Financial planner Symphony launches robo-advice service Finchtech with Tam Asset Management to plug the gap between Nutmeg and the super-rich
Financial planning firm Symphony has become the latest to enter the growing “robo-advice” melee, launching an online wealth management service to rival competitors such as Nutmeg, Wealthify and Netwealth.
The Finchtech platform will be aimed at clients who do not want – or can’t afford – bespoke advice services, but would like their money invested in a low-cost portfolio.
Managed by Tam Asset Management, a discretionary fund manager, investors can choose from four “mainstream” portfolios and four “socially responsible” portfolios ranging from cautious to adventurous risk levels.
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“We’re working with financial advisers who have clients that have fallen through the ‘advice gap’ – advisers don’t see it’s financially worth their while spending hours giving advice, or it’s too expensive for their client to partake of full advice,” said Tam’s chief executive Lester Petch.
“All financial advisers have a limit. Some I’ve met have said they won’t deal with anyone who has below £150,000. Others are much lower than that. But there’s a lot of people in the £30,000 to £100,000 where the advisers are thinking: ‘It’s not really worth our time giving full advice.'”
Unlike platforms such as Nutmeg and Netwealth, which offer varying levels of artificial intelligence-generated or human advice, Finchtech will give no advice. Instead, it will leave this down to Symphony – or any of the other advisers which it hopes to partner with in the future.
The investment decisions behind the client portfolios, meanwhile, are also made by a human team.
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Finchtech also has a charitable giving option called You Give, We Give. A client can choose to give a portion of the profits they make on their investment to charity, and Tam will pay the same percentage of its fees.
The platform will also offer tax-efficient Isa products, and plans to launch a pension branch in 2018.
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