Surely you can see that in using these apps you are riding the brake-rods of investor risk like a cost-cutting hobo
. . . Except that you can clearly afford to pay an adviser, since you money to invest.
Apps were written by software developers, not by QFAs, CFAs or CFPs.
While they may help some clients towards settling some of their financial goals, such apps are primarily written to make some cash for the app owner - not to make good arrangements for people's personal finance.
Training for QFAs and CFPs makes
axiomatic the need for the adviser and client to engage one-on-one so as the client's full situation (i.e. circumstances and disposable income) and financial goals are understood and agreed. The idea here is to ensure as much as humanly possible that the financial products discussed are those best suited to the needs and means of the client.
It's hard enough to get this level of honesty and trust in a real-life engagement.
But if you move the relationship towards communicating via an app - with all the limitations of such communication modes for serious and complex matters - you are making inevitable the prospect of not getting what you really need.
On top of that a lot of 'personal finance' type apps are simply fishing for names and contacts of high-earning individuals who may be up for an investment. Believe me, apps - and app portals like iStore and Google Play - are masters at making as much as possible from users, not least through selling hot information like disposable income/email/phone lists. Online web apps like Nutmeg are tracking you via your IP address and/or email data.
The final goals may vary for one investor to another depending on how much they have to play with.
Most of us have little or no play money - it's all gotta get a return with minimal risk.
I'd say talk to dependable local people in your neighborhood as to who is a good financial adviser. Then call each one on the short-list discuss the mode operandi, what they charge for initial discussion and so on. Then decide who you go to.
But whether it's the adviser getting clear on the client or the client assessing the cut of the adviser's gib, it has to be one-on-one - for my money.