London-based FOL Wealth has launched a new robo advisor service for its wealth management clients; the solution offers clients automated service at an annual fee of 0.90% with a minimum investment of 1,000 British pounds ($1,216); it is intended to serve as a hybrid solution complementing the human advice of the firm's wealth advisors. Source
Deloitte recently released a report called Driving innovation in investment management report estimates that invest-tech platforms; many of these platforms...
UK based Pia, personal investment assistant, is testing their new aggregator platform to help people find the best digital wealth advisor; “We spent time speaking to people who said we need to launch a product that’s far more accessible, interesting and engaging for somebody that doesn’t have a lot of investing experience and don’t know where to start,” said co-founder James Mackonochie to TearSheet; the difference between Pia and a typical aggregator site is they will use an AI powered chatbot to customize the user experience. Source.
The implementation of GDPR is around the corner as it starts in May across Europe, while most of the regulations will benefit robo advisors the compliance costs could rise significantly; users will be able to ask for all data related to them and all data a rival adviser might have on them, getting this done correctly and efficiently will take time; the customer benefits are high, startups on the other hand might end up getting a lot more costs then anticipated. Source.
Source reports on robo advice services at Vanguard; the firm's Personal Advice Services is a hybrid robo advice offering with $83 billion in assets under management; it is anticipated that it will be the first digital platform to cross $100 billion; firm is adding certified financial planners to its call centers for clients in Scottsdale, Arizona and Charlotte, North Carolina as an enhanced hybrid offering. 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
Financial Planning explores the possibility of an IPO from the leaders in the robo-advice market including Betterment, Wealthfront and Personal Capital; the companies continue to raise money but some question the viability of the market; Betterment has over $10 billion in assets under management, Wealthfront has $7.4 billion and Personal Capital has $4.9 billion; the companies have a combined 420,000 clients and 548,000 accounts; article shares statements by each company regarding IPOs and the differences between the platforms. Source
Raymond James has announced it will integrate robo advice services with its financial planners; the firm says it will use an internally developed system available to its approximately 7,100 advisors; the platform will be accessible to clients and overseen by their advisor; the firm says it will also comply with the Department of Labor's new fiduciary rules. Source
Personal financial management or PFM apps have become one of the hotter areas in fintech the last few years; but with more companies starting the competition has been steep and now banks are incorporating a lot of the same features within their mobile apps; TearSheet interviewed Jillian Williams of the Anthemis Group about the PFM market; the interview covers how hard it is to differentiate your product when so many similar firms are out there and why are companies still receiving investment from VC’s; other topics include banks offering a similar suite of products, whether or not robo-advisors will add PFM capabilities and what’s next for the market. Source.