Breaking down the best robos for your practice

There’s a lot to consider when managing a financial advisory practice, but one of the more ever-present components of the business these days is whether to offer an automated online investment platform.

Robo-proofing a practice is one of the more obvious ways advisers can stay competitive, as direct-to-consumer robo-advisers’ popularity continues to rise.

In fact, investors are becoming more and more likely to use these automated platforms. According to an A.T. Kearney study that surveyed 4,000 consumers with investible assets, 20% said they are aware of robo-advisers. Although just 4% said that they were extremely likely to use robo-advisory services for managing investible assets, 10% were very likely, 19% were likely and 36% said they were somewhat likely. Less than a third of respondents — 31% — were not at all likely to adopt a robo platform.

Advisers can find an offering that is compatible with their practices, though. Below is a breakdown of the various features offered on these automated investment platforms that are designed for advisers to implement.

	Betterment Institutional	Jemstep Advisor Pro	Trizic	Charles Schwab’s Institutional Intelligent Portfolios	Hedgeable	Marstone	Folio Institutional’s Advisor Connexion	Envestnet’s Advisor Now	Motif Advisor	Wealthminder	NestEgg/Vanare
Price	25 bps platform fee paid by client	Starts at 15 bps and reduces to 8 bps	Annual fee: Below $10M, 10 bps; $10M to $24.9M, 9 bps; $25M to $49.9M, 8 bps; $50M to $74.9M, 7 bps; $75M to $100M, 6 bps; more than $100M, 5 bps	Advisers with AUM less than $100 million custodied with Schwab outside of IIP, 10 bps; with AUM more than $100 million, free	Yearly fee: Between 30 and 75 bps	In beta — expected roll-out is Q4	Not available	Between 10 and 25 bps	Between 15 and 25 bps	$10 per month per client or $75 per year per client	15 bps and reduces to 10 bps; 25 bps for subadvisor
Account minimum	$0	At each adviser’s discretion	$0	$5,000	$0	$5,000	$0	$5,000	$0	$0	At advisor discretion
Consumer version						In beta
Tax-loss harvesting	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	via iRebal
Active/Passive	Passive	Active & Passive	Active & Passive	Passive	Active & Passive	Passive	Active & Passive	Active & Passive	Active & Passive	Active & Passive	Active & Passive
Products	ETFs	All	All	ETFs	All	ETFs	Stocks, ETFs, REITs, ADRs, mutual funds	ETFs and mutual funds	Stocks, ETFs, ADRs, CEFs	All	All, including UMAs
Risk profiling	Age-based allocation
Automatic rebalancing	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$5,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum	$50,000 minimum
Client billing
Compliance Reporting
Software Integrations	Fidelity Investments’ eMoney Advisor, MoneyGuidePro, Advent’s Black Diamond, Orion Advisor Services, LPL Financial’s Fortigent	Fiserv, Salesforce, Orion, Xignite, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo, DocuSign, various marketing automation such as Marketo and Oracle Eloqua	TD Ameritrade’s Veo, DocuSign	Schwab Alliance, Schwab Advisor Center and Schwab OpenView Gateway	Intuit’s Mint and TurboTax, Personal Capital, Fidelity’s eMoney Advisor, BNY Mellon’s Albridge, Advent’s Black Diamond, Coinbase, CircleUp	Yodlee	A suite based on each firm’s preference	Yodlee, Finance Logix and DocuSign	In development	TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo	iRebal, TD Ameritrade, HiddenLevers, FolioDynamix, DocuSign, Cabinet SAFE, Intercom
Customizable portal for clients
Mobile app for clients	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website, app coming soon	Mobile responsive website, app coming soon	$50,000 Minimum	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website for tablet	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website	Mobile responsive website
Custodians	Betterment	TD Ameritrade	TD Ameritrade	Schwab	FOLIOfn Investments, Interactive Brokers, Mid-Atlantic Trust, Scottrade, DriveWealth, Stifel, Envestnet’s Placemark	Pershing	FOLIOfn	Dozens	Pershing	Whichever the adviser works with	TD Ameritrade, National Bank of Canada
Minimum cash allocation	Mobile responsive Web site	Mobile responsive Web site	Mobile responsive Web site	4%	Dynamically weighted based on market risk	Mobile responsive Web site	Mobile responsive Web site	2%	Mobile responsive Web site	Mobile responsive Web site	Mobile responsive Web site