Updated Solactive report on robo-advisors presents its findings

Solactive published a report on robo-advisors titled Robo-Advisory: A Closer Look at the Engine Room Through Time. The new publication is a follow-up to the previous Robo Advisory: A Closer Look at the Engine Room released in November, studying the digital portfolios of three hypothetical investors – Bart S., Lisa S., Abraham S. – as recommended by a sample of German and US robo-advisors. After more than six months of investigation, this report presents the key findings on how our three friends’ portfolios have changed over time.

These include: 1) Target portfolio weights assigned to specific risk profiles change from month to month; 2) Robo-advisors keep fine-tuning their investment strategies with frequent ETF changes; 3) Robo-advisors have shown delayed market reactions to the late-January rising market volatility; 4) US robo-advisors continue to invest more aggressively than their German peers; 5) Differences in terms of cost and home bias between German and US robo-advisors persist.

In addition, the paper introduces an updated version of a simulated multi-asset class model that was first developed in the November report, as a proxy for robo-advisors’ performance through time.

Timo Pfeiffer, Head of Research at Solactive, commented: “Our series of reports on robo-advisors started off with the idea of offering an independent perspective on the performance and portfolios invested by robo-advisors. Based on our observations, I want to stress the importance of looking beyond costs when picking a robo-advisor, something that I also emphasized back in November. The market moves for January and February confirm this, since not all providers responded to the changing market environment in a timely manner.”

For further information, please visit: http://www.solactive.com/research