of course). At some point, it may not be worth it.

M1

Why does Vanguard sell you ETFs instead of keeping them for themselves?

Vanguard is not famous for actively managed funds.

Neither are robos. Rebalancing according to some rules isn't active management.

Vanguard has more active management products, actually. Besides their Windsor fund, S&P 500 is an actively managed index.

Robos are actively managed, just not by human, and their fees reflect this. If they’re not actively managed then they make even less sense since they’re more expensive than indices that have better historical returns…

You can't invest in an index so the returns are fictional.

An index ETF sure, but it might be worth paying for tax optimization over that.

What I’m saying is that there’s no Sara to suggest even with tax harvesting it’s better than SPY. The expense ratio is literally 10X.

If I’m wrong feel free to walk me through a 10 year period where any robo advised fund of your choosing has better return, risk and fee adjusted.