Embark Group is on the cusp of launching a robo-adviser, saying the industry has shifted in a way that allows advisers and providers to coexist and even benefit from each other's business.
Jackie Leiper, the group's CEO, said the advice industry's shift towards higher net-worth clients had left a gap for other firms to fill with technology-enabled advice services. This in turn could help the advice profession as it is bringing in the clients of the future.
Embark, which is owned by Lloyds Bank, is in the process of launching a robo-advice service for its bank customers.
This will offer simple investment products and 'ready made' investments and pensions, the journeys for which have already been built and tested with consumers.
"Essentially it will do analysis of the customer needs, we can see all their incomings and outgoings on their bank accounts. It will provide a personalised recommendation that will help them assess their risk appetite. However, beyond that, we are clear we think it will have to be some sort of form of human assisted solution, hybrid solution," said Leiper.
"So, if you like, the development later this year, that's us just getting going with something that gives us a bit of a proof of concept to build on."
Embark has no intentions of replacing what an adviser would do with their high end client. And whether it will actually hire qualified advisers or rely on trained customer service assistants to provide help beyond the technology has not yet been decided.
Lloyds also runs a joint venture with Schroders Personal Wealth, in which it has a 51 per cent stake, and which gives advice to affluent customers.
But Leiper has no concerns that advisers might feel ambushed by the group's push into their space.
She said: "Advisers are serving the high net worth populations very well. There's quite a big gap in the mass affluent, mass market propositions. And adviser firms I'm speaking to are saying 'actually we're no longer worried about you launching direct to consumer products'.
"I think of conversations I was having 10 years ago, advisers would have said 'oh if you're launching a direct consumer proposition you're in competition with me', and I'm going 'you know, to be clear, it's consumer propositions which probably got an average ticket value of £10,000, you're nowhere near those customers'.
"So actually, we're almost bringing customers into the world of investing and saving and almost feeding the intermediary market and the advice market's future."
Going 'too digital'
Leiper said one of the things that attracted Lloyds to Embark was its focus on technology, "they're sort of nimble, agile, that sort of entrepreneurial way of developing tech".
Embark is still run autonomously from the rest of the group and she is keen to keep it agile and keep its focus on digital first, albeit "with a human touch" as she warns there is a way of going "too far down the digital-only route".
