Decision guide
Halal robo-advisor vs DIY investing — which makes sense?
Three serious halal robo-advisors exist (Wahed, ShariaPortfolio, Amana). DIY through a regular broker is also fine if you're disciplined about screening. The choice is operational, not shariah.
Halal robo-advisor
Convenient, automated, supervised by a shariah board. Pay a management fee for the hand-off.
- Built-in shariah screening on every holding
- Automatic purification calculation
- Quarterly rebalancing
- Management fees typically 0.49%–0.99% per year
DIY through standard broker
Lower cost, more control — at the price of doing the screening work yourself.
- Use an app like Zoya or Musaffa to screen individual stocks
- Calculate annual purification manually using published ratios
- Lower ongoing cost, especially at higher portfolio sizes
- Discipline is on you — the broker won't warn you about non-compliant holdings
Our recommendation
Robo-advisor if you want to outsource the discipline and are comfortable with the fee. DIY if you'll actually do the screening — especially worthwhile above ~$50k portfolio size where fees add up.
Applying this with a broker
Liquid Brokers is our affiliate partner and the broker we document in most depth. Swap-free status must be requested and confirmed in writing — its published account table lists swap fees as enabled on all four standard account types.