Successful completion
My account at THEO is now open and operating. The last few steps to open the account were:
- receive a phone call from THEO last week to confirm my address
- receive a letter in the post (to confirm account details)
- upload my My Number information
- transfer 100,000+ yen to the account
Once you are in the account you can change your desired risk/return. The setting is very simple, just a scale from 1 (extremely safe) to 7 (100% equities).
I thought of going with 7, but if I am going to be paying them a (relatively) large fee to manage the account, I want them to do some more work, so I ended up going with 6:
- 55% developed market shares
- 11% emerging market shares
- 15% developed market government bonds
- 11% corporate bonds
- 4% high yield (junk) bonds
- 1% emerging market government bonds
- 1% REIT (real estate investment trusts)
- 1% commodities
- 2% cash
The interface is very simple, with the portfolio current value only being shown. It seems like a great way to get started investing without really having to think about it. As the fees are levied on total assets, you could transfer in small amounts regularly to gradually increase the portfolio -in contrast to buying shares through an online broker, where it’s better to save up and buy larger amounts to reduce fees.
So far I’m liking THEO very much. This could end up being a good option for non-US residents of Japan.
I’m going to try the service for a couple of months, then write a more detailed review/guide.
Yes, as far as simplicity goes – especially being able to transfer funds by having them mail you a slip in the mail and taking that to the convenience store – is simply unmatched.
The hoops I had to jump through to open a bank account, and the time it took, compared to the 10 minutes spent on Theo…
Another thing I like about their webpage is the simplicity. No images, no red and yellow screaming click, just short and to the point. It’s all text-based, so I can run it through the CHROME browser which auto-translates the entire website to English. It’s like an English investment service in Japan.
Looking forward to you checking back in with us in a few months to see the result of your initial investment!
Hi Michael
I just transferred funds from my Shinsei Bank account online -now that I have the details registered, it’s one click.
But yes, looking forward to seeing how they do.
One thing I am curious about: I don’t think they do tax-loss harvesting, which is unusual for a robo-advisor. Maybe I will need to follow up with the company to find out more…
Just checked the account, and it’s now showing -50% :0
Seems they mistakenly credited my initial deposit twice, and just noticed and cancelled one of them…
Hope that’s the extent of slip-ups from now on!
Sounds very promising, looking forward to hearing how it works out for you. Can it be used with a NISA do you know?
Hi Adam
I don’t think that’s an option right now. My plan is to invest in my NISA account normally, and throw any extra 10-20,000 yen a month into THEO.
It’s good to see this service in Japan.
After reading about Wealthfront and Betterment in NY TImes, I contacted them but was told they were for Americans only.
The downside with Theo seems to be the high fees:
Those American advisor systems charge 0.25% (going down to 0.15% for over USD100k).
Theo charges 1% up to 3000 man and 0.5% above that.
Not a big deal, I suppose, if you’re gaining a few % each year, but if you are around 0 or negative some years, then that additional 1% fee hurts.
The alternative would be to open a rakuten account or investment brokers account, and chose the funds yourself. But that requires time and effort.
Hi Niall
I completely agree. Hopefully competition will bring the fees down in time.
My personal plan is to max out my NISA account at Rakuten every year, then chuck any spare change into THEO.
It’s looking like a good option for people who don’t know where to get started with investing though.
I’ll try it for a few months before recommending it.
“Once you are in the account you can change your desired risk/return. The setting is very simple, just a scale from 1 (extremely safe) to 7 (100% equities). ”
Does this setting still exist? I signed up a couple of weeks ago and i can’t see the settings for this anywhere.
Hi Nick
Just had a look, and it’s still there! Not easy to find though, I guess they don’t want to encourage people to change their allocation every twenty minutes 😉
You need to open the menu on the top right, click on portfolio, click on 資産運用方針, then click on 詳しく見る, then click on ポートフォリオを編進する, then move the リスク許容レベル slider.
Don’t forget to click the confirm button at the bottom of the page to finalize your new allocation.