Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Omaha-based discount brokerage subsidiary, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., announced on Tuesday that it’s jumping into the robo-advisor market.
The new platform, called Essential Portfolios, will allow investors to open an account in 15 minutes or less via their desktop, tablet or smartphone. Each client will be recommended one of five diversified model portfolio strategies, which are created through fund recommendations from Chicago-based Morningstar Investment Management LLC.
Each portfolio will consist of five exchange-traded funds (ETF) and cash with a weighted average expense ratio of 0.06% to 0.08% along with a management fee of 0.3%. Investors must have a minimum of $5,000 to open an account.
The new robo-advice platform also allows investors to set and monitor financial goals, such as savings for post-secondary education or retirement.
“Today’s investors want more choices for investment advice. Some want the guidance to come from a human, partnered with digital platform, while others might prefer an all-human or all digital approach,” says Tom Bradley, president of retail distribution at TD Ameritrade, in a statement. “Our job is to deliver solutions that are easy-to-use, effective and allow our clients to grow with us as their needs evolve.”
This announcement follows other recent changes at TD Ameritrade, such as the digital enhancement of its Amerivest Managed Portfolios, which allow investors to manage their investments with as much or a little human interaction as they wish. Essential Portfolios is, in fact, run through Amerivest Investment Management Services, a subsidiary of TD Ameritrade.
“Essential Portfolios is a great example of how we were able to leverage Amerivest’s existing technology to create an all-digital version for the more value-conscious investor,” says Bradley.
As well, TD Ameritrade, along with TD Bank, announced in October that they will be acquiring St. Louis-based discount brokerage Scottrade Financial Services Inc. in a deal set to close in September 2017. (TD Ameritrade is part of TD Bank’s U.S. retail business.)
TD Bank, for its part, does not intend to make the U.S. robo-advisor available to Canadian investors for the time being.
“Given our platform, we’re well positioned to be able to win in this space, however we do not currently have any plans for the Canadian market,” the bank says in an emailed statement sent to Investment Executive.
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