UK based startups and big banks have been pushing their online investment advisors through ads as they try to gain new clients; after seeing some of the startups have early success big banks started to get into the market this past year; the upcoming ISA deadline on April 5th has companies pushing their marketing spend in recent months with hopes it will pay off in new customers and cash. Source.
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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
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