Former Merrill Lynch advisor Carlos Garcia is leading the launch of a new robo advisor, Finhabits, targeting Latin Americans; the platform offers investing and advice through investment accounts and Roth IRAs with low minimums of only $5; targeting the Latin American community the service will be available in both English and Spanish; fees are slightly higher due to the customized target demographic with a $1 per month fee for accounts under $2,500 and a 50 basis point annual fee for accounts over $2,500. 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
Wealthsimple is a Canadian firm backed by Montreal-based Power Financial and they are looking to launch their robo advisory solution to US clients soon; in accordance with US securities law, Wealthsimple received approval to operate as an investment advisor by the SEC in October 2016; there is no account minimums for their product and the first $10,000 invested will be fee free, anything above $10,000 will be subject to a management fee of 0.5%. 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
Australian robo advisor SuperEd is seeking AUS$6 million (USD$4.53 million) to expand its services; the founders expect to use the funds to provide white label robo advisory services for Australian superannuation funds; the robo advisor is also developing tools for analyzing retirement income from the funds. Source
Wealthfront, a robo advisor, has launched Path, a new offering to aid in retirement planning; by connecting financial accounts, Path will analyze past behavior to ensure users are on the right track for retirement savings while also taking into consideration social security, inflation and investment returns; users can also modify settings such as savings to project changes to their financial situation; Path also helps users prioritize contributions and allocations to both Wealthfront and non-Wealthfront accounts taking into consideration tax advantaged accounts. Source
Yomoni has raised $5 million from Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Iéna Venture; the firm provides a robo advisory service in France where the concept of robo advice is still very new; the firm will use the funds to expand its workforce and add new features; fees for the service are approximately 1.60% per year; the firm currently has $12.9 million in assets under management and is targeting $1.08 billion by 2020 with plans to potentially expand in Europe. 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
Scalable Capital has announced a partnership with Siemens Private Finance; Scalable Capital will offer wealth management options with daily rebalancing to individual risk profiles for Siemens employees in Germany; this adds to the services already offered by Siemens Private Finance which currently include insurance, pensions and mortgage lending. Source
A new report by Accenture shows that seven out of 10 consumers would welcome exclusive robo-generated advice for investing and insurance needs; not all is lost for the human experience; 68% of consumers would still want to interact with a human for complex financial needs like a mortgage or to help solve a problem; the main reasons given for this shift are computers are seen to be less biased, they make services cheaper and the tasks are done faster; additionally, the report showed that consumers were willing to share their data if they thought a non traditional provider could be faster and cheaper. Source