Investment Research

Investment platforms and the falling cost of access

15 October 2025 · 5 min read

A decade ago, investing meant phone calls, paperwork and brokerage costs that made small or frequent trades uneconomic. Today a low-cost platform and a few taps do the same job. The fall in the cost and friction of access is one of the more important quiet changes in personal finance, and it has brought millions of new investors into the market.

What got better

Lower costs, fractional investing and simple interfaces have opened the door to people who were previously priced or intimidated out. Building a diversified position no longer requires a large sum or a broker on the phone, and regular automated investing has never been easier to set up. For patient, long-term investors, that is a genuine improvement.

What to keep an eye on

Frictionless access cuts both ways. The same ease that helps you invest steadily also makes it easy to trade impulsively, chase trends, check the balance ten times a day, or treat investing like a game. Some platforms are designed, deliberately, to encourage exactly that, because activity can earn them money. The tool is neutral; how it is used is not.

Practical questions before you choose one

It is reasonable to ask how a platform makes its money, what happens to your holdings if the platform itself fails, what it costs in total to buy, hold and sell, and how easily you could move your investments elsewhere later. Boring questions, but they matter more over decades than the slickness of the app.

This is general information and education only. It does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs and is not personal financial advice. GBX Professional Services does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence. Consider speaking with a licensed adviser before acting on anything here.