Should You Use a Robo Advisor?
This is a writing sample from Scripted writer KT Hall
If you're using a robo advisor for your financial banking and investment needs, you may be questioning whether or not there are different misconceptions about Robo advisors. Chances are people who are investing their money for retirement might wonder whether or not it safe and have other questions or concerns. You may also question whether or not robo-advisors are better than personal financial advisors who use with computers because you don't know how accurate robo-advisors are or if they're safe. So let's explore the misconceptions.
I don't want a robot handling my finances
About 20% of people who were asked about robo-investments are pretty cautious when it comes to Robo advisors. Not everyone understands that robo-advisors are actually computers. Typically if you ask someone who is older and wiser about a robo-advisor, they might assume that they're not safe, have viruses and they can't picture themselves walking into a bank with a huge robot telling them to have a seat. There are no actual robots involved and they won't walk up to you. You also don't have to worry about a robot walking over to the bank teller and saying "Danger! Will Robinson! Danger!" In all actuality, there are no actual robots involved in robo-advisory services. These are all computers that are involved. It's a computer-generated way of making investment tips for you.
While the term, robo-advisors sounds like a robot, in all actuality they are technical algorithms on computers and different resources that are used online that can help to predict how market conditions may fluctuate. They can also give different types of investment tools and vehicles that may be helpful to you. In using robo-financial services, it's a way to help optimize how you manage your money. So no, it's not a robot and you shouldn't be afraid of a robo-advisor, but see it for what it is, a technical advisor software or a computer advisory service.
The robot services are taking over
Another misconception about robo-advisors is that people think that if they use a robo-advisory service through a bank like Wells Fargo, Alli Bank, Merrill Lynch, BofA or another bank, that the robo-service will eventually take over the banking industry. On the contrary, robo-advisors only offer limited investment options and very few investment vehicles. These computer investors work to transition people into a more traditional type of wealth management and they may help them to reach a certain level with their particular assets so their accounts are more streamlined as opposed to something that's going to help you manage all of your accounts and different types of banking needs.
It will have full access to my investment portfolio
An additional misconception that people can have is they made question whether or not a robo-advisor is actually going to start giving full investing advice across all service platforms. In all actuality, this won't happen as the service is limited to specific investments. It can also be hard to determine market conditions because with market fluctuations and different types of inconsistencies in the market, live workers are still necessary to help with the various aspects of banking and financial services.
Remember that your robo-advisor cannot predict the daily market fluctuations. They will be able to tell you specific ways that you should manage your money. They don't have the same techniques as live people so they can't answer the same way that a personal financial advisor would. That means you don't have to worry about a nervous robo-investor approaching you and telling you to pull your money out because of what they predicted on the news. So in essence you're actually more streamlined with your robo-advisory service as there's no emotion involved in the different market indices they research in how they determine which particular types of investment platforms you should use.
It's only for young, techy people
A misconception is that robots are only for young people. That's just not true. Because the majority of people who are thinking about retirement - and some millennials, are starting to look at this area, it's really for anyone who wants a researched computer technique. People who like the do-it-yourself approach don't want to see personal financial advisors in person to discuss all their banking needs and may be fine with computer picks.
As you can see, a robo-advisor isn't what you might think. Speak to your bank to see if they offer this option to help you to decide whether you want to use a computer algorithm and let the robo-advisory service call the shots for you!
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