You're paying fees for something different than just buying and holding an index ETF - and that is a long-term diversification across asset classes and georgrap

You're paying fees for something different than just buying and holding an index ETF - and that is a long-term diversification across asset classes and georgraphies, regular automatic rebalancing of portfolios, goal-based investing with multiple financial goals, reporting, etc. I am not saying that buying a single S&P ETF is bad, but you can do so mych more for your financial future with robos, that it is basically incomparable. Edit: I also forgot an increasingly important diversification by asset manager as well.