There’s ample evidence that clients and prospects do want a well-designed portal. Mint.com, for example, has more than 10 million users. According to web analytics site Alexa, Mint ranks No. 207 for all web traffic in the United States. Other popular sites include Fidelity.com (No. 160 in the U.S.), Schwab.com (No. 421) and Vanguard.com (No. 566).

Another thing that clients want is an aggregated view of all their accounts. Here again, our industry lags. Most consumer sites offer simple aggregation. They provide balances, but not all of those pesky details like transactional data with cost basis. Advisors have access to this type of data through various providers at reasonable prices. Aggregating transactions and cost basis across multiple accounts is challenging, and it is more costly.

Robust solutions for advisors do exist, however. To cite just one example, eMoney’s new EMXpro platform provides an outstanding client portal experience on all devices, account aggregation, performance reporting (through its integration partners), financial planning, analytics and much more.

So do consumer-facing robo-advisor platforms pose a threat to your business? If you operate on a very limited scope, selecting investments and performing asset allocation tasks, and if you charge 100 basis points or more for the service, the answer is probably yes. Some advisors charge in excess of 150 basis points for wrap accounts of mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts or some combination of these. The best case scenario for these advisors is margin compression. The worst case scenario is, well, a lot worse.

We think that some of the SMA and UMA providers will also come under some margin pressure. After all, the technology exists today to offer a virtually identical service at a much lower cost. Successful providers will deploy improved technology, allowing them to effectively compete in this rapidly evolving market place. Those who don’t adapt will suffer.

On the other hand, we believe that those firms offering comprehensive wealth management/financial planning services at a competitive price will be fine. In fact, robo-technologies will present opportunities for such advisors.