Wells Fargo Launches Robo-Investment Service

Wells Fargo is rolling out a new robo advisory service to attract more of its retail clients to its brokerage arm, joining a growing number of firms leveraging the digital tools favored by many young investors today. The San Francisco bank said its Intuitive Investor product combines digital access to nonproprietary funds selected by its investment-research unit, with optional access to financial advisers at three call centers around the country. Clients need a minimum of $10,000 to open an account and will be charged an annual advisory fee of 0.50% of assets, in addition to any fees levied by fund managers. Clients can qualify for a discounted fee of 0.40% if they have $25,000 in deposits or $50,000 in combined banking, brokerage and credit assets at Wells Fargo. Researcher Cerulli Associates has estimated the robo advice industry had more than $80 billion in assets by the end of 2016 and will have $385 billion in the next five years, eating into the multitrillion-dollar asset base of traditional brokerage firms At the same time, Mr. Weiss said, the retail bank’s 72 million customers present an opportunity for the wealth-management business to make inroads, with roughly 20 million millennial and Generation X bank clients who don’t yet have investment accounts at the bank.