Which robos got off to the fastest start in 2016?
Almost all robo-advisers have grown in some shape or form between the start of last year and this…
Almost all robo-advisers have grown in some shape or form between the start of last year and this year. Some of the well-known online automated investment platforms that embraced a business-to-business model have grown tremendously. Take Betterment, which has Betterment Institutional and now Betterment for Business — it has grown to more than $3 billion in assets under management compared to $1.1 billion, where it was in January 2015. Future Advisor started at $232 million in January 2015 and now has $695 million, after being acquired by BlackRock this summer. Hedgeable hit $3.5 million, up from just a third of a million in the first month of last year.
Even Acorns, which takes consumers’ leftover change from bank account purchases and makes a portfolio out of them, has spiked up significantly.
And of course there are the giants. Vanguard and Charles Schwab & Co. made a splash in the first half of 2015 when they launched their own automated platforms called Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, a hybrid model; Schwab Intelligent Portfolios; and adviser-facing Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios.
These numbers are from the company’s most updated SEC Form ADVs, except for Charles Schwab & Co. and Vanguard, which come from company earnings.
Robos | 2016 Jan | 2015 Jan | Yearly change | 2015 by quarter |
---|---|---|---|---|
Financial Engines** | 104,426 | 88,200 | ▴18.4% | |
Vanguard** | 31,000 | N/A | N/A | |
Schwab* | 5,300 | N/A | N/A | |
Betterment | 3,228 | 1,105 | ▴192.1% | |
Wealthfront | 2,613 | 1,703 | ▴53.4% | |
Personal Capital** | 1,518 | 862 | ▴76.2% | |
Future Advisor | 695 | 232 | ▴199.2% | |
Asset Builder | 686 | 616 | ▴11.4% | |
Blooom | 157 | 26 | ▴501.8% | |
Acorns | 87 | 5 | ▴1712.5% | |
SigFig | 70 | 59 | ▴17.6% | |
WiseBanyan | 35 | 20 | ▴74.6% | |
Hedgeable | 35 | 3 | ▴1278.0% | |
Covestor | 16 | 27 | ▾38.3% | |
TradeKing | 12 | 1 | ▴857.7% |
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