Until recently, receiving real investment advice has seemed impossible for younger or lower net worth individuals – many Financial Advisors have minimum asset requirements of £500,000 or above, and charge 1-2 percent for their services.
According to the FCA, the new wave of online robo-advisors offer “online automated advice models that have the ability to deliver advice in a more cost-efficient way”, widening access to financial advice to those that may previously have felt excluded.
Robo-advisors offer online advice and guidance for investments and, depending on the platform, execute it as well. They typically charge less than half the fees of traditional brokerages and their low-cost, simple approach to investing has earned them a real name for themselves.
One such robo-advisor is Moneyfarm, which launched in the UK in February after gaining traction in its home market of Italy. It was founded by Paolo Galvani and Giovanni Daprà in 2011 with a simple mission: to make low-cost, low-stress wealth management a reality for everyone.
Moneyfarm allows customers to build an investment portfolio online after answering a simple questionnaire to find out goals and risk tolerance. The site has six portfolios made up of ETFs, which offer full transparency of the assets that make up a fund and have low management fees and low minimum investment levels.
All products are fee and commission free for the first £10,000 invested and for savings over £1 million, making it a simpler and more cost efficient answer to investing than traditional investment managers.
