Why legacy firms that buy robos in haste show no signs of urgency after they take title
Too much hustle and ambition can be as harmful as too little, according Jasen Yang's closely argued analysis
Fidelity
|Schwab
|JPMorgan
|TIAA-CREF
|Wealthfront
|Personal Capital
|Betterment
|Future Advisor
|SigFig
|FutureAdvisor
|Sig Fig
|MyVest
Related Moves
Fidelity will hire 4,000 staff in first half -- a staggering number but a tapering off from 'unprecedented' rate in 2021-2022 that catapulted it to 68,000 employees
The $10.3 trillion giant explains its hiring -- in a layoff environment -- as an RIA-like goal, namely having the human bandwidth to develop 'lifetime' relationships with its 40 million investors
February 17, 2023 at 2:49 AM
Wealthfront cedes to four years of investors clamoring for crypto by taking on expensive third-party vendor that Betterment rules out
The Redwood City, Calif., robo-advisor turned a hard 'no' into a soft 'yes' by dealing with Grayscale and its 200 basis-point-plus fees, which its robo rival in NYC -- also without a crypto path -- finds ludicrous.
August 14, 2021 at 2:20 AM
Fidelity Investments loses Kathleen Murphy who largely caught up Fido to Schwab (near $4T) on the retail side by reversing net promoter scores
The 'no whining allowed' leader of the Boston giant's retail business, who oversaw $2 trillion in net new assets, was ready to exit but hung in through a year dominated by COVID-19 challenges
January 23, 2021 at 2:02 AM
Second Betterment exec departs as new CEO Sarah Levy orients to her first month on the job and is confronted by personnel matters
Chief operating officer Dustin Lucien is the latest to leave the New York City robo-advisor, one of at least eight positions open as it prepares a push across multiple business lines to ignite growth.
January 19, 2021 at 6:32 PM
See more related moves
Wealthfront
Portfolio Management System
Top Executive: Andy Rachleff
Betterment, LLC
Financial Planning Software
Top Executive: Jon Stein
MyVest
Portfolio Management System
Top Executive: Anton Honikman
Will Trout
Great article, Jasen. You’ve answered the question many people are asking: what happens when the independent robos end up in the belly of the beast? The answer, as you say, is not much. I think your point that “looser coordination between business units can be more efficient than more coordination” is well taken. Of course, most large financial corporations don’t work that way! The way I look at it, the real hitch for these companies in terms of adopting robo is realizing advice consistency across channels (rather than rolling out yet another digital channel)....perhaps more institutional flexibility will be the answer.
Lex Sokolin
Thoughtful piece. I think you are right that in a way, incumbents should (1) try to do less upfront and (2) do it faster. And indeed this is a cultural issue that is very hard to change. Industry should be launching more attempts, all compliant and discrete, and doing so without as much media pressure. Check out for example E-Trade’s roboadvisor or SoFi’s wealth management arm. These wasn’t as much navel gazing about those initiatives, now they are out, and time will tell how they adjust and change. The other point is that instead of shutting down, start-ups pivot. And they pivot a lot. So instead of shutting down an expensively-wound-up business unit if it doesn’t work according to a 5-year plan, incumbents should flex the resilience and evolution skillsets that entrepreneurs use to survive. Maybe that’s what ENV is doing?
