Scalable Wealth Review 2026 — Fees, Portfolios, Verdict

TL;DR

Scalable Wealth (Wealth Pro Portfolios) is the discretionary robo-advisor product of Munich-based Scalable Capital — separate from its Free Broker DIY platform. It charges 0.75% AUM per year on top of an average 0.18% ETF TER, requires a €1,000 minimum, and offers 21 risk-profiled ETF portfolios rebalanced using a Black-Litterman optimization model. Custody runs through Quirin Privatbank (BaFin-licensed, DGS up to €100,000), so deposit and securities protection are best-in-class. Best for hands-off German and EU investors with €10k+ who want managed allocation without picking funds. Worst for cost-minimizing DIY investors who already know they want a 2-fund ETF portfolio. Verdict: a credible managed-investing product at a fair price — not the cheapest, but with a real investment philosophy behind it. Rates and fees current as of Q1 2026.

Robo-advisor or DIY broker?

This review covers Scalable Wealth, the managed portfolio product — not Scalable Free Broker, which is the DIY brokerage similar to Trade Republic. The two share an app and an account, but the products are very different:

• Free Broker / PRIME+ — you pick ETFs, you trade them yourself, savings plans run for free.
• Wealth Pro Portfolios — Scalable picks the ETFs, allocates them across asset classes, and rebalances on a target schedule. You set risk tolerance, fund the account, walk away.

Confusingly, both are accessed through the same Scalable Capital app. New users frequently sign up for one when they meant the other. This review only covers the managed product.

In a market increasingly dominated by ultra-low-cost neobrokers, Scalable Wealth's 0.75% AUM fee looks high until you compare it to traditional German bank-managed portfolios at 1.5%–2.0%, or to UK robo-advisors like Nutmeg at ~0.75% all-in. The pricing is competitive within its category — discretionary portfolio management — even if it loses to "do it yourself with one MSCI World ETF."

Key facts at a glance

How fees work

The pricing structure is genuinely simple:

• 0.75% per year on assets under management, charged monthly on the average daily balance. So €10,000 invested costs ~€6.25/month or ~€75/year.
• ETF TER is paid inside the funds — average 0.18% for a typical balanced portfolio. Scalable picks institutional share classes where they exist, which shaves a few basis points vs retail share classes.
• No transaction fees, no rebalancing fees, no entry/exit fees, no performance fees.
• No custody fee — bundled into the 0.75%.

That puts the all-in cost at ~0.93% per year for a balanced portfolio. For comparison: a DIY portfolio of one MSCI World ETF costs ~0.20% TER and zero AUM. The 0.73 percentage point spread is what you pay for managed allocation, rebalancing, and tax-aware selling.

There is one small footnote: when Scalable rebalances or executes withdrawals, transactions are placed through Baader Bank, which charges no per-transaction fee for Wealth clients. Spreads on the underlying ETFs can vary 0.05–0.15% but are absorbed inside the rebalancing and not separately invoiced.

Real-world cost example

Scenario A — €100/month savings plan, 12 months, growing balance:

• Average balance: ~€600 over the year
• Scalable AUM fee: ~€4.50
• ETF TER (paid inside funds): ~€1.10
• Total year-1 cost: ~€5.60

Scenario B — €10,000 lump sum, held 12 months:

• Scalable AUM fee: €75
• ETF TER (paid inside funds): €18
• Total year-1 cost: €93

The fee scales linearly with AUM, so a €100k portfolio costs ~€930/year. At €500k, you're paying ~€4,650/year — at which point a fee-only financial advisor and a DIY portfolio at IBKR or Trade Republic starts to look cheaper. Many investors consider €100k the rough crossover point where DIY becomes more attractive than a robo-advisor, depending on time spent.

Investment universe

You don't pick ETFs in Wealth Pro Portfolios — Scalable does. The portfolios use:

• Equities: Global developed market, emerging markets, and small-cap factor tilts via MSCI World, MSCI Emerging Markets, MSCI World Small Cap, and value/quality factor ETFs from iShares, Xtrackers, and SPDR. Equity exposure is currency-unhedged on the basis that long-term equity returns dominate FX volatility.
• Bonds: EUR sovereign (German Bunds, EU sovereigns), EUR investment-grade corporate, and global aggregate (EUR-hedged). Bond exposure is currency-hedged because FX volatility on hedged investment-grade can dwarf the underlying yield.
• Real assets: Listed real estate (FTSE EPRA NAREIT) and broad commodity ETFs (~5–10% allocation depending on risk profile). Gold gets its own slot in higher-risk portfolios as a long-volatility diversifier.
• Risk allocation: From "Defensive 1" (15% equity / 80% bonds / 5% real assets) to "Aggressive 10" (95% equity / 0% bonds / 5% real assets). The intermediate steps are calibrated so the implied volatility ladder is roughly linear, not exponential.
• Thematic variants: 11 additional thematic portfolios layered on top of the core 10, including "Sustainable" (ESG-screened versions of the same risk levels), "Global Champions" (mega-cap concentration), and "Megatrends" (AI, clean energy, biotech overlays).

The Black-Litterman optimization combines market-cap-weighted equilibrium with Scalable's house views on regional and factor expected returns. In practice, the portfolios are well-diversified passive ETF baskets with modest active overlays. They are not benchmark-hugging index funds, but they are not actively traded either — turnover is typically 15–25% per year, well below most active funds.

Best for / not for

Best for:

• Hands-off investors with €5,000–€100,000 who want managed allocation
• People who would otherwise leave money in a 0.5% savings account because investing feels overwhelming
• EU residents who want a German-regulated, BaFin-supervised, Quirin-custodied product
• Investors building toward retirement who value rebalancing discipline they won't stick to themselves

Not for:

• DIY investors who are happy buying one MSCI World ETF on Trade Republic — you'll pay 0.7 percentage points less per year
• Active traders or stock pickers (managed portfolios only)
• Crypto-curious investors (no crypto exposure in Wealth)
• US persons (not available)
• Anyone who wants tax wrappers (no IKE, no PEA, no PIR — plain taxable account)

Common pitfalls

1. Confusing Wealth with Free Broker. New users sign up for the wrong product. If you want managed, choose "Wealth Pro Portfolios" explicitly during onboarding.
2. Fee compounds visibly at scale. At €100k, the 0.93% all-in cost is ~€930/year. Many investors only notice the line-item fee in year 3 or 4 when the absolute number gets uncomfortable.
3. Withdrawal mechanics are slow. Selling out of a portfolio takes 2–4 business days because Scalable batches rebalancing transactions. Plan for a week if you need cash for a deposit or large purchase.
4. No tax-loss harvesting in EU. Unlike US robo-advisors (Wealthfront, Betterment), Scalable does not perform tax-loss harvesting because the EU tax framework makes it less effective. Your German tax statement (Steuerbescheinigung) is auto-generated, but cross-border tax (e.g., for Polish or French residents) requires manual reconciliation.
5. Risk profile drift. If you set "Aggressive 10" at age 35, Scalable will not automatically de-risk you at 55. The risk profile you choose at onboarding stays put unless you manually change it. This is a feature, not a bug — but worth knowing. US-style "target-date" auto-deglide is not part of the Wealth product.
6. Switching portfolios is a taxable event. Moving from Aggressive 10 to Defensive 5 triggers sales of the underlying ETFs and re-purchase in the new allocation. In Germany this realizes capital gains against your annual allowance; in other EU countries the local tax treatment varies but is generally similar.
7. Performance reporting can lag. Daily NAV updates appear within the app, but full performance attribution (factor contribution, regional contribution, fee drag isolation) only refreshes monthly. Investors who want intraday attribution have to look elsewhere.

Alternatives to consider

• Trade Republic / Scalable Free Broker: DIY ETF investing at €0/€1 per trade. Cheaper but you do the work.
• Bunq Investing: Cheaper at 0.39% AUM, fewer portfolios, Dutch DGS. Best for smaller balances and existing Bunq users.
• Quirion (German): Similar robo-advisor model, slightly cheaper at 0.48% AUM above €10k, fewer portfolio variants.
• Vanguard Lifestrategy ETFs (DIY): Multi-asset ETFs at 0.25% TER, no AUM fee. The closest "DIY robo-advisor" alternative.
• Nutmeg (UK only): Comparable robo with ISA/SIPP wrappers. Not available in EU.

FAQ

Is Scalable Wealth safe?

Scalable Capital itself holds a German BaFin license. Customer cash and securities are held in segregated accounts at Quirin Privatbank, which is also BaFin-licensed. Cash is protected by Germany's DGS up to €100,000 per customer; securities are segregated and not part of any insolvency estate. Black-Litterman portfolio losses from market downturns are not insured — that's investment risk, not custody risk.

Can I move my Wealth portfolio to another broker?

Yes — you can request a securities transfer to any other EU broker. The transfer is in-kind (the same ETFs move), takes 2–6 weeks, and costs €0 from Scalable's side (the receiving broker may charge a transfer fee).

What's the difference between Scalable Wealth and Scalable Free Broker?

Wealth = managed portfolio, Scalable picks and rebalances ETFs, 0.75% AUM. Free Broker = DIY brokerage, you pick ETFs and stocks yourself, €0 savings plans + €0.99 trades on PRIME+. They share an app but are separate products with separate fees.

Does Scalable Wealth offer a SIPP or ISA?

No. Scalable does not operate in the UK and does not offer UK tax wrappers. In Germany, the standard taxable brokerage account (Wertpapierdepot) is the only option, with the standard €1,000 annual capital gains allowance per person.

How does Scalable's Black-Litterman model differ from a plain index fund?

Black-Litterman blends market-cap-weighted equilibrium expected returns with the manager's "views" — Scalable's overweight on quality and value factors, for example. In practice this leads to small (5–15%) deviations from a pure cap-weighted global portfolio. Backtests are mixed; live performance has tracked global benchmarks closely with modestly lower volatility.

Can I add a savings plan to a Wealth Pro Portfolio?

Yes. Once your portfolio is open, you can set up a recurring monthly transfer from €25/month upward, and Scalable allocates incoming cash according to the current target weights. There is no separate fee for savings-plan execution inside the Wealth product — only the standard 0.75% AUM applies on the resulting balance.

What happens at retirement when I want to draw down?

Scalable does not have a built-in glide-path or automated drawdown product. You manually request withdrawals as you need them, and the platform sells proportionally across the portfolio's holdings to fund each one. Some investors handle drawdown by gradually reducing the risk profile (Aggressive 8 → Balanced 5 → Defensive 3) over the years before retirement, accepting the tax cost in exchange for lower volatility on the path.

A quick note on tracking

If you hold a Scalable Wealth portfolio and a separate trading account on Trade Republic or XTB, reconciling them in Excel becomes tedious — especially when AUM fees show up monthly and you want a single net-worth view. Freenance connects multiple broker accounts and shows your true after-fee net worth across robo-advisor and DIY portfolios. Many investors who maintain both a managed portfolio and DIY positions appreciate seeing the all-in cost drag side-by-side.

Verdict

Scalable Wealth is a competent, BaFin-supervised, German-built robo-advisor product priced fairly at 0.93% all-in. It will not beat a DIY MSCI World portfolio on cost — nothing managed will — but it does offer real diversification, factor tilts, and disciplined rebalancing for investors who would otherwise let cash sit in a savings account or panic-sell during corrections. Data shows that the behavioral edge of automated rebalancing often pays for the fee gap over multi-decade horizons. The product is best at the €5k–€100k AUM band; below €5k you're paying more in fee per dollar invested than the value of management, and above €100k DIY starts to look meaningfully cheaper.

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