Schrodinger Portfolio Review: 29 January 2026

Shaniko, Oregon – Main Street

The question, “Who will manage the family portfolio when I die?” gave rise to research into Robo Advisor services.  I looked into numerous services several years ago and actually invested money with several brokers to test their services.  Performance and cost were the two primary criteria when researching Robo Advisor options.  I finally settled on Schwab for the owner of this portfolio.  Fidelity is another option readers might investigate.  Schwab provides this service free, but at a cost of holding seven (7) to eight (8) percent in cash at all times.  The following review provides information regarding Schwab’s “Intelligent Portfolio” including the asset allocation holdings and performance.  Be sure to look over the four Risk Ratios at the bottom of this blog post.

If you are looking for a passively managed portfolio, look no further than the Schrodinger as this portfolio requires no investment management skills of the owner.  All one needs to do, once this Robo Advisor portfolio is set up, is to add new cash.  The Schrodinger happens to be housed with Schwab.  Other brokers have their own “Intelligent Portfolios” so do you own research to find which broker you wish to use for a computer managed account.

I recommend having at least one “Intelligent Portfolio” as part of the family portfolios as it provides a different kind of diversity as well as a performance reference.  If the family member who manages the family portfolio dies first, actively managed accounts can easily be transferred into a Robo Advisor account.  At that point the portfolio operates on automatic pilot.

Schrodinger Asset Allocation Holdings

Below are the current holdings for the Schrodinger.  The owner of this portfolio requested a rather aggressive asset allocation as one can see from the pie chart below.  Older investor will likely request a more conservative approach such as a 40/60 or 30/70 stock to bond ratio.  The Schrodinger is approximately 79% equities, 13% bonds, and 8% cash.  Keep in mind that cash is a drag on a portfolio in a bull market, but a plus in a bear market.

Schrodinger Performance Data

Since 12/31/2021 the Schrodinger performed exceptionally well through the 2022 bear market and reversed upward during the bull market over the last few years.  Very few trades took place over this period so the portfolio is tax efficient.  Since the portfolio exceeds the $50,000 level, Schwab manages the portfolio in a tax efficient manner.  Thus far this has not been necessary.

The following data shows just how well the Schrodinger has performed when compared with several potential benchmarks.  Outperforming the S&P 500 (SPY) is not an easy hurdle, but the Schrodinger has managed to clear this high bar.

Schrodinger Risk Ratios

Most of the Risk Ratio values are quite consistent over this past year.  Yes, the slope of the Jensen Alpha is positive (0.14) due to a low point when tariffs were announced last April.  The current beta of the Schrodinger is 0.717 so the portfolio is achieving these performance results without taking too much risk.

Both the Jensen and Information Ratios have maintained positive positions over the entire year.  These are the two most critical risk measurements.  Simply put, the Schrodinger is performing much better than I expected when this portfolio was set up on 31 July 2017.

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Comments and Questions are most welcome.