Efi Pylarinou is the founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019.
Digital investing, advice and portfolio management is on the rise. A surge in account openings across the board, is now well documented. The first quarter of 2020 has seen a sizable increase in activity compared to 2019. TD Ameritrade’s automated investment offering reports an increase of 150%. Betterment has publicized account opening increases of 25%. Wealthfront reports a 68% rise since the market downturn.
Vanguard`s all-digital offering launched in late March, so figures are not available. Schwab has also confirmed the overall trend of an uptick in account opening, but no one has reported AUM figures yet.
The Robinhood debacle surely shifted several accounts to other digital platforms but it also revealed that a large portion of Robinhood`s clients were consumers that have very small amounts to trade (interest in fractional shares) and also use their margin allowance to leverage their plays.
The US market is witnessing an increase in consumer interest to start investing during this downturn. I believe that we will maintain increased levels of users on digital platforms.
Go Digital or Die is not debatable anymore in wealth management. There will be variations of Digital but no more only physical.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a webinar hosted by Bambu, the B2B robo-advisor out of Singapore. Bambu has grown since 2016 globally with offices n Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, and Dubai. They offer all the picks and shovels needed to launch any variation of a Digital investing offering. Their narrative is about creating 21st century investors. They have the backing of Franklin Templeton and have partnered with Refinitiv and Apex.
Since Bambu is not a B2C provider, they embarked on a consumer sentiment analysis by using advanced Google search analytics. Some of their findings show consumer changes and preferences. Naturally, their results have a US bias as it is the largest market in digital advice and investing. During this crisis, there has been an upsurge in searching for Financial advisors.
Consumers are increasingly interested in Long term digital advice.
Retirement advice, tax optimization and harvesting, are highly sought.
`Retirement planning` has been strongly trending which is unexpected. People close to retirement prefer traditional channels of advice typically. This trend shows us that there is a reversal and a huge opportunity. It can also mean that consumers realize that there is value in paying an advisor to plan for retirement from early on.
The value of retirement Advice is on the rise.
Bambu`s analysis confirmed (what I knew from fund flows reported by several data providers globally) that there was a huge shift from Fixed income to Equity ETFs. This has resulted in an unexpected inflow into Equity ETFs despite the market downturn.
Eric Balchunas, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst, reported that Vanguard Q1 ETF inflows were at a record $47 billion and this was ALL Equity ETFs, as fixed income ETFs were net $0.
QQQ the Invesco ETF tracking Nasdaq, also saw peak inflows (via Bambu)
What Bambu added to the picture, that the hugely positive Equity ETF inflows came also from a consumer shift from investing in individual stocks to investing in ETFs.
Consumers are de-risking (diversifying) from individual stocks into ETFs.
Consumers are inquiring about Rebalancing. Digital advice on managing portfolios is on the rise which is a shift from stock picking.
None of the US Robo advisors have announced any firings and some are even hiring analysts, developers, and managers.
Bambu reports a very busy month, which shows that Digital in wealth is not going away and variations will be the norm depending on the geographic region and the area of focus.
Uncertainty and the lockdown has strengthened the B2B robo advisor segment.
Go Digital for Financial advice, rebalancing, tax harvesting.
Recording of the Bambu webinar with lots of graphs and details.
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