The Longevity of Robo Advisers and Retirement Planning

考虑到自动化在许多经济领域的爆炸式增长，这一趋势也冲击了投资行业也就不足为奇了——不管怎样，对散户投资者来说。Robo advisers— automated services that manage personal investing — have taken root.

According to data from financial research firm Corporate Insight, the top 11 robo advisers’ assets under management grew by roughly 65 percent between April and December of last year, to $19 billion. A.T. Kearney, a consulting firm based in Chicago, projects that number will eclipse $2 trillion by 2020. How much staying power does the robo-advising segment really have, though?

To be sure, robo-investing has at least entered the realm of 401(k)s, making inroads into company-sponsored plans into which employees are either automatically enrolled or register for as a workplace amenity. Companies such as Financial Engines and Morningstar have automated services that they sell to plan managers and services such as布隆, which provide the convenience of an app with the personal touch of an investment adviser. For the long haul, though, the viability of robo advisers remains untested. For one thing, there hasn’t been a lasting major stock market correction since the uptake of such applications became widespread.

“A market downturn will challenge the solvency of at least some firms,” says Sean McDermott, an analyst of robo advisers at Corporate Insight. “It comes down to how well their algorithms have formed investment allocations and how well they communicate with investors to keep them calm.”

Traditional financial advisers point out that it is in times of stress that they can be most valuable to their clients by giving tailored advice and working to prevent investors from acting irrationally.

即使没有一个主要的市场低迷,无袖长衫睡觉iser industry could benefit from some consolidation, McDermott says. There are at least 50 fully automated investment services and more than 100 that also offer some human contact. Of the fully automated ones, only “probably 15 to 20 are worth paying attention to,” he says. “Some firms are going to be acquired, and some will go bankrupt. There isn’t enough demand to sustain all of them.” According to McDermott, the entrance of major brokers such asCharles Schwab & Co.and theVanguard Groupinto the automated investing industry segment will only hasten the consolidation process.

Robo advisers typically offer a portfolio of exchange-traded funds that they purchase and manage for investors. The fees generally come to 0.35 to 0.50 percent, including ETF fees. That’s far below the 1 percent or more investors usually have to pay human advisers — before ETF and mutual fund fees. The low costs certainly help sell these services. Grant Easterbrook, a former analyst of robo advisers who recently founded Dream Forward Financial, a 401(k) service company in New York, says the attractiveness of robo adviser services also stems from greater transparency and better web sites. “People like simplicity,” he explains, “and there’s a demographic shift,” with more young investors coming into the pipeline.

One way to sustain the viability of robo advisers is to recruit a younger clientele, which is likely to be attracted to the very low investment minimums — it’s $500 at industry leaderWealthfront例如。Corporate Insight的麦克德莫特（McDermott）说：“全方位服务的经纪公司通常对你不感兴趣，除非你至少有25万美元的资产。”他补充说，大多数使用机器人顾问的投资者可能都没有达到这个门槛。他认为，大多数用户可能是年长的千禧一代和年轻人Gen Xers在2008年至2009年金融危机和股市崩盘之后，他们中的许多人可能对金融服务业感到有些恐慌，并将资金投入其中。“科技可以为他们提供投资组合，”麦克德莫特说，并帮助他们感到轻松和控制。

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