FOLIOfn plans to roll out a new robo offering to its advisors and retail investors in the first quarter of next year.
The RIA custody firm and online broker already has an established niche in powering robo platforms for some institutional clients, but the new service will be designed for individual advisors and retail clients, said Steven M.H. Wallman, chief executive and founder.
“We’re calling it ‘Robo 2.0’” with full functionality, as well as the capability for advisors to use pieces of the platform, Wallman said Thursday at the annual SRI Conference in San Diego.
“We think it will leapfrog what’s in the market,” he said.
The new technology is being developed for a large FOLIOfn client, and Wallman declined to discuss details of the new robo until it’s rolled out, but he did reveal that the platform will not be using model portfolios like other robo offerings.
“We’ll be using next-generation capability,” he said.
The firm is known for its fractional share and rebalancing capabilities that allow any size investor to run diversified portfolios of individual securities.
It’s expected that the new robo will also incorporate socially sensitive screens—something FOLIOfn offers now.
The firm’s third-party robo business will continue to grow, Wallman said. “We expect to have many more robo-type advisors using our APIs [application programming interfaces] and building out” robos, he said. “We are essentially the ‘Intel [chip] inside.’ We are powering all of that.”
Robo clients include Swell Investing, a socially responsible firm; Sallie Krawcheck’s Ellevest, a platform targeted at women; and Invest Forward, a robo using DFA funds.