6 Robo Advisory Firms Trying Hard to Innovate - Nanalyze

We're often puzzled as to how people can use terminology to put an entirely new coat of paint on something that's been around for a long time and then purport that it's new and exciting. Take robo advisors as an example. In the good old days, you met with a wealth manager who asked you a bunch of questions and then plugged them into a piece of software that said where you should optimally invest your money. Usually, this is just a very simple asset allocation strategy with X% in bonds and Y% in stocks based on your age and appetite for risk. Then, as a result of the perpetual cost savings initiatives that permeate the corporate world, we decided to remove the human element, externalize the software, and call it a "robo advisor", a term that somehow implies that there is more under the hood than there actually is.