Mr. McNabb wrote in a March 22 blog that "Vanguard's outlook for global stocks and bonds remains the most guarded in 10 years, given fairly high stock valuations and the current interest-rate environment." The Vanguard digital platform is the largest of the overall digital advisory market, which Cerulli Associates estimates was about $83 billion at the end of last year and projects will grow to approximately $385 billion by the end of 2021. Personal Capital, which has about $4.3 billion in assets, also warned clients about the equity markets' extended run-up. Craig Birk, Personal Capital's executive vice president of portfolio management, said one of its recent quarterly market updates to clients noted "it has been an unusually long bull market run and that, while stocks go up more than they go down, they do both." Personal Capital has seen little emotional over-response during the minor market fluctuations that have occurred in recent years. In fact, digital advice firms have seen continued growth in customer accounts and net deposits, even after some volatility in August 2015 and the first few weeks of 2016. "Appropriate communication is key to ensure client comfort," Mr. Birk said. (More: Financial advisers must adapt quickly to competition from robos to stay in business: CFP Board) Betterment, which provides human advisers for clients who elect to pay more, agrees. It manages more than $8 billion in its retail, retirement and adviser divisions. "One thing that is proven is that you can't predict what the markets will do," said Betterment spokesman Joe Ziemer. "We constantly work to keep customers focused on the long-term through content, in-app tools and the design of our product." Previously, the firm also took short-term action that it said was to help protect investors. Betterment last June delayed trading for more than two hours to guard its investors from market volatility following Great Britain's surprising vote to leave the European Union. At the time, some in the industry criticized Betterment for not letting retail clients know about the trading halt. Advisers who use the digital tool with clients were informed. Having live financial advisers available to clients, as some of the digital platforms do today, also may help these firms during a market correction. But even that resource may not be enough "hand-holding," according to some. Sue Glover, president of adviser technology consulting firm Susan Glover & Associates, said in a rough market the clients of these firms may not feel like talking to strangers about their portfolios. "They may not be the warm and fuzzy, familiar voice that people really want to talk to if it's a correction," Ms. Glover said. Mr. Duran said he doesn't think a correction will cause robo clients to abandon their advisers. "Without being handheld, people will make bad choices; they'll go to cash," he said. "It's not that different than self-directed investors with a Charles Schwab account. You don't blame Schwab, so I don't see robos suddenly being fired."Your regular #investing reminder pic.twitter.com/kMjAo8ZeGa
— Vanguard (@Vanguard_Group) January 25, 2017
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