Traditional brokerages often advertised themselves as being highly personalized, with individual attention from a broker for each client. But at the end of the day, these businesses all had their own biases, as did the individual advisors. Left to their own devices, they would rely on a fairly standard package of investments and, what’s more, they would often push hard to promote certain partnered mutual funds.

Online brokerages, on the other hand, impose no particular strategy for investments. This means that as an investor you are solely, personally responsible for the success or failure of your own investments. But it also means that you can take whatever approach you deem appropriate without any pressure from a broker.