The wealth management industry is showing signs of opening up to digitisation with the advent of robo-advisors. Ken Research’s latest publication – “Robo-Advisors: Mapping the Competitive Landscape” – aims at clarifying the differences between various automated investment platforms.
The publication includes case studies of the leading robo-advisors to offer insights on what are the features which attract the customers and the reason behind the change. Drawing from the inferences of Verdict Financial’s Global Wealth Managers Survey, the report examines the attitudes of HNW individuals digitised advice. In addition, activities of the software vendors w.r.t. the robo-advisors market are also included the in the publication.
Ken Research believes the ‘battle’ between man and machine has reached a new level and entered into the wealth management dimension. Robo-advisors are built on the premise that the functions performed by a human Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) can now be replicated by advanced software based on artificial intelligence. The USP of Robo-advisors include lower costs, ease-of-use and even the promise of making financial investment a “fun” activity.
The wealth management industry has already opened towards the process of digitisation and investors have begun to put their confidence into non-human artificially intelligent software. Additionally, competition within the automated wealth management space is expected to get fierce for robo-advisors as the traditional wealth managers are also moving into the digital space supported by abundant availability of software developers. Overall, Ken Research believes that the future outlook for robo-advisors is positive but they will have to choose more appealing business models which will appeal to HNW individuals.
