Something that stood out to me during the virtual Schwab IMPACT conference this week is just how far the robo-for-advisors phenomenon has fallen out of fashion.
Six years ago, Schwab introduced Institutional Intelligent Portfolios as a way for RIAs to keep up with fintech startups like Betterment and Wealthfront as well as new services from traditional financial institutions, including Schwab’s own retail-facing Intelligent Portfolios. At that year’s IMPACT, I met several early adopters and heard excited plans for new business segmentations and reaching millennial investors.
Now? Schwab executives hadn’t even planned on updating advisors on Institutional Intelligent Portfolios during a session on the firm’s technology roadmap. It only received a mention after a question from the audience. Schwab instead focused on core elements of its custodial platform, like expanding paperless onboarding and updates to the iRebal rebalancing tool.
It turns out that automated investing isn’t a digital field of dreams where if you build it, self-directed investors will come. Research has shown that many client-facing wealthtechs have failed to bring self-directed investors over to advisors, and it’s clear now that digital advice, which not long ago dominated industry discussion, has taken a backseat to direct indexing, cryptocurrencies and risk management. |  | Ryan Neal
Technology Editor, Financial Planning
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| By Ryan W. Neal 3 min read | At the IMPACT 2021 conference, CEO Walt Bettinger and head of advisor services Bernie Clark shared plans to grow the firm’s market share of independent advisors. Read story → |
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