The promises and pitfalls of robo-advising

Authors D'Acunto, Prabhala, Rossi
Journal Review of Financial Studies
Year 2018
Type Published Paper
Abstract We study the introduction of a wealth-management robo-adviser that constructs portfolios tailored to investors' holdings and preferences. Adopters are similar to non-adopters in terms of demographics and prior interactions with human advisers but tend to be more active and have greater assets under management. Investors adopting robo-advising experience diversification benefits. Ex ante undiversified investors increase stock holdings and hold portfolios with less volatility and better returns. Already well-diversified investors hold fewer stocks, yet see some reduction in volatility, and trade more after adoption. All investors increase attention based on online account logins. We find that adopters exhibit declines in prominent behavioral biases, including the disposition, trend chasing, and rank effect. Our results emphasize the promises and pitfalls of robo-advising tools, which are becoming ubiquitous all over the world.
Keywords Investment decisions, technological innovation, portfolio management, behavioral biases
URL https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/32/5/1983/5427774?login=true
Tags Archival Empirical  |   Asset Pricing, Trading Volume and Market Efficiency  |   Financing- and Investment Decisions (Individual)