Rob doesn't trust financial platforms easily. That's not a vague instinct. It comes from having worked on them.
I worked for investment platforms for a while, through my job in IT.
What he saw from the inside shaped how he reads every platform since, including Curvo.
Watching how the industry actually makes money
Rob noticed a pattern in how consumer investment platforms are built.
I saw how these consumer platforms shared educational content, mainly as a way to draw people in. But when there's real money at stake, wealthy people go to private bankers instead.
That gap, between the advice offered to everyday customers and how the platforms themselves actually profit, left him wary of the investment products his own bank offered.
I never really trusted the investment platforms that banks put together for everyday customers.
He looked at other options too, and passed on them for similar reasons. Stock options through his employer came with a tax bill that could swallow a month's salary depending on timing, an unpredictability he didn't want. Picking stocks himself would have meant a research effort he wasn't willing to take on, alongside a lesson from a well-known Belgian investing book: there's no silver bullet in stock-picking, just a lot of luck.
What Curvo did differently
Curvo's model doesn't depend on locking him in, and that's what convinced Rob, not a sales pitch.
What I like about Curvo's attitude is that it's very transparent about roughly what you can expect, but you're free to get in or out at any time. That brings a lot of transparency around what the costs of investing actually are, and that it's a fair cost.
That stood in contrast to the traditional model he'd grown up around: one bank handling your mortgage, your insurance, and your investments, all bundled together, with every incentive to keep your money in-house.
Watching the numbers actually check out
For someone who came in sceptical, what has kept Rob invested is that Curvo's own projections have held up.
So far, the projections you made have lined up completely with the actual results I'm getting.
He's also come to prefer Curvo's steadiness over the alternative he sees plenty of people chase: constantly monitoring individual stocks, hoping to have picked the next big winner.
What matters to me is peace of mind. I'd rather choose an investment that moves steadily, but solidly.
When friends or acquaintances ask him about investing, Curvo is what he points them to, and he's watched several of them sign up and stay positive about it since.
You might be wondering
Why doesn't Rob trust bank investment platforms?
Rob has worked professionally on investment platforms through his IT career. He noticed that consumer platforms share educational content mainly to attract users, while wealthy clients with real money at stake are directed to private bankers instead. That gap left him wary of the investment products offered by his own bank.
What makes Curvo's pricing model different?
Rob values that Curvo is transparent about what to expect while leaving him free to enter or exit at any time, rather than trying to bundle in and lock in a customer's finances the way a traditional bank does. He sees the flat, visible cost as a fair one.
Is it better to pick individual stocks or invest in a diversified portfolio?
Rob decided against picking stocks himself, partly because of the research effort involved and partly after reading that stock-picking has no reliable "silver bullet". He prefers Curvo's steady, diversified approach over chasing individual stock winners, prioritising peace of mind.
More from Rob
This is one of three stories from Rob's interview. Read the others: