Robo-Advisors’ Growth Is “Uberization” Of Asset Allocation

Even though robo-advisors currently allocate 100% to passive strategies, they may be a major disrupting force in asset allocation, believes Bernstein. Inigo Fraser-Jenkins and colleagues said in their October 31 research piece titled “Fund Management Strategy: Robo advisors’ threat to fund managers – R2-D2 or Terminator?” that they believe robo-advisors are more R2-D2 as they currently manage only a small portion of invested assets. Robo-advisors can bridge the “advice gap” Fraser-Jenkins and team highlight that robo-advisors match investors’ stated risk tolerance with an asset allocation by considering asset class returns, variances and covariances. The analysts opened a series of robo accounts to…