Two years ago John Hancock acquired AI startup Guide Financial that helped to set the stage for their newly released robo-advisor Twine; “We weren’t going to be a Vanguard, and on the other hand, there are actors like Robinhood — we landed somewhere in the middle,” said Barbara Goose, John Hancock’s chief marketing officer as reported by Tearsheet; the company is completely separate from John Hancock, in technology stack and management, though they do coordinate with the firm through their innovation officer; allowing Twine to be separate but still connected to the main firm gives them flexibility and allow them to target their millennial customer. Source.
UK based Pia, personal investment assistant, is testing their new aggregator platform to help people find the best digital wealth advisor; “We spent time speaking to people who said we need to launch a product that’s far more accessible, interesting and engaging for somebody that doesn’t have a lot of investing experience and don’t know where to start,” said co-founder James Mackonochie to TearSheet; the difference between Pia and a typical aggregator site is they will use an AI powered chatbot to customize the user experience. Source.
Personal financial management or PFM apps have become one of the hotter areas in fintech the last few years; but with more companies starting the competition has been steep and now banks are incorporating a lot of the same features within their mobile apps; TearSheet interviewed Jillian Williams of the Anthemis Group about the PFM market; the interview covers how hard it is to differentiate your product when so many similar firms are out there and why are companies still receiving investment from VC’s; other topics include banks offering a similar suite of products, whether or not robo-advisors will add PFM capabilities and what’s next for the market. Source.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is closing 158 branches in the UK in an effort to reduce costs; it has continued to struggle since the financial crisis reporting nine consecutive years of losses; the firm has been increasingly integrating automation to cut costs and says it will make a decision on its robo advisory service for mortgage lending by the third quarter; the robo advisory service offers customers advice and insight that helps them decide on a mortgage loan product, also giving them an option to connect with a human advisor at any time during the process. Source
UK robo advisor Scalable has doubled its assets under management in the last three months to EUR 200 million ($213 million); this includes approximately 5,000 client portfolios with an average value of EUR 40,000 ($42,659); the firm says it continues to grow steadily adding EUR 1 million ($1.07 million) in assets under management per day; Scalable launched in the UK in the summer of 2016; it has since expanded to Germany and Austria and has reported significant growth from a partnership with Siemens Private Finance for employee investment plans. Source
Investing startup M1 Finance decided in December that charging 25 to 40 basis points was not working, so it decided to allow users to use their platform for free; since shifting to the free model the company has seen more than $1mn a day come onto the platform; rival robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront think the move is an act of desperation, though both companies offer or have offered some version free services; CEO of M1 Brian Barnes tells Business Insider, “M1 is very limiting from a trading perspective but it is a phenomenal tool for building a portfolio for the investments you want." Source.
One of the key pieces to the new MIFID II regulations is more transparency around investment fees; robo advisors have made their products more transparent and less complex, seeing that traditional advisors are now forced to be more transparent robo advisors might begin seeing business headed their way; before MIFID II investors incurred costs which were not required to be disclosed for buying and selling of shares, taxes, custody, slippage and more; implementation has been slow as incumbents try to adjust to the new regulatory requirements. 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
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
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