For all their headlines and growing popularity, robo-advisors are still an emergent technology—and changes are undoubtedly in store not just in their evolution, but also for clients and for financial advisors.

Investor’s Business Daily reports on the predictions of industry professionals regarding the direction in which robo-advisors may go, and what advisors can do to make current client relationships more secure.

According to Brian Barnes, founder and CEO of M1 Finance, robo-advisors are so much better at computations—volume, speed, accuracy—that they’ll thrive. In addition, he says in the report, “A lot of fintech players have been seeded with so much money that they’ll only have to perfect the experience once, and then they can distribute it to others. That will change things. Millennials are starting to make decent salaries and save a bit, and they don’t care about the 150-year history of an established fund company. Innovators are offering cheaper and more personalized experience.”

If they’re wise, advisors today will look to “the income portion, the spending portion and the planning portion” of a client’s financial situation, not just the investment portion. “And if a client gets to a certain bracket,” he adds, “advisors should offer generation wealth plans.”

Lowell Putnam, cofounder and CEO of Quovo, agrees about brands and history. In the report, he says, “I’d say there’s a misplaced confidence that the large incumbent brands my parents trust are going to follow through to the millennial generation. We’re moving toward a world of smaller boutique brands—both in the advisor space and in the B2C space. Look at companies like (eyeglasses retailer) Warby Parker, or (mattress maker) Casper.”

He adds, “I don’t see any reason why guys like Vanguard or BlackRock even need to be around in 20 years, because they don’t have the brand that speaks directly to their next investor.” And advisors? “The horse is out of the barn, because this isn’t about justifying whether or not the technology is any good, because it’s clear that it does things really well. You could make a claim that active management is going to come back, but that’s not what I see happening right now.”

Lisa Kramer, professor of finance at the University of Toronto, doesn’t quite agree about active management. “There’s a greater awareness among investors about the benefits to passive investing, which puts pressure on institutions that have traditionally leaned on active management techniques,” she says in the report, adding, “There will always be some demand for actively managed funds, because it’s human nature to seek that outperformance—even though ironically, the average return on actively managed funds is below average, when you factor in the active management fees.”

And she sees robos eventually competing with one another, and maybe not so much with humans, on their selections of niche funds—even though at present most robo offerings are passive funds.

So what’s an advisor to do? Add value by keeping up on current developments so they have “value [to add] to the equation,” perhaps by keeping up with the behavioral issues that can present problems or opportunities for their clients. Otherwise, she warns, investors will pursue “viable alternative investment opportunities.”

Instant Insights /

Changes likely in store with rise of retirement robo-advisors

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