UBS has broadly launched its robo advisor service SmartWealth after a limited launch in October; the solution presents another robo advisory service offering by an incumbent financial services provider; portfolio fees range from 1% to 2% with an investment threshold of 15,000 British pounds ($18,500); according to data from Business Insider, Vanguard's Personal Advisor Services leads the robo advisor market with assets under management of $41 billion followed by Schwab with $10 billion and Betterment with $6.2 billion. Source
Millennials are becoming more influential in the market for financial advice and investment management; currently a $71 trillion business, baby boomers have been the leading drivers over the past three decades; millennials however are gaining increased consideration since they now account for the greatest majority of the population in the US and UK; while they currently only hold a small percentage of the asset management market with $250 billion invested, venture capitalists are taking bets on their potential influence; the tech savvy generation has greater preference and confidence in tech powered solutions than the baby boomer generation with 85% of UK-based millennials surveyed by Legg Mason Global Asset Management reporting they were comfortable with robo advice while only 37% of investors aged 40 to 75 trusted online advice; leading robo advisors have initially attracted the attention of millennials however it's likely that more traditional asset managers will expand their offerings to capitalize on the growing opportunity. Source
Analysts at asset manager, Bernstein, believe the future is bright for robo advisors; in a recent client memo the firm concluded that BlackRock and Fidelity will eventually incorporate them into their business and technology giants Google and Facebook could be their main competition; though the current disruption from robo advisors is minimal, the largest one has $60 billion AUM as compared to Fidelity with $5.1 trillion AUM, the technology is what will be most useful for the wealth management industry; you have already seen big names like Deutsche Bank and UBS launch robo advisors, while BlackRock and Invesco have made acquisitions of the technology. Source
Marvelstone Capital is working with fintech startup Smartfolio to develop a robo advisor solution for family offices; it will target family offices based in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and India; the robo advisor solution is being designed as a hybrid service for family offices with less than US$1 billion in AUM however Marvelstone will also market to family offices with AUM of US$1 billion to US$10 billion; it plans to launch the new solution in the third quarter of 2017. Source
Robo advisors are meant to be simple and automated to keep costs low and allow your wealth to accumulate; in looking at the top four firms in the market the Wall Street Journal found that humans choose what goes into the portfolios; this begs the question whether investors are aware of this human intervention; the WSJ takes a closer look at how Vanguard Group's Vanguard Personal Advisor Services (PAS), Betterment, Wealthfront and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios allocate their clients money; while robo advisors are deemed a simple solution they might not be and investors should understand how their money is allocated. Source
Established fund management companies are leading the next wave of market computerization through investment in robo advisors; robo advisors offer automated investment options with lower fee structures; investment managers are buying and integrating these services to expand their offering and mitigate competitive factors; a partnership between John Hancock Financial and NextCapital is one of the latest examples; other deals have included SigFig with Wells Fargo and UBS, BlackRock with FutureAdvisor and Fidelity with eMoney. Source
A new report from Numis entitled The State of AI in 2017 explains the potential AI and machine learning for wealth managers; as AltFi reports, “AI enables asset managers to deliver to the mass affluent a degree of personalisation and service quality previously reserved for high net worth clients.”; the technology can also help to improve quality, decrease cost and help to make most of the asset management industry into robo advisors. Source.
One of the key pieces to the new MIFID II regulations is more transparency around investment fees; robo advisors have made their products more transparent and less complex, seeing that traditional advisors are now forced to be more transparent robo advisors might begin seeing business headed their way; before MIFID II investors incurred costs which were not required to be disclosed for buying and selling of shares, taxes, custody, slippage and more; implementation has been slow as incumbents try to adjust to the new regulatory requirements. Source.
Deloitte recently released a report called Driving innovation in investment management report estimates that invest-tech platforms; many of these platforms...
Robo advisors have been increasingly gaining market share however Morgan Stanley says they are not likely to overtake incumbents; in a research note the bank says it is predicting a $6.5 trillion market globally for robo advice by 2025; despite the initial growth and market opportunity for robo advisors, the competitive landscape shows investors will still demand human advice; as a result, the hybrid model for robo advice is expected to emerge in the next wave of innovation for the industry; Betterment provides a market leading example of a hybrid model with its new Betterment Plus and Betterment Premium services announced in January. Source