They're Not Robos. They're Transformers.

Wealth management firms are seeing “robos” in a new light: as change agents. While robos are mostly seen as an efficient mechanism for serving smaller investors and millennials, they can also serve as the test grounds for modernizing existing operations. With that, they’re not just robos — they’re transformers. 

Wealth management firms increasingly view adding a robo service as an incremental step towards broader organizational change. And, in order to get the most out of their robo offerings, they're choosing to run them "in house" rather than white label someone else's solution.

The long run goal is to extract some of the best robo features for use within the context of advisor-led advice: 

• Compliant Onboarding: each account's asset allocation, product choices and customization settings are directly and compliantly linked to the account's profile.
• Automated Rebalancing: every portfolio benefits from the best investment thinking of the firm and is true to its own customization parameters — automatically.
• Increased Customization: with automated rebalancing and direct connection to profiling, it's easy to offer tax management, custom asset allocations, custom product selection, ESG constraints, etc.
• Improved Customer Service and Experience: automated review makes it possible to provide clients with more insight into their portfolios, as well as self-service many requests.

The end result is sometimes called the "augmented advisor" — advisors who leverage technology to better serve their clients. This is how wealth management will be transformed.

For more on this topic, check out Automated Rebalancing & Specialization.