A week before the annual celebration of American independence and democracy, Riskalyze and CLS Investments jointly announced the launch of “Autopilot,” an automated asset management platform for financial advisors.
The objective, outspoken Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein explained, is “to democratize access to quality financial advice by demolishing the barriers that traditionally prevent it.”
Riskalyze is the company behind the Risk Number concept, which is a quantitative way to pinpoint client risk tolerance. CLS Investments is a third party money manager and exchange traded fund strategist.
“You might have a 401(k) plan with 200 participants, but only about 10 participants have enough assets to get access to quality advice,” he continued. “With Autopilot, there is now a solution for all 200 clients to get that advice and get the Risk Number right.”
Klein, who recently warned of trying to “out-robo the robo-advisors,” noted that “the moment for human advisors to leverage all of the unique benefits they bring to the table has arrived. Autopilot empowers human advisors to snap a next-generation client service platform into their web site, and to instantly and profitably democratize access to advice for clients large and small.”
Amidst the “robo” noise, financial advisors are looking for a lower-cost solution that allows them to combine client self-service capabilities with a personalized service approach, he argued.
“The combination of CLS’s strengths in efficient and cost-effective asset management and Riskalyze’s unique Risk Number technology put a powerful capability in the arsenal of every financial advisor in the country.”
“Advisor response from our pre-release announcement was swift and encouraging, which proved that helping advisors decrease costs and increase client service is a powerful way to help them compete in the ever-changing investment world,” Todd Clarke, CEO at CLS Investments, added. “Over 500 advisors in 45 states have already shown interest in this product.”
According to the announcement, Autopilot is available to investment advisory firms. Investors and consumers see the advisor’s brand, and the advisor decides how much hands-on service to provide. The Autopilot team supports the advisory team, handling all of the manual work—trading, rebalancing, client service calls for account management, and more.
See Also:
- Riskalyze Continues Quest for World Domination
- Riskalyze Makes (Another) Big 401(k) Disruption Announcement
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.