Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Britni M. | Delivered November 19, 2019

Robo Investment Platforms: Average Portfolio Size

Goals

To determine to average portfolio size of the following five robo investment platforms: Acorns, Betterment, Marcus, Robinhood, and Wealthfront.

Early Findings

Acorns
Acorns "merges the Robo-advisor model with an automated savings tool" and works best college students, hands-off investors, and people who struggle with saving. 
Acorns has a small investment portfolio, with $1 billion in Assets Under Management.
The company manages five different portfolios, all comprised of exchange-traded funds (EFTs).

Marcus 
Goldman Sach's moved Marcus, its consumer-banking brand, into its asset management unit in 2018 and is using it to build a "mass-affluent hybrid Robo offering."
Information on Marcus' portfolio size is not widely available as Marcus, which has at least one unsecured portfolio, still seems to be functioning as a lender, as it also provides "fixed-rate, no fee personal loans."
Goldman Sach's investment management division currently has $1.55 trillion in assets under management. 

Betterment 
Betterment currently $18 billion in Assets Under Management.
Betterment offers five different portfolio types.
According to Investopedia, Betterment is on of the "early pioneers in robo-advisors."
Weathfront
Weathfront states that its clients trust the company with more than $21 Billion.
Weathfront allows clients to choose from rules-based strategies.
Wealthfront follows Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT)and uses mainly low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs)  when allocating assets and building portfolios in creating the asset allocations in your portfolio. 
Robinhood
Robinhood does not build portfolios in the same way other Robo advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront do. Instead, Robinhood provides information about stocks and EFTs people can study and use to buy stocks and build portfolios on their own.
Robinhood is "a limited investment trading platform."