Article from FT

“Goldman Sachs has just bought a small financial technology company in Texas called Honest Dollar, which organises pension plans for small companies and self-employed workers, writes John Gapper. Builders and taxi drivers are not exactly Goldman’s usual set of customers so it is a sign of the revolution in asset management. 

Honest Dollar, although it dislikes being labelled as such, is one of a new breed of “robo-advisers” that offer a cheap, automatic version of something that used to take a long time and cost a lot of money. Instead of an expensive adviser picking out the stocks and bonds in which savers should invest, a computer does a more sophisticated job at the touch of a button.

Robo-advisory start-ups such as Betterment and Wealthfront in the US and Nutmeg in the UK are growing rapidly. They offer investors ease and simplicity at a very low price — often a quarter of the fee an investment adviser at Morgan Stanley or Bank of America Merrill Lynch would charge.”

Interesting and very welcome example of automation of professional services. Whilst one might be concerned about the automation of many professions Financial Services is not on of them.