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Robo-advisor
Financial advisory software

Robo-advisors are financial advisers that use algorithms designed by experts to deliver personalized online investment management with minimal human involvement. These services automatically allocate and optimize clients' assets based on risk tolerance and target returns. With over 100 providers, robo-advisors have democratized wealth management by offering services at lower costs than traditional advisors. They often direct investments toward exchange-traded funds but can manage portfolios including stocks and bonds, using either passive or active strategies. Clients typically receive a discretionary managed account tailored to their financial goals.

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History

The first robo-advisor Betterment was launched in 2010 as a direct-to-consumer model by Jon Stein,10 followed in 2011 by Wealthfront.11 Thereafter, robo-advisors increased in popularity.12 Before robo-advisers, online portfolio management interfaces existed since the early 2000s and these interfaces were used by financial managers to manage and balance clients' assets. By the end of 2015, several robo-advisers from around the globe were managing $60 billion in assets of clients.13

In 2012, MoneyFarm was launched in Italy.14 In 2013, Nutmeg was launched in the United Kingdom.15 In 2014, Stockspot was launched in Australia,16 followed there in 2015 by QuietGrowth.17 In 2015, 8 Securities launched one of Asia's first robo-advisors in Japan,18 followed there in 2016 by Money Design, Co., under the brand name THEO, and WealthNavi.19 In 2017, Singapore based StashAway received a capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.20

Definition

A robo-advisor can be defined as "a self-guided online wealth management service that provides automated investment advice at low costs and low account minimums, employing portfolio management algorithms". Some robo-advisors do have an element of human interference and supervision.

Legally, the term "financial advisor" applies to any entity giving personalized financial advice. Most robo-advisor services are instead limited to providing discretionary portfolio management,21 that is the allocation of investments among asset classes, without addressing issues such as estate and retirement planning and cash-flow management, which are also the domain of financial planning. Robo advisors provide "personal financial advice" in addition to "general financial advice". Personal financial advice is tailored to the financial situation and goals of the client, and is in their best interests. General financial advice doesn't take into account the personal situation or goals of the client, or how it might affect them personally.22

Other designations for the financial technology companies that program robo advisor software include "automated investment advisor", "automated investment management", "online investment advisor" and "digital investment advisor".23

An investment platform, even if it provides automated service, cannot be termed as a robo advisor if it does not provide personalised investment advice.

Areas served

While robo-advisors are most common in the United States, they are also present in Germany,24 Australia,25 India,26 Canada,27 and Singapore.28

Robo-advisors are extending into different aspects of financial advice, such as advising retail customers on how much money to spend versus save, how to plan for retirement and decumulation (selling off securities over time),29 and tax loss harvesting.

Methodology

The tools they employ to manage client portfolios differ little from the portfolio management software already widely used in the profession.30

The portfolios that robo-advisors offer are typically exchange-traded funds, but some offer portfolios of individual stocks.3132 Typically they employ modern portfolio theory, which minimizes risk for a given expected return. Some are designed for use with socially responsible investing, Halal investing, or strategies similar to hedge funds.

Consumer access

The customer acquisition costs and time constraints faced by traditional human advisors have left many middle-class investors underadvised or unable to obtain portfolio management services because of the minimums imposed on investable assets.33 The average financial planner has a minimum investment amount of $50,000,34 while minimum investment amounts for robo-advisors start as low as $500 in the United States35 and as low as £1 in the United Kingdom.36 In addition to having lower minimums on investable assets compared to traditional human advisors, robo-advisors charge fees ranging from 0.2 percent to 1.0 percent of Assets Under Management,37 while traditional financial planners charged average fees of 1.35 percent of Assets Under Management, according to a survey conducted by AdvisoryHQ News.38

Regulation

In the United States, robo-advisors must be registered investment advisors, which are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.39 In the United Kingdom they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Robo advisors that manage client money offer discretionary accounts for the clients. This sets them apart from micro investing firms, managed funds and investing platforms. In Australia, the robo-advisors manage the client money through the Managed Discretionary Account (MDA) structure.

Total assets under management

The following are the largest robo-advisors by assets under management:40

CompanyCountryAssets under managementClients
The Vanguard GroupU.S.$206.6 billion1,100,000
WealthfrontU.S.$75.0 billion1,000,000
Charles SchwabU.S.$65.8 billion262,000
BettermentU.S.$26.8 billion615,000
Personal CapitalU.S.$16.1 billion26,000

References

  1. Lieber, Ron (April 11, 2014). "Financial Advice for People Who Aren't Rich". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/your-money/start-ups-offer-financial-advice-to-people-who-arent-rich.html ↩

  2. D'Acunto, Francesco & Prabhala, N. & Rossi, Alberto G. (2019). "The Promises and Pitfalls of Robo-Advising" Review of Financial Studies https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/32/5/1983/5427774 ↩

  3. D'Acunto, Francesco & Rossi, Alberto G. (2020). "Robo-Advising." Available at SSRN https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3545554 ↩

  4. "Robo-Advisory in Wealth Management" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting GmbH. October 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Robo_No_2.pdf ↩

  5. "Hype vs. Reality: The Coming Waves of "Robo" Adoption" (PDF). A.T. Kearney. June 2015. https://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/7132014/Hype+vs.+Reality_The+Coming+Waves+of+Robo+Adoption.pdf ↩

  6. "The expansion of Robo-Advisory in Wealth Management" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting. August 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Deloitte-Robo-safe.pdf ↩

  7. Meola, Andrew (January 4, 2017). "Robo Advisors: Online Financial Advisors That Fit in Your Pocket". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/robo-advisors-online-financial-advisors-automated-investing-2017-1 ↩

  8. "Robo-Advisory in Wealth Management" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting GmbH. October 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Robo_No_2.pdf ↩

  9. "Robo-Advisory in Wealth Management" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting GmbH. October 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Robo_No_2.pdf ↩

  10. "The History of Betterment: Changing an Industry". betterment.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-05. Retrieved 2016-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20220405210702/betterment.com/resources/the-history-of-betterment ↩

  11. "Wealthfront reaches $50B AUM milestone, 2023 revenue growth near 140%". 17 November 2023. Retrieved 2025-06-05. https://www.investmentnews.com/fintech/wealthfront-reaches-50b-aum-milestone-2023-revenue-growth-near-140/245865 ↩

  12. Eule, Alexander (May 23, 2015). "Robo Advisors Take On Wall Street". Barron's newspaper. http://www.barrons.com/articles/robo-advisors-take-on-wall-street-1432349473 ↩

  13. "Robo-Advisor: Future to Financial Management?". algonest.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2018-06-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20190106025105/https://www.algonest.com/site/robo-content ↩

  14. "Robo-advisor MoneyFarm raises EUR16m for UK launch". 9 November 2015. Retrieved 2025-06-05. https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/28104/robo-advisor-moneyfarm-raises-eur16m-for-uk-launch ↩

  15. "The start-up rejected by investors 45 times in a row". 10 September 2014. Retrieved 2025-06-05. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-29122871 ↩

  16. "Stockspot slashes fees to zero". 18 February 2015. Retrieved 2025-06-05. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/breaking-news/stockspot-slashes-fees-to-zero/news-story/dd090af1ce7231d95a0f2385381a3e66 ↩

  17. "QuietGrowth unveils new feature to help investors manage risk". 21 June 2016. Retrieved 2025-06-05. https://www.privatebankerinternational.com/news/quietgrowth-unveils-new-feature-to-help-investors-manage-risk-210616-4929296 ↩

  18. "Nomura buys into HK robo-advisor". 3 April 2018. Retrieved 2019-08-29. https://fundselectorasia.com/nomura-buys-into-hk-robo-advisor ↩

  19. "First-time investors urged to turn to inexpensive 'robo-advisers'". 25 April 2016. Retrieved 2019-08-29. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/25/reference/first-time-investors-urged-turn-inexpensive-robo-advisers/#.XWdvXOj7SUk ↩

  20. Cua, Genevieve. "MAS proposes moves to support growth of robo advisory firms". The Business Times. Retrieved 2018-08-31. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/mas-proposes-moves-to-support-growth-of-robo-advisory-firms-0 ↩

  21. "Robo-Advisors: An Introduction to Online Financial Advice". Betterment. Retrieved 2019-01-11. https://www.betterment.com/category/robo-advisor ↩

  22. "Choosing a financial adviser". Moneysmart by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Retrieved December 12, 2021. https://moneysmart.gov.au/financial-advice/choosing-a-financial-adviser ↩

  23. Byrnes, Mike (2016-03-17). "Robo-Advisor Warns: The Zombies Are Coming!" (in Spanish). Economía Personal. Retrieved 2021-09-11. https://www.economiapersonal.com.ar/ ↩

  24. "Robo-Advisory in Wealth Management" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting GmbH. October 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Robo_No_2.pdf ↩

  25. "ASIC's Greg Medcraft says 'robo advice' can reduce fees and conflicts". 5 November 2015. http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/asics-greg-medcraft-says-robo-advice-can-reduce-fees-and-conflicts-20151105-gkrmxw.html ↩

  26. Adajania, Kayezad E. (September 22, 2015). "Robo advisory could change distribution". LiveMint. http://www.livemint.com/Money/DOnQjdoOqd38ijz30HgtGM/Robo-advisory-could-change-distribution.html ↩

  27. François Desjardins (October 17, 2015). "Préparer sa retraite, un texto à la fois" [Preparing your retirement, one SMS at a time]. Le Devoir (in French). Retrieved December 5, 2015. https://www.ledevoir.com/economie/actualites-economiques/452848/investissement-preparer-sa-retraite-un-texto-a-la-fois ↩

  28. "Singapore start-up to launch robo adviser to tap tech-savvy rich". Reuters. June 15, 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wealth-summit-mesitis/singapore-start-up-to-launch-robo-adviser-to-tap-tech-savvy-rich-idUSKCN0Z10S7 ↩

  29. D'Acunto, Francesco & Rossi, Alberto G. (2020). "Robo-Advising." Available at SSRN https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3545554 ↩

  30. "Best of the Online Investment Advisers". June 2014. https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/T023-S002-best-of-the-online-investment-advisers-2014/index.html ↩

  31. D'Acunto, Francesco & Prabhala, N. & Rossi, Alberto G. (2019). "The Promises and Pitfalls of Robo-Advising" Review of Financial Studies https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/32/5/1983/5427774 ↩

  32. "The Stock Advantage". Retrieved 2021-12-24. https://www.emperorinvests.com/pure-stock-investing ↩

  33. "The Real Hidden Cost That Has Been Inhibiting Financial Planning For The Masses". December 16, 2013. http://www.kitces.com/blog/the-real-hidden-cost-that-has-been-inhibiting-financial-planning-for-the-masses/ ↩

  34. "How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? (Average RIA & Financial Advisor Fees in 2016)". http://www.advisoryhq.com/articles/financial-advisor-fees-wealth-managers-planners-and-fee-only-advisors/ ↩

  35. "What is the Best Robo Advisor?". http://www.investmentzen.com/best-robo-advisors#account-minimums ↩

  36. "Robo-Advisors Comparison with OFF3R". off3r.com. Retrieved 2018-01-03. https://www.off3r.com/compare/best-robo-advisors ↩

  37. "Cost-Income Ratios and Robo-Advisory" (PDF). Deloitte Consulting GmbH. December 2016. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/financial-services/Robo-Advisory-in-Wealth-Management.pdf ↩

  38. "How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? (Average RIA & Financial Advisor Fees in 2016)". http://www.advisoryhq.com/articles/financial-advisor-fees-wealth-managers-planners-and-fee-only-advisors/ ↩

  39. "Print 2 | PDF | Financial Technology | Finance & Money Management". Scribd. Retrieved 2021-09-11. https://www.scribd.com/document/435609625/Print2 ↩

  40. Friedberg, Barbara (2021-09-27). "Top-10 Robo-Advisors By Assets Under Management". Forbes Advisor. Retrieved 2023-01-28. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/top-robo-advisors-by-aum/ ↩