Robo-Advisors : The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Notable FirmsThere are many firms sometimes classified along with Robos that are using differentapproaches.Foliofn (started in 2000 as FolioInvesting.com) is a brokerage firm that allows youto build portfolios.Motif Investing allows you to build thematic portfolios of up to 30 stocks based ona style or theme.Robinhood is a zero commission broker.Acorns is an app that allows you to round up purchases and invest the smallamounts in diversified portfolios. They have raised over 30 million in venturecapital funding ( 23m in April). They have over 650,000 members.Links at http://www.investorhome.com/robos.htm(including an increasing number outside the US)AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201516

Notable FirmsWealthfront and Betterment both have over 2.6 billion in assets undermanagement and both have each raised over 100 million in venture capitalfunding. (Wealthfront was valued at 700 million in October 2014, and Betterment at 400- 500 million in February 2015) according to MFWire.http://www.mfwire.com/article.asp?storyID 52266&bhcp 1FutureAdvisor was recently acquired by Blackrock. It had approximately 600,00,000 in assets under management bat the time, and apparently sold forapproximately 152 million.Betterment offers a service to advisors through various venues, but Wealthfrontsays it has no plans to diversify into a business-to-business model and does not anintermediary between nvent n-401ks-2694277-1.htmlAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201517

Desperation, Misinformation, etc.Things are continuing to heat up, with tempers flaring and giants entering, causingthe celebrity venture-capital funded upstarts of Wealthfront and Betterment to startfeuding. Such fallout could cost them their remaining goodwill as pioneers andindustry disruptors. Here we have Wealthfront on the attack, a PR gambit thatsmacks of desperation. And when given a chance to take a higher road,Betterment also chooses to roll in the mud. Wealthfront used to be called KaChing,of all 283/betterfront proposal more competitive robo advisorA recent article written by a LinkedIn employee (published on LinkedIn, of course)claimed Wealthfront is the only robo advisor worthy of an investor’s money. Hecalled Betterment’s service “horrendous” and concludes, “there is absolutely noreason to utilize Betterment.” The article made waves on social media andignited debates between fans of both companies. Jackson Moses, the executiverecruiting associate at LinkedIn who authored the anti-Betterment rant, eventuallydeleted the article from the "professional social boy-wars-are-hereI spit up my coffee reading this. So much misinformation about @Betterment inhere.Bill WinterbergCFP 8749440AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201518

Notable FirmsSigFig claims to “oversee” 350 billion, but assets under management are only -and-big-banksHedgeable claims 474 billion in “assets under advisement” (7/31/14), but onlymanages 35 million .pdfMarketriders claims thousands of subscribers have used their online portfoliomanagement service to build over 15,000 portfolios valued at over 5 billion, butonly has 6 million in discretionary assets under management.http://www.marketriders.com/pricingAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201519

Notable FirmsCharles Schwab launched their “free” Intelligent Portfolios on 3/9/2015 andreportedly has over 3 billion is assets and more than 39,000 accounts. Some havecriticized the offering for its arguably high cash allocations in the /125543/vanguard robo surge threat others“The notion of a fully automated advisory service with no human interaction or support might work for "a verysmall percentage of people Think of what a quality investment advisor or counselor does for someone," hesays. "It's a whole pyramid of services. They might start with trust development or credibility development, andthen they go to goal planning for that individual, risk evaluation. Then they get into portfolio construction. Thenthey do rebalancing. Then they do ongoing goal planning and risk adjusting. And maybe the most important thingthey do is they play psychiatrist when the market's going schwab-ceo-2692824-1.htmlRobos No Substitute for the Genuine Article: Schwab CEO (Walter Bettinger)Man and Machines: New Charles Schwab Study Examines How Different Generations Approach the Use ofTechnology: Study finds no link between age and affinity for technology; People still need people, across thegenerations (5/12/2015) ( 1,800 affluent consumers across four generations)When asked to choose between relying on a financial advisor and a computer algorithm for managing theirportfolios, two-thirds (66%) of all respondents say they still prefer the human touch, and Gen-Xers are just aslikely as Millennials to prefer a portfolio based on a computer algorithm (40% versus only 30% of Boomers and24% of Matures).Technology is the preferred mode for transactions like booking a flight (96%), getting directions (95%),researching a new car (91%), and planning a vacation (90%), respondents feel differently when it comes to moreprivate matters. Across the generations, the vast majority say they prefer to interact in person when dealing witha health issue (80%) or finding a date new-charles-schwab-study-examines-how-dAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201520

Notable FirmsFidelity is rumored to be thinking about their own direct robo service, butthey have partnerships with Betterment and Learnvest and manage a hugeamount in a comparable product line.TD Ameritrade is working with Jemstep, NestEgg Wealth, Trizic, andUpside Advisor, but plans on launching their own robo d-ameritrade-to-join-robo-race-2693181-1.html“We don’t want to pick a single horse in this race . We want to be thestable.”Tom Nally, President of TD Ameritrade ch-t3-s-joel-bruckensteinLPL (acquired Nestwise, previously Veritat) then killed it in 2013. Recentlythey announced new robo ent eAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201521

Firms to keep an eye onMerrill Lynch One was released two years ago to replace five aging Merrill Lynchbrokerage platforms with disparate fees and enrollment processes, has attracted 400 billion to date . gaining nearly 7 billion a week in new and existing accounts,and 98% of Merrill’s own advisors have some money on the platformMerrill Lynch to Clients: Join “One” or Pay Commissions: Memo /122703/merrill lynch clients join commissions memoWells Fargo‘s executives said the firm was considering developing robo advisortechnology and may work with nt ells-fargo-are-nearingOnly about one in five affluent clients say they are familiar with the new technology,according to a recent Wells Fargo survey of clients who had 250,000 or more in investableassets. Of those who have heard of robo advisors, one-third has already used one. And, notsurprisingly, there is a big generational gap in attitudes toward the new technology, with 71% ofclients in their 30s saying they would use a robo in the next five years compared with 27% ofclients over age 60 who said the same.“Your Clients Haven't Even Heard of Robo Advisors ors226128166-yet-26935231.htmlAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201522

Notable FirmsVanguard offers what it calls a hybrid “Personal Advisor Services” starting at acost of .30% per year, including access to an advisor. It reportedly already has over 21 billion in assets. They raised 4 billion in the second quarter, 7 billion was newassets raised during the two year pilot phase, and they also transitioned clients fromtheir existing wealth management, trust and estate planning services, AssetManagement Services, over to Personal n-pure-robosThey formally launched the service in May and they lowered the minimuminvestment to 50,000.See ts-account-minimums-robo-service-halfVanguard Cuts Account Minimums For Robo Service In Half (5/5/2015)Target date mutual funds (and some balanced and global asset allocation funds) arecomparable to some Robo services, but in a different format.AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201523

Human vs. ill-prefer-human-advisors-over-computersInvestors Still Prefer Human Advisors Over Computers (5/12/2015 )In the next five year robo-advisors are projected to manage 255 billion worldwide. Traditional advisors still control around 5 trillion in the US -manage-billions-2014-9AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201524

Robo influence on Traditional AdvisorsBetterment and Personal Capital and Wealthfront, they're all going to become like Vanguard.And traditional advisors like us who are human-based, are going to have to become likeVanguard. And everyone's going to meet in the middle, in this bionic, hybrid solution which ishumans and computers, working together. It's inescapable.I really think [BlackRock's acquisition of San Francisco-based robo FutureAdvisor] was aquestionable one.If all you're doing is wrapping a set of mutual funds and charging 1%, you do not have abusiness five years from now. You simply won't. But that's the overwhelming majority of theindustry. I welcome this, because it ensures that consumers will actually get what they pay for.The reality is most consumers are paying 1% for absolute garbage, for something that they coulddo for free with Schwab, right now, with something at least as good, which is passive indexinvesting.This is what happens unfortunately in most of the industry. They are marketing likeNordstrom, but they are selling Wal-Mart.Joe Duran United vent nited-capital-ceo-2694234-1.htmlAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201525

Do Robos threaten brokers and RIAs?Of 650 U.S. and Canadian practitioners recently surveyed by consulting firm Accenture, just19% said robos pose a serious threat, and more than 40% perceive no threat at all. To thecontrary, some advisors plan to integrate robo-advisors into their own businesses, in part as aninexpensive way to serve the Henrys who might later become full-service clients."Robo-advisors can’t hold a client’s hand during turbulent markets, after all, and they can’t helpwith many of the complex needs of greater wealth.““I believe robo-advisors will set a benchmark for the value of commoditized services in theinvestment business,” [Steve] Lockshin says. Translation: Advisors who charge three timesmore than robos for essentially the same services will be forced to lower prices or deliver ns-arent-fretting-1429318843When Financial Advisors Meet Their Robo-Rivals (4/18/2015)As online advice firms mimic each other, they will come under pressure to differentiatethemselves with more services and lower costs"Eventually the products will all be free and all offer the same thing," said Mike Kane, chiefexecutive of Hedgeable, also a robo-adviser bo-adviserThe commoditization of the robo adviser (4/6/2015)AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201526

Human vs. Robot“Depending on which article you read, if you are a financial advisor either the roboswill crush you — like a Bradley fighting vehicle rolling over a walnut — or you haveno more to fear from them than a five-star restaurant has to fear from McDonalds.Both views are wrong. “Scott MacKillop "No, Robo-Advisors Won't Crush You Like a Bug" /120523/robo advisors crush likeThe truth is that the convergence of these robo- and non-robo groups is well underway. ClassicRIAs, with the help of their RIA custodians and technology vendors, are rapidly automatingtheir practices in ways unthinkable 10 years t-new-advisors-lose-more-clients-robo-advisorsAAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201527

Human vs. RobotNearly two in three investors say they prefer to get financial advice from both sources,including 39% who want advice to come mostly from advisers and 26% who want it tocome mostly from digital tools. A combined 62% prefer getting financial advice exclusively(23%) or mostly (39%) from a personal financial adviser, whereas a combined 35% prefer mostly(26%) or exclusively (9%) digital advice. Also, when asked to choose between three sources ofadvice, 50% opt for a strong relationship with a financial adviser, 24% for access to state-of-theart online or digital investing tools, and 19% for access to on-call financial advisers.U.S. Investors Prefer Mix of Human, Digital Financial Advice (Gallup As for robo advisors, aka automated investment management, Beatty said the phenomenon wasmore of an opportunity than a threat. Some advisors will employ robo technology to gather newclients with smaller assets and be able to service them profitably, he says. Other firms will usethe new technology to open up their practice to mass affluent clients who may start with mostlyautomated investment management and light human advice, but hopefully graduate to a morefull service offering. Most advisors, Beatty maintains, "don't feel threatened" by robo advisors b-study-2693573-1.htmlKitces made it clear that he thinks a robo-advisor can basically be defined as rebalancing andon-boarding software.Michael Kitces Trades Jabs With Leading obo-advisor-debate-23238.html (9/28/2015)AAII San Diego investorhome.comOctober 8, 201528

The Good“There will be a lot of casualties of both advisory firms and robo-adviser platforms in the next fewyears, but the ultimate winner in this contest is clear: It is the consumer, who will wind upwith improved access to superior financial advice at a lower cost, and who is likely to startplanning and managing his or her finances earlier in life as a result.“ Financial planning is allabout the people — the emotions they feel, the desires they have, the fears they face, and thesituations in life that are, mostly, unique to them.Chuck Jaffe (4/22/2015) in Here’s who wins the battle between human and ‘robo’ 015-04-21Meb Faber back testing (from 1972) Schwab, Wealthfront, and Betterment and found nearlyidentical althfront-vs-betterment/ Schwab vs. WealthFront vs. Betterment" (4/24/2015)"The emergence of the roboadvisors and low cost cyberadvisors (advisor powered automatedsolutions like Va

Oct 08, 2015 · Other established competitors include Morningstar, GuidedChoice, & Promanage. Morningstar Associates acquired mPower in 2003, which was one of the initial players (with FNGN, while directadvice.com did not survive despite 16M VC) Morningstar unit had more than 900,