McKinsey's new report, “The Virtual Financial Advisor: Delivering Personalized Advice in the Digital Age” argues that the prospects for robo-advisors are over hyped, we tend to agree to that, especially when looking at the economics. The consulting firm believes that the real growth in wealth management will come from a new model, Virtual Advice
What is the future of wealth management? Never before has the answer to that question been so intriguing and so in flux. Such good future-peering cases can be made for robots, semi-robots and humans. See: Ready or not, robo-advisors are here. Or maybe the answer is “all of the above” but we don’t know how much market share each of the contenders will take. Credit McKinsey & Co. — true to its heritage of original thinking — for coming up with at least a bit of a new spin on a growing consensus that a combination of people and software will be needed to create the killer wealth management offering of the future. But don’t think “robo” — as in Nutmeg, Wealthfront, Betterment or SigFig. Don’t even think “digital” or “automated” Think “virtual.”