Roboadvising


Roboadvising is a term for wealth advisory services provided by “robots.” Traditionally, wealth management was a very people oriented business. There was a relationship between the advisor and the client that developed into a degree of trust. However, advisory fees can be high (more than 1% of assets under management) and the availability of information has brought into question the need for this fee. Many millennials and Gen-Z young people have turned to roboadvising as an efficient and cheaper alternative. Roboadvisers like Wealthfront and Betterment provide automated financial advice based on information received about the investor, such as age, risk tolerance, etc. These roboadvisors typically recommend a basic asset allocation across stocks and bonds that invests in index ETFs. Therefore, the investor ends up with a well diversified portfolio that is well positioned for long-term financial planning, such as retirement. These investors are referred to as the mass affluent, which means that there are many of them and they have the beginning of an investment portfolio.