Sixpark review: is online robo-investing worth it?

SixPark review from an experienced and long term investor on the path to Financial Independence

Update: After 7 years of operating, Six Park has unfortunately shut down and ceased their investment management services as of the 28th of August 2023. Investors were given the option to either sell their assets or transfer them to another broker.

Six Park Review

Sixpark is a roboadvisor investment platform with a good track record that provides financial advice and low cost, hands-free, diversified investing with just the click of a button. Sixpark monitors your investments in real time and will offer you advice about what to do next if they see something going wrong. Sixpark has been one of the top robo advisers for years now, and they continue to provide a great service.

The Good

  • Low fees on small balances
  • Expert investment committee
  • Highly diversified portfolios
  • Completely passive – hands-free!

The Bad

  • You cannot control the portfolio asset allocation
  • Fee’s can add up for larger accounts ($3,000 per year on a $1M portfolio) and erode long term performance
  • Minimum investment balance is $2,000

Verdict: Six Park is a convenient way to invest hands-free if you don’t have the time nor inclination to do it yourself, but you pay a bit more for the convenience.

On my journey to Financial Independence I review various financial products, investments and services for consumers that can either help you make, save or invest money – including services like Six Park which can help you invest smarter. Its not Financial advice but I hope my review helps make it easier for you to choose an investment pathway in your Journey to Financial Independence

CaptainFI is not a Financial Advisor and the information below is not financial advice. This website is reader-supported, which means we may be paid when you visit links to partner or featured sites, or by advertising on the site. For more information please read my Privacy PolicyTerms of Use, and Financial Disclaimer.

Sixpark review

Introduction to Six park investment management

Six Park is a roboadvisor investment platform that provides tax-smart investing, including portfolios with low-cost ETFs and customized asset allocation. Six park will determine your investment horizon and personal preference, and provide independent advice on asset allocations so you can make an informed decision.

It is worth noting that professional advice from Six Park is typically considered general advice, however robo advice is individually tailored to your personal circumstances because you take detailed assessments about your age, financial habits, investing history, risk tolerance and goals.

In this sixpark review, we will be reviewing Sixpark as an investment platform and discussing whether or not it’s worth using their services over other similar platforms.

About Six park

Six Park is a web-based roboadvisor platform that has been around for many years and has a track record for providing a good service to clients who want to invest their money who may not have the confidence or skills to do so themselves through a traditional broker.

Robo Advice is general advice on an investment strategy (such as low cost, high growth funds or another market information service) that gets tailored to you. Software programs make these financial recommendations based on an investor’s risk profile, financial situation as well as their personal preferences. They provide cost effective access to personalized advice from experts to help you invest your money in the best way.

SixPark review
SixPark use Expert guidance and Smart tech to try and get you better performance for lower cost

You simply input your details about investing and risk tolerance via an entry survey (risk assessment) and Sixpark will provide you with advice on how to optimize your investments by assigning you with one of the tailored portfolios created by the Six Park investment team.

The Sixpark tailored portfolios are assigned based on an investor’s individual preferences, rather than relying on human intervention at all (other than higher level supervision).

This automation is how Sixpark are able to reduce cost overheads and provide such a low priced priced general advice to help you make an informed decision

The Six park team has an investment committee comprised of (founder and chairman) Brian Watson, Lindsay Tanner and Mark Nicholson.

It is worth noting that six park can only give advice on investing, and cannot provide advice on things like your home loan, tax situation or credit provider.

Investment portfolios with Six park

Six park offer five portfolios constructed using eight diversified ETFs across a broad range of asset classes (such as the Australian market, international market and other funds).

  • Conservative portfolio
  • Conservative Balanced portfolio
  • Balanced portfolio
  • Balanced Growth portfolio
  • Aggressive growth portfolio (high growth)

The minimum amount for a Six Park investment is $5,000.

SixPark review

You can also set up automated deposits into your Sixpark account, which when reaching a threshold amount of $5,000 will be invested into your Six park portfolio, or for balances above this will be invested at the pre-set investment timings.

These portfolios are matched to you depending on your risk profile and investment horizon, based on professional advice from the six park team of financial advisers chaired by founder Brian Watson.

Cumulatively, these financial advisers have decades of wealth management and have managed billions of dollars of funds in high growth, low cost funds for investors.

All Six Park portfolio models are automatically rebalanced to keep your portfolio on the same targeted level of risk over time, and are adjusted by the committee according to market conditions.

Six Park investment committee

All of the six park investment portfolios – and the blend of ETFs within them – have been carefully selected by a team who have decades worth of experience investing and who have cumulatively managed billions of dollars worth of investments.

They represent an application for their knowledge through asset management, specifically constructed to match different risk profiles or investments horizons according to Modern Portfolio Theory principles.

Six park review: the fees of six park

The fees of Six park investments are as follows;

  • 6.25 per month on invested amounts $2000 – $4999
  • $9.95 per month on investment amounts $5,000 – $19,999;
  • 0.5% per annum on investment amounts $20,000 – $199,999;
  • 0.4% per annum on investment amounts $200,000 – $499,999; and
  • 0.3% per annum on investment amounts $500,000 or more.

Six park brokerage fees

Six Park also absorb the brokerage costs for investment transactions and rebalancing on your portfolios.

Other fees when investing Six park

Aside from Sixparks fees, you will pay indirect costs of ownership such as the underlying ETF management fees and the spreads charged as a result of buying and selling a listed security (as the ETFs are purchased on the stock exchange on your behalf).

Six Park fees example

As an example, you pay the following fees for an investment portfolio size;

  • For $10,000 dollars you pay $120 per year
  • For $100,000 dollars you pay $500 per year
  • For half a million dollars you pay $1,500 per year
  • For a million dollars you pay $3,000 per year

Tax on Six Park investments

You don’t need to worry about completing your income tax returns at the end of each year because Six Park will send you all necessary documentation. Included in these statements is a list of different types of income from investments made throughout the year, which can be used by both yourself or an accountant when preparing your taxes.

Performance of SixPark

Six Park has performed in line with general market expectations; Comparing it to the Vanguard diversified high growth fund (ASX:VDHG) on Sharesight you can see the SixPark Aggressive growth option out performed the Vanguard ETF slightly. It is worth noting these aren’t’ an exact comparison as the VDHG fund doesn’t have historical performance going back that far (although Vanguards Wholesale equivalent fund does, and its Gross performance over the last ten years was actually 9.58%).

SixPark review
Five year rolling performance of Six Park (as of 21 May 2021)
SixPark review
VDHG Share price checker. Source Sharesight.com
Vanguard Diversified High Growth Index fund ASX VDHG review
Vanguard High Growth Index Fund (wholesale) Performance. Source: Vanguard.com

SixPark Review: How to create an account with Six Park

You can sign up for free with no obligation to invest or subscribe to any of the Six Park investment management services.

Sixpark review

Six park short online assessment

Click this link to undertake the Six Park short online assessment investment survey to find out what kind of investor you are – this lets Six Park know your personal circumstances, financial situation, goals, investment horizons and risk tolerances to figure out which of the five Sixpark investment options are appropriate for you – this is the core robo advice service.

SixPark review
Six Park application process
SixPark review
Confirming you understand the process
SixPark review
Confirming the type of account you need
SixPark review
Six Park investment quiz

Investing in your Six park account

Once you have created your account, have completed your investment survey, opened your Cash Management Account, and Six Park has assigned you one of the five investment portfolios, you can simply transfer funds into the Cash Management Account, and when the balance exceeds $5,000 it will be automatically invested for you.

Risks of Six Park

When you invest through Six park, you are investing in portfolios made of listed assets such as stocks, property and bonds. Because the underlying investments can go up and down over time, your Six Park investment could also go up or down.

The Six Park roboadvisor investment platform has the potential to deliver significant financial returns, with minimum effort required on behalf of investors.

It is important to realise that past performance is not indicative of future performance, however the previous trend with highly diversified investments is that over a long enough time period they generally grow in value.

As an investor, you are in control of your Six Park investments. Your money is never held by Six Park directly or pooled with any other clients’ funds—instead it’s kept safe and secure on a cash management account at Macquarie Bank (CMA), and your investments are directly owned by you in your name, through the execution-only brokerage firm OpenMarkets.

If Six Park ceases operations, you’ll still have access to your investments and cash – as they are all held in your own name. You would continue to be able to withdraw any surplus cash from the Cash Management Account with Macquarie Bank that’s linked up with this account. Likewise, all of the ETFs in our portfolio will continue being held by you via a personal Holder Identification Number (HIN) associated with your stockbroking account at OpenMarkets; formally identifying you as registered title holder on these stocks for trading purposes on Australia Stock Exchange’s CHESS sub-register

Is Six Park legit?

Six Park Asset Management Pty Limited is an Authorised Representative of Bespoke Portfolio. They hold the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL Number 341991) and are authorised by ASIC to deal in general financial services products to retail and wholesale clients, which means they can provide various specified financial services on behalf of their client, including superannuation fund management.

Is it cheaper to just replicate Six Park on Pearler?

If you think Six park has high fees you could simply copy the six park diversified portfolio as relevant to your personal situation using a brokerage account like Pearler, however it might not be as straightforward or easy as you think – it will depend on your account balance and personal situation. You will also be responsible for rebalancing and keeping up with changes to asset allocation the Six Park investment committee may make.

As an example, a $10,000 portfolio invested in 8 ETFs (doing trades twice a year = 16 trades total) costs you $120 through Six Park, but will be around $160 in brokerage through Pearler (plus sharesight). However, for a $200,000 portfolio the Six Park fees rise to $800, whereas the Pearler account stays $160 (plus sharesight).

This means larger investors will pay more for using the Six Park service, when compared to smaller investors.

This comparison does not include the MER of the underlying investments

Investing money with Six Park

Management fee per year = $120

16 trades = free

Sharesight account = free

Total = $120

Investing money with Pearler

Management fee = $0

16 trades = Pearler ($160) Commsec ($320)

Sharesight account: free or $19 per month (pending number of holdings)

Total = $160 (at the very cheapest)

Is CaptainFI Investing in Six Park?

I have to be careful how I phrase this as I am not intending to influence anyone investing decisions

There are many arguments for and against using a Robo adviser. It takes a lot of time to research stocks, evaluate them, and decide which ones to buy or sell. This is what has traditionally been done by investors; however, a roboadvisor service can do this work automatically without any human intervention.

With a robo-advisor you don’t have to spend hours researching and building a portfolio and then maintaining it and rebalancing accordingly. All these tasks are handled by an algorithm with no emotions (or feelings) involved so it’s less likely that you’ll make rash decisions based on market swings and other outside pressures like stock-picking experts providing tips who may have ulterior motives behind their recommendations.

Six Park is a straight-forward, low-maintenance way to invest your money. You just need to answer some basic questions about yourself and the level of risk you’re comfortable with then let the automated system do all the work for you.

I can see the value of using a service like Six Park to outsource my investing needs, as well as ‘hedge my bets’ on things like asset allocation and rebalancing – I can effectively outsource this to Six Park and then sit back and have the portfolio grow while I spend time outside in the fresh air. I also feel reassured getting actual financial advice that I am generally on the right track. I can then apply that knowledge to the rest of my portfolio if I wanted to.

For me and my specific situation, it would be more expensive than just owning the underlying ETFs myself (comparing things like brokerage costs and rebalancing costs), but this all depends on the size of your portfolio and how frequently you rebalance, and you will need to do the math yourself to be sure. So ultimately you likely pay more, but you get expert advice and experience on asset allocation, guidance, rebalancing, brokerage and regular reviews on your goals and investment positions.

Whilst I am not dumping my entire portfolio and life savings into Six Park, I did have a significant amount of money invested with them for a period of time. I was happy with the performance but ultimately ended up needing the money to service a loan (property development) so made a withdrawal.

Six Park versus StockSpot

Six Park and Stockspot are very similar online automated investment platforms. I have previously invested the same amount into both roboadvisors to compare the two to each other and to my other investments.

In general though, Stockspot have lower fees on smaller balances, whereas SixPark have lower fees on higher balances.

There is also a slight difference on asset classes used to diversify out of Shares, Cash and Bonds; Stockspot choose to invest in Gold, wheras SixPark prefer to invest in infrastructure and global property. This means SixPark diversify your portfolio with up to 8 different ETFs, whereas Stockspot use 5 ETFs.

Both SixPark and Stockspot hold your investments in your name (you get a HIN) and have a very similar business model. Both have also performed well in line with general market expectations, outperforming basic market index total accumulation index funds due to their global diversification and mix of asset classes.

SixPark review summary

Sixpark is a popular robo advisor, because they make getting into investing easier through their advice structure, range of investment options and low fees on small balances.

Holistically, I think it is a logical progression from Microinvesting, and a great way to get better control over your investments than micro investing – where you don’t really get a lot of choice on your market exposure or risk tolerance.

Whilst Six park can give clients advice on their set and forget online investment portfolios, it can’t give advice on tax services, your home loan, or your credit provider like a conventional financial advisor would, so it can’t entirely replace traditional advice.

If you have any further questions or want any further information on Six Park’s service, setting up new accounts or any other particular product get in touch or leave a comment

Verdict: Six Park is a convenient way to invest hands-free if you don’t have the time nor inclination to do it yourself, however you do pay for this convenience.

Share trading platforms and brokers to choose from

Be sure to check out the following reviews on brokers that offer online trading to buy Australian and international shares. As always, make sure you are fully educated before making a choice on any particular one.

Big 4 banks

Fintechs and smaller banks

Microinvesting platforms

  • SpaceShip – A pooled investor micro-investing app
  • Raiz Invest – An awesome tool that lets you ’round-up’ your purchases to the nearest whole amount and invest the difference
  • CommSec Pocket – CommBank’s response to micro-investing tools
  • Stake – A cool investing tool that lets you shop for more than 3,500 American shares and ETFs with zero brokerage fees
  • Pearler Micro – Pearlers Micro investing tool that lets you invest into 8 ETF based funds using Auto invest and roundups.

Roboadvisors

  • Stockspot – A Roboadvisor which automatically invests your money into a mix of ETFs (Shares, Bonds, Cash and Gold) according to your personal situation and risk tolerance
  • Six Park – A Roboadvisor which automatically invests your money into a mix of ETFs (Shares, Bonds, Cash, Infrastructure, Property) according to your personal situation and risk tolerance

Financial Disclaimer

Financial Disclaimer: CaptainFI is NOT a financial advisor and does not hold an AFSL. This is not financial Advice!

I am not a financial adviser and I do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). In this article, I am giving you factual, balanced information without judgment or bias, to the best of my ability. I am not giving you any general or personal financial advice about what you should do with your investments. Just because I do something with my money (or use a particular service or platform) doesn’t mean it is automatically appropriate for your personal circumstances. I do not recommend nor endorse any financial or investment product, and my usage or opinion of any product should not be interpreted as an endorsement, advertisement, or intent to influence.

I can only provide factual information based on my journey to Financial Independence, and that is provided for general informational and entertainment purposes only. I make no guarantee about the performance of any product, and although I strive to keep the information accurate and updated as it changes, I make no guarantee about the correctness of reviews or information posted.

Remember – you always need to do your own independent research and due diligence before making any transaction. This includes reading and analysing Product Disclosure Statements, Terms and Conditions, Service Arrangement and Fee Structures. It is always smart to compare products and discuss them, but ultimately you need to take responsibility for your use of any particular product and make sure it suits your personal circumstances. If you need help and would like to obtain personal financial advice about which investment options or platforms may be right for you, please talk to a licensed financial adviser or AFSL holder – you can take the first steps to find a financial advisor by reading this interview, or by visiting the ASIC financial adviser register and searching in your area.

For more information please read my Privacy PolicyTerms of Use, and Financial Disclaimer.

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2 thoughts on “Sixpark review: is online robo-investing worth it?

  1. Hi there Captainfi!

    My husband and I have been keen to explore the 6Park option…however I think in your article you wrote % fees for 200,000 monthly in your article? Is it not annually? If it’s monthly we wouldn’t want to jump on this one. Thanks for the clarity!

    1. G’day Ash, great spot sorry mate! Yes it is per annum not per month so I have fixed that, also they have actually reduced their minimum investment to $2000 and the fee for that

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