Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Welcome to Investing Insights. I'm your host, Margaret Giles. While the buzz around Robo

Advisors has abated in recent years, digital investing platforms can be a solid entry point for

young investors' first

forays into saving and investing. That's because robo-advisors tend to be more accessible

and lower costs than traditional advisors. But not all robo-advisors are created equal.

Morningstar has evaluated 16 major digital advice providers and ranked the best of 2025.

Manager Research Analyst Lon Tran with Morningstar Research Services is here today to discuss

the team's findings.

So I want to start with the basics.

What is a robot advisor?

Yeah, so you can think of a robot advisor as a sort of automated investing service.

So they use computer algorithm to generate a portfolio that tailors to, you know, your financial

goals and needs, circumstance, risk tolerance.

They take all of that input from you and then they generate a portfolio, you know, with

kind of a broad asset cost allocation and then select the investment, you know, typically a low-cost

ETF in that portfolio for you and then automatically rebalance that portfolio for you, you know,

shoot any of your investment drift. So it's a very straightforward, typically low-cost way to get

access to a sensitively constructed and diversify portfolio of investment.

So what differentiates a robo advisor from a traditional, that is to say, human advisor?

Yeah, so, you know, robo advisor, I think that's in the name, it's, you know,

quantitative algorithm.

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