Gosling's Grouse: The rise of robo-advice

The term ‘robo-advisor' has been around in the US for the past six or seven years. It usually refers to online investment management sites that run portfolios through unique algorithms or, to put it another way, take the human element out of investing.

Thankfully, the term has not fully caught on here yet. However, the risk analytical business eValue recently held a fascinating discussion on the concept of robo-advice and how it might pan out here. Of course, because we are British and much more conservative, we will not be calling our offering robo-advice, but it will fall within the parameters of the simplified advice regime. The question is will robo-advice catch on here? As eValue’s Bruce Moss pointed out, just because something works in the US, does not mean it will work here. But he also said the regulatory regime for advice i...