Get ready for robo-advisory winners and losers

Global equities are displaying all the signs of being in a downturn.

Indeed, in the words of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s research analysts in December, it’s “a big nasty bear market”.

And in a bear market, who do you want to look after your money? Probably someone who was around in the last one, and certainly someone you can call when things get hairy, which means the boom of recent robo-advisers could well be coming to an end. (for extra money in the currency market use our forex robot)

Having ridden up the bull market over the last decade, robo-advisers now number about 300 globally, with an estimated $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in assets under management.

According to fintech research company Burnmark, there are more than 200 in the US, about 30 in Germany and between 15 and 20 in each of China, the UK, India and France. Assets under management had been expected to reach $3.7 trillion by 2025, but that did not factor in a recession.

While it may be over a year away, a recession is nonetheless on the horizon now, and already the independent robo-advisers that don’t have a downturn under their belts are starting to get twitchy.

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Inflation

The two largest independent robo-advisers in the US, Betterment and Wealthfront, for example, launched savings products over the last few months in preparation for a move into cash and to compete with online-only banks like Ally – which, while offering no advice, do offer 2% interest rates with no fee.

That’s all well and good, but what about inflation? US consumer prices are up about 2.25% and economists are murmuring that could ramp up in the next two years.

As nervousness grows, it will be interesting to see whether robo-adviser assets simply move from independents to more solid names – such as Vanguard or Schwab’s robo-advisory platforms, the former of which already has five times the number of assets as Wealthfront and Betterment combined.

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But the large banks that have added robo-advisory businesses to their own stand to win – particularly those who proved to be a safe pair of hands 10 years ago.

Take JPMorgan. At the peak of the crash it was taking in $1 billion a day, and the bank has said it will be adding digital portfolio management to its new ‘You invest’ offering in early 2019.

It looks an awful lot like it is setting up a robo-adviser, which may be the biggest signal so far that a bear market is here.