Even help with nurturing your nest egg for the future

HIRE A ROBOT FINANCIAL ADVISER

target your financial ambitions, attitude to risk, tax situation and savings time frame. Once all the information is provided, the algorithm spits out a plan – a range of investment options.

By cutting out human contact there may be no or little cost to the setting-up of your portfolio – while annual charges are usually no more than one per cent.

I visit the website of robo investment manager Nutmeg and see what kind of nest egg its robots might help me nurture.

I am not interested in sitting on the fence and opt to be an ‘adventurous’ investor rather than ‘cautious’ or ‘steady’. I might not have been quite so gung-ho sitting down with a real adviser looking me in the eye but nobody is keeping a watchful eye on me. There is an initial charge of 0.45 per cent followed by 0.25 per cent per annum – so charges are low even if I have no idea where the money will be invested.

Assuming I invest £500 initially and £200 a month thereafter, I am told the projected pot after a decade could be £31,425. A tidy £7,125 more than if I kept it all under the bedroom mattress. I am buoyed but there is a ‘Your investment may lose value’ warning at the bottom of the page to bring me back down to investment earth.

Yet this is a user-friendly robot which could encourage me to get into the investment habit.

Alice Douglass is a financial adviser – living, not robo – with Grosvenor Consultancy in Highworth, Wiltshire. She says: ‘There is certainly a place for robo-advisers. They can save you money and offer great value.

‘But in my opinion there is still no substitute for the one-to-one support offered by an independent financial adviser.’

Robo-advice is still relatively embryonic. Providers include Nutmeg, Wealthify, Moneyfarm and Scalable Capital.

VERDICT: Offers value but lacks personal touch