What are your thoughts on Moneyfarm?

Edit:My calculations were incorrect, see further post below!!

This encouraged me to calculate my XIRR, now I admit I haven't kept on top of performance until now.  Having made multiple regular but varying deposits, a period of removing everything and then returning it under flexible IFISA didn't make it obvious.  However my findings are remarkably similar and were quite a shock!

Moneyfarm (also highest risk setting) return 2.04% (this increases to 3.75% if I include the signup bung as earnings)

Vanguard passive equity trackers in same period return 7.62%


Much like r00lish67 my experience with them otherwise has been faultless but money talks, I only hold circa 10k with them which is still managed free as an extension of original terms but it certainly doesn't encourage me to deposit further and pay for the privilege!

Finally given this information can anyone explain why my headline "performance to date" figure on Moneyfarm shows 16.78% 

I see the same thing, but I'm not sure that fully explains it - I have a £5k ISA account with them still which I haven't added to at all. The performance stats seem to suggest it should be up about 10%-ish, whilst my actual performance is 3%. I'll ask them about it.

It's still a young industry, but I think there definitely needs to be some independent performance stats for robo-investing. Have flagged this to the Monevator crew as one to investigate too. Doesn't sound like they've heard much from anyone about it as of yet. But then, those sticking a few K into robo-investing probably aren't those (generally) too interested in calculating XIRR's!

Well then...May I join you in the muppet club? After enquiring, the underperforming portfolio I was referring to was, for part of the period, invested in a lower risk band as it turns out, a fact I had clearly clean forgotten. Unfortunately this was the period when the higher risk band performed better (sod's law). So my performance thesis is total nonsense and should be disregarded. 

Still, I suppose the lesson still remains not to disregard robo-investment performance entirely, still plenty of scope for either user error in portfolio choice or perhaps platform underperformance.

It's interesting that all risk levels bar level 1 performed significantly better with under £50k invested than they did with over £50k (according to Moneyfarm's performance statistics).

I was wondering how long that would last. I suspect the answer for me is twist.

MF's target customer is those who can't/won't take time to sort out sharedealing accounts and understand investing. You've already done that if you hold some Vanguard funds.

Aside from the additional 0.75% (and plus the OCF of the underlying funds too?), you're also dealing with the counterparty risk of whatever happens if it all goes horribly wrong with MF. I am sure they would assure us that that would be totally friction-free, but would it actually in reality?

The only caveat perhaps is if you can do what I failed to do successfully a while back on this thread and objectively assess their performance to date. If they comfortably beat Vanguard lifestrategy 60/80 (or whatever is most appropriate) then perhaps they're worth keeping.

Otherwise, why bother with the additional cost and unnecessary intermediation?

edit: Oh I forgot! The thing that actually pushed me to sell was doing my tax return. When you download your tax voucher, you'll find you've actually earned all sorts of bits and pieces. I had to declare some pittance of "overseas interest" to HMRC this year.  Obvs not relevant if you've ISA'd it.