On the Benefits of Robo-Advice in Financial Markets

Robo-advisors are tools in financial markets that provide investors with low-cost financial advice, typically based on individual characteristics such as risk attitudes. We study the benefits of robo-advice in a ten-week portfolio choice experiment. Depending on treatment, investors either receive robo-advice, have a robo-advisor implement recommendations by default, or invest on their own. While we observe no effect of robo-advice on initial market participation, we find positive effects on continued participation. Robo-advisors also help investors avoid mistakes, increase rebalancing, and yield portfolios closer to the utility-maximising benchmark. Default implementation of recommendations performs significantly better than advice alone.