Page Summary
This guide helps users to find the best Robo-Advisors in UAE. Robo-advisors enhance saving, investing and prosperation towards financial freedom of individuals in UAE by providing more accessible, convenient and personalized investment options at low costs. With the increasing number of transparent, as well as non transparent online brokers offering robo-advisory services, it can be challenging to choose the ideal option for individual investment goals.
Passing on research and comparison of brokers can cause selecting a robo-advisor with limited goal planing tools, portfolio management tools, cash management tools and high fees.
To help users make an informed decision and find the ideal robo advisor in UAE for their financial goals, online brokers are ranked, reviewed and compared based on investment options, management options (money and portfolio management), supported investment strategy (investment goals), fees, minimum investment requirements and customer support.
The Top 5 Robo Advisor Platforms in UAE
- Sarwa – Best For Low Minimum Deposit
- Interactive Advisors – Best For Social Responsive Investing
- Cocoa Invest – Best For Halal Investments
- Charles Schwab (Schwab Intelligent Portfolios) – Best For No Management Fees
- StashAway – Best For Investment Diversification
The 5 Highest Rated Robo-Advisors in UAE Reviewed
The 5 highest rated robo-advisor trading platforms in UAE are reviewed below, including key features.
1. Sarwa – Best Low Minimum Deposit Robo Advisor
Account Minimum: $1
Fees: free for 1 year, than 0,50% to 0,85% (depending on Sarwa Invest account status level)
Best for: Low Minimum Deposit
Sarwa is a low entry Robo-Advisor based in Dubai. It offers extensive goal planning tools including a step-by-step questionnaire that helps users define investment goals and create individualized investment plans. To increase chances for financial success, Sarwa offers a progress tracking tool that allows users to track and adjust their portfolio using real-time data.
Sarwa’s automated investment platform and tools are available through web and mobile apps.
The 5 different investment portfolios available with Sarwa are listed below.
- Conventional
- Halal
- Socially Responsible
- Conventional Crypto
- Socially Responsible Crypto portfolio
Sarwa allows users to set different risk levels (from high risk to conservative) using Sarwa’s Risk Assessment tool.
Sarwa charges low advisory fees ranging from 0,50% to 0,85% (depending on the investor’s account status). It has an automatic rebalancing tool that allows reinvestment of dividends automatically. Premium and Platinum members have access to expert financial advice, financial planning services, and lower advisory fees.
Sarwa’s robo-advisor accounts are compared in the table below.
| Services | Starter | Standard | Premium | Platinum |
| Personalised Financial Advice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Low-cost, Globally Diversified Portfolios | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Easy Rebalancing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dividend Reinvesting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Financial Education | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access to Expert Financial Advice | 1 free call | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Financial Planning | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Low Advisory Fees | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advisory Fee | Free for one year | 0,85% | 0,70% | 0,50% |
| ETF Fees | 0,10% | 0,10% | 0,10% | 0,10% |
Sarwa’s key features are listed below.
Key features
- Cash Management Tools: Yes
- Goal Planning Tools: Yes
- Portfolio Management Tools: No
- Investment Management Tools: No
- Fees: 0,050% to 0,085%
- Mobile Functionality: Yes
- Socially Conscious Investing: Yes
- Portfolio Construction: No
- Investment Products: US stocks, developed markets stocks, real estate, emerging markets stocks, US bonds, global bonds, cryptocurrencies
- Tax Optimisation Features: No
- Access to Advisors: Yes, for Premium and Platinum account holders
Sarwa’s detailed review is available here
2. Interactive Advisors – Best For Social Responsive Investing
Account Minimum: $100 – $50,000
Fees: 0,08% to 0,75%, depending on the account type
Best for Social Responsive Investing: Interactive Advisors is a top robo-advisor for social responsive investing. It allows users to invest in 50 portfolio strategies, pre-built portfolios and personalized portfolios. Investors also have access to comprehensive screening tools that allows them to select and add different assets to their portfolios.
Interactive Advisors is an automated investment platform run by Interactive Brokers. The platform offers access to a wide range of portfolios including top-performing portfolios, socially responsible portfolios, undervalued company portfolios, growth, income-generating portfolios, better planet and social justice portfolios. Users can also create personalized portfolios (add desired assets, block certain companies) that help them to increase chances for reaching investment goals and financial success.
Interactive Advisors charges low management fees between 0,08% to 0,75% (depending on the account type). They don’t charge commission or performance fees. Users are also allowed to upgrade their advisory account to a live trading account at Interactive Brokers and add stocks, futures, bonds, and ETFs to their portfolio.
Interactive Advisors have a tax-loss harvesting algorithm that helps investors optimize their payable taxes. Other tools include a financial goal tracker, asset allocation module, detailed performance metrics, and Smart Beta tool.
Interactive Advisors key features are listed below.
Key features
- Cash Management Tools: Yes
- Goal Planning Tools: Yes
- Portfolio Management Tools: Yes
- Investment Management Tools: Yes
- Fees: 0,08% to 0,75% annually
- Mobile Functionality: Yes
- Socially Conscious Investing: Yes
- Portfolio Construction: Yes
- Investment Products: top-performing portfolios, undervalued companies, growth stocks, income-generating portfolios, socially conscious portfolios, and responsible management portfolios
- Tax Optimisation Features: Yes
- Access to Advisors: Yes, 24/7
3. Cocoa Invest – Best For Halal Investments
Account Minimum: $100
Fees: 0,99% per year
Best for Halal Investments: Cocoa Invest is a great robo-advisor for Islamic (Halal focused) investors. It offers access to a wide range of Sharia compliant assets including equities, Islamic bonds (sukuks), real estate, and commodities. Investment portfolios are managed and automatically adjusted by the platform’s team of professionals to help traders reach their investment goals.
Cocoa Invest is a 100% sharia compliant robo-advisor, founded in 2017. The platform uses advanced goal setting and financial planning tools to help investors build their investment portfolios and determine accurate risk levels. Nevertheless, users keep full autonomy over portfolio creation and are allowed to add or remove certain assets from the portfolio and also adjust risk levels. The minimum investment requirement at Cocoa invest is $100.
Cocoa charges low management fees ranging from 0,29% to 0,99%. There are no lock-in periods, and users can withdraw or deposit funds at any time.
Cocoa Invest does not offer access to tax optimisation features and advisors.
Cocoa Invest key features are listed below.
Key features
- Cash Management Tools: Yes
- Goal Planning Tools: No
- Portfolio Management Tools: Yes
- Investment Management Tools: Yes
- Fees: 0,29% to 0,99% annually
- Mobile Functionality: Yes
- Socially Conscious Investing: Yes
- Portfolio Construction: Yes
- Investment Products: Halal investment products (sukuks, Shariah-compliant stocks, and ETFs)
- Tax Optimisation Features: No
- Access to Advisors: No
4. Charles Schwab (Schwab Intelligent Portfolios) – Best For No Management Fees
Account Minimum: $5,000
Fees: $0 ($30 a month +$300 upfront planning fee for premium access to certified financial planners)
Best for No Management Fees: Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios helps investors create, monitor, and automatically rebalance their investment portfolios based on their personalized financial goals. The platform does not charge any management fees.
Overview
Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is a fully automated investment platform run by Charles Schwab. It uses a step-by-step questionnaire to determine users’ financial goals and investment portfolio ideas. The platform offers a wide range of investment strategies (Global, U.S. Focused, income-focused), and risk profiles (6 risk profiles from conservative to aggressive Growth). Investment options at Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios include 51 ETFs and over 20 different asset classes. The platform has monitoring and automatic rebalance tools that adjust the portfolio according to the defined financial goals.
Charles Schwab has an automatic tax-loss harvesting algorithm that helps users to offset the taxes on their investment gains. Premium users get access to unlimited 1:1 guidance from certified financial planners. The platform also offers a digital investment plan, wide range of customization options and interactive online planning tools.
The Charles Schwab platform charges $0 management fees to non-premium account holders.
Charles Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolio key features are listed below.
Key features
- Cash Management Tools: Yes
- Goal Planning Tools: Yes
- Portfolio Management Tools: Yes
- Investment Management Tools: Yes
- Fees: None ($30 monthly + $300 upfront for premium membership)
- Mobile Functionality: Yes
- Socially Conscious Investing: No
- Portfolio Construction: Yes
- Investment Products: Low-cost ETFs
- Tax Optimisation Features: Yes
- Access to Advisors: No (yes, if premium member)
5. StashAway – Best For Investment Diversification
Account Minimum: No minimum deposit requirement
Fees: From 0,2% to 0,8% per year
Best for Investment Diversification: Stashaway is a robo-advisor that offers diversification and flexibility by offering support for a wide range of investment options. Those include artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, robotics, semiconductors, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, internet, future of mobility, social media, biotech, genomics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, clean energy, clean water, energy storage and smart grids, green financing, and waste management.
Overview
StashAway is a Singaporean based robo-advisor, founded in 2016. It is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the license number: CMS100604. The platform features a risk assessment tool (StashAway Risk Index (RSI)) which guides users through a questionnaire to determine their financial goals and risk profile. The platform automatically calculates the amount of periodical investments needed to follow the set investment goals and rebalances the portfolio based on current economic trends.
The platform offers a wide range of investment plans covering different markets and sectors. Responsible investing with ESG is accessible for long-term investors.
Investment portfolios available at StashAway are listed below.
- General Investing – The portfolios are built based on StashAway’s intelligent investment framework ERAA (Economic Regime-based Asset Allocation), that uses data to optimize portfolios throughout all economic environments. Portfolios are build with cost effective ETFs.
- Thematic Portfolios – Investors can choose between the following portfolios: Technology Enablers, The Future of Consumer Tech, Healthcare Innovation, and Environment and Cleantech.
- General Investing Powered by BlackRock – Offers broad market exposure with insights from one of the world’s largest asset managers.
- Flexible Portfolios – Allows investors to build their own portfolios and adjust them on their own.
- Responsible Investing with ESG – Diversified ESG focused portfolios
StashAway charges low management fees of 0,2% to 0,8% (depending on the investment amount). The minimum deposit required is 1 AED.
StashAway works with some of the world’s top fund managers, including ARK Invest, iShares by Blackrock, Vanguard, VanEck, GlobalX, and Amundi. It manages over 1 billion dollars in customer funds and has 2,000+ 5-star reviews on its app. Additionally, StashAway is backed by renowned partners (Sequoia Capital, Eight Roads, SquarePeg, and Asia Capital & Advisors) which adds to its reputation.
StashAway key features are listed below.
Key features
- Cash Management Tools: Yes
- Goal Planning Tools: Yes
- Portfolio Management Tools: Yes
- Investment Management Tools: Yes
- Fees: 0,20% to 0,80%, depending on the amount of funds managed
- Mobile Functionality: Yes
- Socially Conscious Investing: Yes, ESG-focused
- Portfolio Construction: Yes
- Investment Products: thematic portfolios, general ETF investing, cash investing
- Tax Optimisation Features: No
- Access to Advisors: No
How To Choose The Right Robo-Advisor Platform in UAE?
Choosing the right robo-advisor depends on the financial goals of the investor. Tips that help users clearly define financial goals and find the optimal advisor are listed below.
- Setting Financial Goals. Robo advisors need to be selected considering Investors’ financial goals. It is important to have clearly defined investment goals including timeline and final savings amount to work towards. Robo-Advisors automate the process of goal selection and portfolio creation through the use of tools, algorithms, and financial models. The most common goal planning tools are rebalancing tools, automated periodic investments, and one-on-one financial advisor consultations. Robo-Advisors allow investors to change financial and adjust portfolios according to the current market situation. Nevertheless, a clear goal helps the investors to adjust their investment strategy in order to achieve financial success.
- Personal Preferences. Investors’ personal preferences need to be considered when choosing robo-advisors. Those include age of the investor (Younger investors with a single financial goal can use practically all Robo-Advisors), financial goals, account management service, tax optimisation and advisory requirements.
- Portfolio Management Tools. Portfolio management tools allow investors to keep autonomy over their investment by changing portfolios, risk levels and adding certain assets. This allows users to adjust their portfolio based on the current market trends or their changed financial goals.
- Fees. Robo-Advisors charge management fees, advisory fees, trading fees and account fees. Platforms with lower overall fees should be preferred as they allow a better cost-profit ratio.
- Account Services. Robo-Advisors offer different account services including one-on-one consultations, socially responsible investing and tax optimisation. Platforms with desired account services need to be preferred.
The Highest Rated Robo Advisors Compared
Key features of the highest rated Robo-Advisors available in UAE are compared in the table below.
| Robo-Advisor | Sarwa | Interactive Advisors | Cocoa Invest | Charles Schwab | StashAway |
| Cash Management Tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Goal Planning Tools | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Portfolio Management Tools | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Investment Management Tools | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fees | 0,050% to 0,085% | 0,08% to 0,75% annually | 0,29% to 0,99% annually | ($30 monthly + $300 upfront for premium membership) | 0,20% to 0,80%, depending on the amount of funds managed |
| Mobile Functionality | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Socially Conscious Investing | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, ESG-focused |
| Portfolio Construction | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Investment Products | US stocks, developed markets stocks, real estate, emerging markets stocks, US bonds, global bonds, cryptocurrencies | top-performing portfolios, undervalued companies, growth stocks, income-generating portfolios, socially conscious portfolios, and responsible management portfolios | Halal investment products (sukuks, Shariah-compliant stocks, and ETFs) | Low-cost ETFs | thematic portfolios, general ETF investing, cash investing |
| Tax Optimisation Features | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Access to Advisors | Yes, for Premium and Platinum account holders | Yes, 24/7 | No | No (yes, if premium member) | No |
What Are Robo Advisors?
Robo-advisors are automated investment platforms that trade on investor’s behalf using survey responses and algorithms. They use predefined question surveys to help users define their financial goals and suggest portfolio ideas accordingly. Robo-Advisors rely on the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to select investments with maximum returns considering the acceptable levels of risk.
Robo-Advisors have different levels of complexity and can offer a multitude of features. Some Robo-Advisors can manage multiple portfolios simultaneously, whilst others only offer basic features. Usually, the more expensive Robo-Advisors come with a more extensive toolkit and feature set.
What Is The Difference Between Robo-Advisors and Financial Advisors?
The key difference between Robo-Advisors and financial advisors is that Robo-Advisors suggest portfolio ideas based on predefined questionnaires and algorithms (following the Modern Portfolio Theory – MPT), while human financial advisors rely on personal assessments during one-on-one interviews with their clients.
Robo-advisors work automatically following a predefined set of criteria which allows them to offer lower fees. Human advisors tend to have a deeper understanding of clients financial goals through one-on-one conversations and normally come with higher fees. Apart from portfolio management, human financial advisors offer a more holistic approach including services like tax planning, budgeting, insurance and banking services, and estate planning.
Additionally, financial advisors offer stronger support as they assist their clients to stay or change their initial plans to reach their financial goals.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Using a Robo-Advisor?
The advantages and disadvantages of using Robo-Advisors are listed below starting with advantages.
Advantages
- Robo-Advisors follow a fully automated algorithm (the Modern Portfolio Theory) to generate investment portfolio ideas matching user’s financial expectations, risk appetite, age, investment timeline and end realised amount
- Robo-Advisors do not require the investor to be actively involved in trading and can help investors to generate passive income.
- Robo-Advisors have lower fees compared to traditional human financial advisors
- Most Robo-Advisors come with a wide variety of tools and features that help investors reach their financial goals
- Robo-advisors are fully automated and accessible through online applications
Disadvantages
- Robo-Advisors rely on the authenticity of information given by the user through a generalized question survey.
- Robo advisors lack customisation options for certain types of investors.
Conclusion
Dues to the increasing number of robo-advisors in UAE offering different services and conditions, makes it hard to find the ideal option for individual needs. Researching and analyzing offers can be stressful and requires time and knowledge.
This guide does the hard work for you by comparing and evaluating the top choices for different types of traders and trading goals. The results of our analysis of the best robo advisors in UAE are wrapped up in the table below.
| RANK | BROKER | GENERAL | PLATFORM SCORE | BEST FOR | WEBSITE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Sarwa | Great choice of different trading instruments | 4,9/5 | Low Minimum Deposit | Official website |
| #2 | Interactive Advisors | Low trading fees | 4,9/5 | Social Responsive Investing | Official website |
| #3 | Cocoa Invest | Great trading platforms (Desktop & Mobile) | 4,9/5 | Halal Investments | Official website |
| #4 | Charles Schwab | Good research and educational tools | 4,5/5 | No Management Fees | Official website |
| #5 | StashAway | Great Social trading service | 4,9/5 | Diversification | Official website |
FAQ
How are robo-advisors regulated in UAE?
Robo-advisors are regulated by four primary regulatory bodies.: the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), the Dubai Financial Service Authority (DFSA), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) and the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA).
Are robo-advisors a good choice for beginners?
Robo-advisors are great for beginners offering automatisation tools and trading features that do not require the user to make active investment decisions.
What is the average return on investment of robo-advisors in UAE?
According to the research by Theroboreport.com five year (from 2017 to 2022) average returns on investment of robo-advisors in UAE range from 2% to 5% per year.
What type of investors are robo-advisors best suited for?
The low minimum investment requirement, low fees and little engagement required by the user make robo-advisors a great choice for unexperienced retail investors.
What is the minimum investment required by robo-advisors in UAE?
Minimum investment requirements differ between robo advsisors and range between $5,000 (Charles Schwab) to $1 (Sarwa).
What is the best robo-advisor for high-net worth clients in UAE?
Charles Schwab is the most commonly used robo-advisor among high-net worth clients in the UAE offering a wide range of investment strategies (Global, U.S. Focused, income-focused), and risk profiles (6 risk profiles from conservative to aggressive Growth).
Are profits generated through robo-advisors taxed in the UAE?
Profits of UAE citizens and companies generated though robo-advisors are subject to 0% income and corporate tax.
Can robo-advisors manage all types of investments?
Robo-advisors generally manage traditional investments (stocks, bonds, ETFs and cryptocurrencies) and work best for straightforward investment goals such as capital growth, retirement saving and portfolio deverzification. However, robo-advisors do not manage more complex investment goals that include real estate, alternative investments, collectibles, and other less common investments.
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Stefan Grasic is the owner of Business24-7 and has considerable experience in the financial and investment niche, but also enjoys writing articles for the general readership. Stefan is an active stock, CFD, crypto and general investment researcher, advising blockchain companies such as Blockbird, GoCrypto, Hive Terminal at their start up level.