Marty Bicknell jumps into the mass market with no 'robo-advisors' and a missionary zeal

Let me guess:

95 basis points on the first $1 million, then slightly reduced for higher AUM.

Close, Bill. I just added it to the story, a range of 100 to 125 basis points.

Brooke

Ooh, 100 to 125 bps?

Unless their experience and technology is superior to that of Personal Capital, FirstPoint has an uphill battle ahead.

Ahhhh…Are you comparing apples to apples? Isn’t Personal Capital a little … impersonal compared to what FirstPoint is rolling out?

Personal Capital is hiring 100 employees in Denver. Those are “real people” using “real advice” complimented by technology.

Starting at 95 bps.

Don’t mistake me as flippant here.

Geography will have little to do with an advisor’s value to the next generation of clients.

I’m curious how this can compete against a Wealthfront or Betterment who charge around 20-25 basis points…and wonder how start-ups like Wealthfront and Betterment can compete against Vanguard, given their size and fees. It would be interesting to discuss the plans and competitive advantages of these business models.

Bill,

You could be right. And I need to do more homework on Personal Capital.

But the overwhelming argument I keep hearing for why online advice will work is that
lots of smart people are pouring cash in to it (which in turn goes to hiring hundreds) and that 'everything’ else is going online from travel agents to books. The reason it’s so great is that it’s good and cheap. (Still, I think Marty’s 5 or 30 basis points is a small 'premium’ to charge for a full-on human down-the-street advisor.)

These arguments for Personal Capital are interesting and compelling but none of them ever seem to involve beta financial successes. I’m not pooh-poohing PC’s supposed $250 million AUM. But it’s few assets relative to the overhead for any foreseeable future.

I have no ax to grind. I am an owner of an online company trying to survive in a world where non-online players still command most revenues.

I am still skeptical and for now my money is on somebody brick and mortar ho can come out of the box with a million in revenue with five employees.

Brooke

I’m not sure that selling books or travel services online can succeed, or if automated teller machines will be accepted by the masses. but time will tell. :)

I love ATMs, Kayak and Amazon but are they the exceptions that prove the rule? Those three industries have been cited for a decade-plus. And the career of my ATM has gone sideways, never maturing from its entry level teller position.

Just for the record I’ll add that during my time with Nestwise, the geography of the prospect coming out of our concierge service had a lot to do with which advisor they chose. In the end, 80% of all of my clients where local to my region.

In fact, when I asked one client (my largest) for some of the reasons why he selected me over the three other highly qualified Nestwise advisors, he cited the fact that being able to at least “meet” me in Boston from time to time was a critical factor.

The whole online financial advisory model is not a financial planning issue — it is a financial literacy issue. And to break through that to the middle class, you first need to build up trust. Trust via phone / email can be done, but we all know how much easier it is to convey when in person.

There are several online financial start-ups who are keenly aware of this and quietly building out their B2B channel instead of a 100% focus on B2C. To me it seems this is more in the spirit of getting in front of the middle class (where they work), and more importantly it is building trust at a time when they are making critical decisions regarding their 401k plans.

Andrew, I think you are implying LearnVest in the B2B channel, among others.

Andrew- Who are you referring to?

Ryan / Bill I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you on this privately.

Hats off to Marty and team! Like Andrew, I think the ability to marry tech and local touch is beneficial – maybe not in 20 years, but now for sure. What intrigues me is the idea that the local firms also have a place to put the smaller prospects they run across. This isn’t just a cool on line story, it’s actually about segmentation.

Andrew-What’s the best way to contact you?

Ryan,

I’m quite active on LinkedIn. My profile should come up easy if you do a search on my name in Boston. Let’s connect there.

-Andrew

Online financial services will disrupt the traditional players…not by winning the lower cost game (Betterment/Wealthfront), but by offering value proposition offline providers simply can’t.

Until that happens it will continue to look like a toss up with the Personal Capital’s of the world growing at what seems like an agonizingly slow pace by VC standards, and new brick and mortar RIAs blossoming ever day.

Yet, when a more compelling value proposition unfolds, the offline brethren will be done.

Just my thoughts.

Andrew, just stating my opinion. I’m not sure why my comment offends you, or anyone else for that matter, but I’m happy to listen and consider your points without attacking you personally.

Go for it.

I didn’t understand the “piece of work” comment…please explain. I know Brian as a thoughtful person. Thank you, Robert.

Where I would ask for more explanation from you, Brian, is with this line:

Yet, when a more compelling value proposition unfolds, the offline brethren will be done.

How will we know when it unfolds? Do you mean that in the abstract or because an online offering makes a lot of money?

Brooke

Yes, I can’t agree that “offline brethren will be done,” but I don’t like advisors being called “a piece of work” here, either.

Well I drive a Taurus

The above comment wasn’t from me. I have no ill will for Andrew, just trying to better understand what I said that was so inflammatory.

With regards to business models – there’s a lot left to be desired in the traditional advisory business from a consumer perspective. Fee transparency is clearly one of them and has been in the news for years now. Another is the hassle of moving accounts from one firm to another when one takes on a new advisor, or paying a fixed rate (% of assets) regardless performance.

There are reasons why these various attributes are in place – but they’re not there to serve the customer better, they’re there to protect incumbents. Traditional advisories will not (and in fact, cannot) change any of these attributes without affecting their business negatively.

Online firms have no such embedded interests. To the extent they can create business models that better align with consumers needs, they will garner clientele. I have some ideas along these lines and am pursuing them.

And that’s all I’m really saying. Sure, there are plenty of clients who appreciate the one-to-one meetings, the personal phone calls, etc. There were also plenty of customers who loved to browse Barnes & Noble as well. Things change; slowly at first, then more rapidly.

Best wishes to all.

I think the changeover will be apparent after the fact, but derided as inconsequential, or hairbrained in the moment. I don’t think any of the current, more popular, online offerings are game-changers though…more like incremental changes still based on status quo business models; albeit in some cases with dramatically lower fees.

Hope that is more explicit Brooke.

The above comments that are unprofessional and off base are not from me. Its obvious someone else is in here posting under the names for those who are trying to contribute to the conversation.

Apparently the disclaimer from RIA Biz is not taken seriously:

“We reserve the right to delete any anonymous comments, inappropriate comments, or comments with false email addresses at our sole discretion.”

Andrew, Brian, Robert,

My apologies and not sure what happened there. We haven’t had that happen before, I made the deletions,

Brooke

Re: Robo-Advisors, here are 10 Questions Consumers Should Ask When Choosing a Robo-Advisor > http://bit.ly/19yyBdV

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