Ritholtz Wealth Launches New Robo Wealth Manager
The new service, Good Advice, has a minimum investment level of $15,000.
Ritholtz Wealth Management has launched Good Advice, an automated wealth management service that includes asset management, financial planning and financial consulting, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The platform is configured to guide clients “through the entire investment management process,” it said.
The new service requires a minimum account balance of $15,000, the filing states, adding that “the maximum total fee charged for our Good Advice service will not exceed 0.50% of assets under management.”
The disclosure comes less than three months after Ritholtz confirmed it was buying BlackRock’s direct-to-consumer FutureAdvisor robo business.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Good Advice Automated Wealth Management is Ritholtz’s version of the former BlackRock robo-advisor. An outside spokesman said Ritholtz had no comment Wednesday afternoon.
Liftoff, the firm’s older robo-advisor, also charges a fee of up to 0.50% of assets, which it splits with Betterment Securities; Betterment operates Liftoff on the Betterment for Advisors platform. Unlike Good Advice, Liftoff requires no minimum investment.
As for whether Betterment is partnering with Ritholtz on the Good Advice robo advisory, a Betterment spokesperson said via email Thursday the firm’s relationship with Ritholtz Wealth Management “has not changed and we continue to support the Liftoff offering.”
Overall, Ritholtz offers individualized investment advice to clients using the Good Advice service and general investment advice to clients using Liftoff, according to the SEC filing, which was first first reported by CityWire Tuesday.
The RIA’s push further into the robo world is not likely to be a walk in the park, according to David Goldstone, manager of investment research for Condor Capital Wealth Management: “Pursuing growth through a robo-advice offering for a firm like Ritholtz will be difficult,” he explained in an email.
“Acquiring clients [for] robo-advisors has been a significant challenge for smaller players and startups,” Goldstone said. “The robo-advice space has become crowded and highly competitive over the years.”
Ritholtz Wealth, which offers a broad set of financial advisory and wealth management services, had about $2.9 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31. The firm was founded in 2013 by Chair and Chief Investment Officer Barry Ritholtz, CEO Josh Brown, and Managing Partners Michael Batnick and Kris Venne.
(Pictured: Josh Brown, left, and Barry Ritholtz. Credit for both photos: Bloomberg)