Oisin Breen

They lost their moral compass when they launched the high-fee, under-performing risk parity fund.

Has anyone else come to realize that these guys don't know WTF they're doing?  Simply flapping in the wind as a "fast follower" with each new meme that raises any interest in the fintech space.

Let me save you the suspense.   This is a firm that within 18 months will either be bought out for what many would currently consider too low a valuation, or merged into a second-tier SPAC offering.  Performance for their market parity fund is laughable, performance of their allocations are sub-par (too much international in a strong dollar environment).  After six pivots it's about time to lay that at the foot of the founders, who seem to consider it visionary to chase everyone else's tails.

And this is what was supposed to put me out of business 5 years ago?!

The whole reason I use wealthfront is because I don't have to do anything. I have weekly auto bank transfers and the website does the work. Hopefully it keeps doing this.

Wealthfront, in its sixth pivot as a firm, reduces its robo-advisor's role and puts 'decision-making power where it belongs,' with retail investors

Wealthfront

Stripped down to its essentials, financial advice is a fairly straightforward proposition. Done well, a highly ethical individual stewards the assets and actions of an investor in a personal and professional interchange.
 
But now a vibrant new class of entrepreneurs is staking their fates and their fortunes on the premise that financial advice can be delivered in a better, cheaper, easier, more ethical, more transparent manner and, as a bonus, in a way more devoid of human annoyance on both ends of the transaction.
 
Cue the robo-advisors, arguably a callous misnomer for automated asset management. 
 
The prototypical robo-advisory entrepreneur has more brands on his or her resume than NASCAR. The bona fides of these industry upstarts often include Ivy-level colleges and MBA programs at Harvard or Stanford. They are often flush with IPO dollars realized at concerns like LinkedIn, Facebook, eBay, Amazon  and Microsoft. 
 
Robo-folk believe that technology is not an enabler of advice but rather, if engineered correctly, advice itself in digital form. 
 
And, they believe the best solutions originate in Silicon Valley or academia, not Wall Street. Robo-entrepreneurs are white-boarding the whole business model, culture and technology from scratch in the conviction that little can be learned from a legacy advice system still rooted in an investment banking culture acting under the core premise that if stockbrokers get rich some of the good effects will trickle down to clients – with the clients none the wiser. 
 
Robo-advisors are a scintillating topic for students of the advice game as they grow by hundreds of millions in assets every month, constantly evolve their business models and receive cash infusions from ever-larger swaths of venture capitals.
 
Throw in the fact that robo-advisors have yet to see a dime in profits -- and won’t in the foreseeable future -- and you have real intrigue. 
 
RIABiz has avidly covered the fast-evolving robo-advice phenomenon and will continue to do so. We present the growing body of articles here.

Robo-Advisors

<p>The RIA business has many tech vendors working hard to serve its diverse needs, and we're seeing technology become a more crucial part of setting up and running an RIA than ever before.</p>

<p>The Technology section includes unbiased tech reviews, tech-related news, and coverage of tech-related conferences.</p>

Technology

The Palo Alto, Calif., firm will still maintain an RIA, but it'll be more like a self-directed brokerage in allowing investors to play an active role by buying stocks and cryptocurrency.

Wealthfront, in its sixth pivot as a firm, reduces its robo-advisor's role and puts 'decision-making power where it belongs,' with retail investors

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