Top 10 Robo-Advisor Performers vs. Benchmarks YTD

The average robo-advisor underperformed its benchmark by 0.13% in the first three quarters of 2022, while several outperformed during this tumultuous year for financial markets — including three that exceeded their benchmarks by more than 3% — according to the latest Robo Report released by Condor Capital Wealth Management on Thursday.

“This third quarter of 2022 pushed markets and indexes further into the red. Inflation has remained persistently high, and labor markets are persistently strong despite recent headlines of layoffs at some major tech firms,” the report noted.

“While supply chains continue to detangle, the war in Ukraine shows little sign of reaching a resolution. Investors increasingly question whether the Federal Reserve will overcorrect and are now more frequently asking how deep a recession will be instead of whether there will be one,” it said.

Condor Capital’s manager of investment research, David Goldstone, noted that “value investing is back in style year to date,” reversing years of growth stock outperformance.

Thomas Leahy, Condor’s senior financial analyst, added that fixed-income portfolios that have maintained low duration and rely on municipal bonds have done well year to date and over longer periods.

“Due to the high level of inflation and corresponding rising-interest rate monetary policy, investors had little solace this quarter,” Leahy said.

Longer term, Titan Invest, one of the most active robo-advisor portfolios across the tracked accounts, was the top performer over the three-year trailing period ending Sept. 30, 2022.

Zacks Advantage won best robo-advisor for total portfolio returns, equity-only returns and fixed-income-only returns for the last five years.

The Robo Report, which tracks 58 accounts at 33 different robo-advisors, measured performance partly on a “normalized benchmarking” to compare globally diversified portfolios. The team behind the report started opening accounts at robo advisors in 2015 to bring transparency to the industry.

See the gallery for the top 10 robo-advisor accounts year to date, among those with roughly 60% stock, 40% bond allocations, based on performance versus normalized benchmarks.