“Can you post my statement, please?” said no millennial, or anyone, these days.

So why do we still get articles that say, “Will wealth go digital?”- No. It will go on paper! That’s a much better idea 🙂

But in all seriousness, Wealthtech is hard. The inner workings of a Robo-advisory are crazy complex.

So I’m going to tell you some of the secrets. No, it’s not a robot that beats the market. If I had one of those, I wouldn’t tell you.

It’s going to get a little into the weeds. Not for everyone. But if you are building WealthTech, it’s for you. And even if you aren’t, it’s better than Netflix 🙂

Let’s face it. You got this far so I’m sure you’ve figured out that this isn’t Netflix.

1) Goal Tracker
This is the “secret sauce” to ensure customers keep up with their monthly contributions. The goal tracker does what it says. It calculates returns, current value, and time to goal and creates a simple graphic that shows if that goal will be achieved, and what to do about it if it is not. It increases engagement and AUM.

2) CIO dashboard
This enables the Chief Investment Officer of a client to have their own dashboard where they can put in new model portfolios or update and rebalance existing ones. The flexibility this creates is essential. If it is static, a lot of extra work is created.

3) Fee Management Logic
Seems obvious, right? But it is one of the most complex bits of a Robo-advisor and it will trip you up almost every time. Think about this. The client puts in US$1,000 to the Robo-advisor. They want to invest US$1,000. Can they? No. Why? You have to keep some funds back for fees. So they have to credit US$1,001 to invest US$1,000 or credit US$1,000 so they can invest US$999. The logic of this and the multiple ways to do it are complex. Not intellectually but from a process point of view. If you have never built a fee management logic for a Robo-advisor. Good luck with that.

4) Regular Contribution API
As a financial institution, you want customers to reach their goals and have more money in their wealth account. But every customer is an individual and wants to contribute on a different day. You need a fully flexible contribution logic. Each person can contribute on the day of the month they like. This seems easy, right? But that would also mean you have performance calculations every day for each client.

5) Multi-Goal Dividend Splitter
A client has three goals and only one investment into a single ETF. You have to split the fund across the goals. When a dividend on the ETF is paid, you have to split that dividend across three goals. If you have that as a manual process. Well, it’s a sh*t show. How do I know this? The first Robo we built for a client didn’t have one of these. We only realized when the dividend came. To say it was messy is an understatement. So
we automated it.

6) Walk Of Life
A graphic with an avatar representing the investors’ journey. It shows them moving along a timeline towards their goal. It’s a clear image that increases stickiness and contributions.

7) People Like Me
Why do we save? For ourselves, of course! And for our families, there is an element of peer comparison. We all like to know if we are doing better than our peers. This logic enables you to see how you are doing relatively – Are you achieving your retirement sooner than others? Who doesn’t want to know that?

8) Health Check
Another word for a rebalancing but it’s the digital version. It’s a combination of the returns of your portfolios and your contributions on a monthly basis. A health check for our finances is a data-driven tool that says if you are indeed financially healthy.

9) Google Analytics 4.0
If you build a Robo-advisor and don’t run regular analytics around page usage, user journeys, drop-off, etc., then don’t build a Robo. Whatever you build won’t be perfect on day one or even day 100. You are here to learn and refine it. Google helps with that.

10) You’ll have to DM me for that
Got to drive some business somehow 🙂
Email ned@bambu.co for the killer piece of tech that will boost your Robo.

Building Robo-advisor tech is hard and complex. There is just so much to it, but it is so satisfying when you get it right.

Hope this list helps.

We have approximately 100 APIs in our library to date. We’ve taken a while to figure it all out but we’d be happy to help and share what we have learnt.

Best,
Ned Phillips
Founder & CEO