Anyone out there have an opinion about Sig Fig?

[gimmethesimplelife]

I ran across this service called Sig Fig that's free if your account balance is under 10,000 and apparently it is service that places you in commission free ETF's with a broker such as TD Ameritrade and will adjust your portfolio to maximize gain and minimize fees and taxes electronically and will also make adjustments based on your tolerance for risk - and if you account is over 10,000 the cost is $10 month, even if your account is in the millions. (not my problem this last lol.)

Just wondered if anyone had any opinions about Sig Fig? I like the idea of commission free and low fees and minimal human involvement - which goes against a lot of what I stand for as I don't appreciate technology replacing human jobs but in this one instance, I'm all for it as it sure seems to lead to more transparency. OTOH, I didn't see any way to invest with social responsibility screens. Can't have it all, I guess.....Rob

[gwendolyn]

I would think that a business that both gives advice -- and then claims to be fee-only to manage the investments based on that advice -- would be inherently rife with conflicts of interest. This product targets people who are not sophisticated -- and at that price, you know they are looking to get their revenue from other sources. Not hard to imagine they may be doing that at the expense of the small investors. There is a reason why people use fee-only financial advisors, and then manage their own investing through Vanguard, Shwab and the like -- the greater the separation between those two functions, the safer, to my thinking.

[gwendolyn]

This from Investment News (emphasis mine): "SigFig's premium service will make changes for its users automatically, investing in low-fee exchange-traded funds. Those investment decisions will be based on asset allocation decisions shaped both by the user and by models developed by the firm's investment team." And just what are those models? The usual bogus Monte Carlo projections that have nothing to do with what's really going on in the market or the persons life? Sounds scary to me.