(New York)

For years the big fear across the wealth management industry was that robo advisors would steal clients for human advisors and eventually leave the latter jobless. However, several years of evidence shows that is not actually what is happening. First of all, it is not Millennials which are the biggest consumers of robo services, rather it is baby boomers. For instance, Vanguard reports that 85% of those enrolled in its robo are over the age of 50. Even at Merrill’s Edge platform, the percentage is 45%. Additionally, the ~$200 bn that has been brought under management by robos does not seem to have migrated out of human-advised accounts, but rather is new money coming into the industry, representing pure growth.

FINSUM: While the threat of robos has been lessening over the last couple of years, this is downright positive news. Rather than eating away at human advisors, robos seem likely to actually bring more capital to the table.