And approximately 60 % currently use some type of financial advisor, which
means robo advisors can and should target them.
Not exact matches
The great thing about
robo advisors is that low cost doesn't
mean low performance.
While Guided Investing is a
robo -
advisor,
meaning client portfolios are shaped by market theory computer algorithms instead of actual humans, the knowledge behind the recommendations comes from Merrill Lynch.
Some
robo -
advisors have no account minimums,
meaning an investor could open an account for $ 1 if she wanted.
The term «
robo -
advisor» is certainly a hot topic in wealth management circles and Canadian investors are getting more and more exposure to the term so putting a new spin on the familiar product
means that people might just shift how they perceive the VectorVest and Questrade combination.
This
means that any advice or financial transaction initiated on your behalf by a
Robo Advisor must legally always be in your best interest — just as many traditional personal financial
advisors currently provide.
Betterment is one of the more popular
robo -
advisors,
meaning you set up a savings plan and they will do the investment work for you.
While the adoption and understanding of
robo -
advisors by Canadian investors is still relatively small, the fact that
robo -
advisors have gained so much traction within such a short amount of time
means that this story is only bound to pick up speed going forward into 2016.
The growing popularity of
robo -
advisors means sifting through more offers to automate your investment savings, but which one is the best for you?
I did» t
mean to sound so critical about
robo -
advisors in this post.
But that doesn't
mean robo -
advisors can't compete in this segment.
Robo -
advisors are usually registered as portfolio managers and are responsible for managing your money to a «fiduciary» standard (which
means they're obligated to do so in your best interests).
As for «Name brand» funds, what I
mean is that some people personally trust Tangerine more than a
robo -
advisor.
So, aside from the usual risk of the investments themselves and completely unforseen events, investing with the relatively new
robo -
advisors should be no more risky than traditional
means.
Robo -
advisors are
meant to basically hold your hand through the investment process.
For most people, that
means that
robo -
advisors should be judged on one criteria: do they make investing as easy as throwing money into a savings account?