Note from the Publisher: Timing is everything in business. Launch a new concept and be the first one to create a new category, and you may be perceived as visionary, but be too early for mass adaptation and fall flat on your face. We've been there. Come in too late, and the innovators have got you beat. So we're not sure where BAML falls in this product launch curve, but they've FINALLY come to the table with their own robo-advisor, Merrill Edge Guided Investor.
"Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit is the newest entrant into the robo-advisory game.
It announced plans Monday for an online service and app called Merrill Edge Guided Investing, which like other robo advisers will query customers about their age, income, risk tolerance as well as their investment goals and time horizon. A basket of exchange-traded funds tailored to the answers would then be recommended. It will be billed as a low-cost way of investing modest sums such as funds in old 401(k) accounts......
Bank of America is following in the footsteps of Capital One Financial, which rolled out a robo adviser in June, and BBVA Compass Bancshares and U.S. Bancorp, which each announced a partnership with the robo-provider Future Advisor this year. The online brokerages Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab and E-Trade have launched robo advisers recently, too. They in some ways are catching up to a trend set by Wealthfront and Betterment, which founded the robo movement in 2010."
Read Full Article at OnWallStreet